32. My ex-husband just lost his job as a Wall Street trader. He was making approximately $250,000 per year. I got a sweet divorce settlement of $1, 500 per week of alimony. He has just filed a motion to reduce my alimony payments? He is such a shyster because he claims he is poor, but he is still living the life of “Riley.†Does my ex-husband have any chance to reduce my alimony?
Probably not, however nothing is ever a given in the family courts. You will have to focus on the fact that your ex-husband’s lifestyle has not  deteriorated even though he lost his job as a wall street trader. An interesting case is Ennico v. Ennico, A-6525-06T and A-6525-06T2 . Here, the plaintiff Roddy R. Ennico appeals from denial of his motion to  terminate his alimony former wife.
After a twenty-six year marriage, the parties were divorced in 1997. The parties had three kids and they were all emancipated. In the PSA the plaintiff agreed to pay his defendant/wife the sum of $6,000 per month. At the time, he was employed in the securities industry on Wall Street, and he was earning a salary of about $200,000 per year.
Thereafter, in 1998, plaintiff lost his job, and he had to wipe out  his savings and sell his assets in order to meet his daily living expenses, and to pay his alimony payments. As a result, he applied to the family court for a reduction in his alimony payments. The plaintiff’s employment expert at that time indicated that plaintiff’s future employment prospects were likely to result in earnings of between $50,000 and $100,000 per year. Moreover, the plaintiff indicated that his net worth was only $188,399. The parties reached a settlement and alimony was reduced to $2,500 per month.
Meanwhile, the defendant wife, who was a full-time homemaker for most of the marriage, states that she modified her lifestyle in light of this reduction in her alimony. She sold what she describes as a luxury town home in favor of a smaller, older and less expensive home in a retirement community. She was able to obtain a position earning $12 an hour which she held until the company went out of business in late 2000. She now does some babysitting to supplement her income. In her certification to the court, she indicated that her monthly income consists of alimony, her share of plaintiff’s pension totaling $329 a month, babysitting income totaling $430 a month, and payments from her individual retirement account (IRA) totaling $500 a month. These sums cover her expenses of $3,364 a month, with a few hundred dollars to spare. At the time of the application below, she had assets, including the equity in her house, of $489,600.
Since the modification agreement, the plaintiff relocated to California with his second wife. He also suffered a major heart attack and has been diagnosed with triple vessel disease. However, he did not submit any medical evidence that he was  medically unfit to work. He was able to obtain a job earning about $90,000 per year. However, this job ended in 2004. The next year plaintiff and his second wife established a mortgage business, investing their personal assets in that business. Unfortunately, the business failed a year later in 2006. Their gross income for 2006, as reflected on their personal federal income tax return was $80,949.
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