Copied from Massachusetts Lawyer's Weekly (This Week's Decisions) 12/14/2020
Where a judge granted a defendant's request for a declaration that, upon his remarriage, he had no further obligation under a surviving separation agreement to provide health, vision and dental insurance for the plaintiff wife, the plaintiff's entitlement to medical insurance after the husband's remarriage is subject to the provisions of G.L.c. 75, S1101.
The plaintiff (wife) appeals from a summary judgement entered in favor of the defendant (husband) on his complaint for modification, which sought, in effect, a declaration that, upon his remarriage, he had no further obligation under a surviving separation agreemenet to provide health, vision, and dental insurance for the wife. ...
"We conclude (as did the motion judge) that the wife's entitlement to medical insurance after the husband's remarriage is subject to the provisions G.L.c. 175, S1101. ...
"We conclude, therefore, that the wife is entitled under the agreement to the continuation of medical coverage upon the husband's remarriage, in accordance with the provisions of G.L.c. 175, S1101(b). Two additional issues, however, remain to be determined on remand. First, although the husband argues that the correct relief is for the wife to be added to a rider on the husband's plan, the statute provides that coverage may be either by addition of a rider to a family plan or the issuance of an individual plan. On remand, the judge should determine which of these two options is appropriate. Second, because the agreement's silence on the matter creates an ambiguity as to who should bear the cost of contiuation coverage or how it should be allocated amongh them, ...this too must be determined on remand, keeping in mind that the clear purpose of G.L.c 175, S1101, is to benefit the spouse whose medical insurance is being provided for by the spouse from whom he or she is divorced."
