Decisions of Interest

A divorce judgment was modified, on the law and as a matter of discretion, by deleting the provision directing the defendant husband to pay all unreimbursed health care expenses for the plaintiff/ex-wife. Bains v. Bains, Index No. 21217/01, 2003 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 9903 (App. Div., 2d Dept. 9/29/03).

The defendant/husband appealed from a judgment that, among other things, ordered him to pay all unreimbursed health care expenses for both the parties' child and the plaintiff/wife. The appellate court found that the Supreme Court erred in directing the defendant to pay “all” the unreimbursed health care expenses for the plaintiff because judgments of divorce that direct a party to pay the other party's unreimbursed health care expenses “are in the nature of open-ended obligations which this court has consistently disfavored … Ordinary or routine unreimbursed medical expenses should be considered as included in a maintenance award, and extraordinary unreimbursed medical expenses cannot be awarded prospectively in unfixed amounts.” Gulotta v. Gulotta, 215 A.D.2d 724, 725, 627 N.Y.S.2d 428; Zabin v. Zabin, 176 A.D.2d 262, 264, 574 N.Y.S.2d 75. Thus, the judgment was modified to delete the provision directing the defendant to pay the plaintiff's unreimbursed health care expenses.