Material Change of Circumstances Required Before Spousal Support Can Be Reduced or Terminated

In the case of Furr v. Furr, the Virginia Court of Appeals, in an unpublished opinion, ruled that the trial court erred in reducing, and then terminating, spousal support where record failed to show that the ex-husband proved a material change in circumstances. The only evidence before the trial court indicating that there may have been a material change in circumstances was that husband had been advised to cease work and that husband was “living off of his social security and the income from several trucks he owned which we used to haul cattle.” Husband did not provide the court with any evidence indicatingwhat his income actually was at the time of the hearing. And, without evidence in the record proving that husband’s income prior to the medical diagnosis was a certain sum and that after the diagnosis that income dropped considerably, the Court of Appeals determined that the the husband failed to prove a material change in circumstances.