Wife receiving alimony from first husband/text msg validity

North Carolina Divorce Law Divorce and Separation Answers
1

My wife and I have separated. She may be considering filing for alimony. I am currently unemployed, and listed to your audio recording of a discussion related to that topic. It was very helpful. I have two questions:

  1. We separated on the month of the fourth anniversary of our marriage. My wife was previously married and had a child from that marriage. She never filed for alimony or child support from that man. We had no children in our marriage. If she seeks alimony from me, is it possible for me to have the courts mandate her to also seek alimony and child support from her previous husband? I never adopted the children, so is it correct that I am not financially responsible for them? And if I a not financially responsible for them, do their expenses count in her living expenses that alimony from me would be based on?

  2. The most important piece of mutual property that we purchased was a home. It is to be in less than one week. I agreed to pay substantially more on the expenses of the home including mortgage and utilities than she did, and the phone bill for her and her children + the auto insurance for her and one child + her jewelry insurance. I have also been paying COBRA health insurance coverage for her and the two children. She has not agreed to sign a separation agreement, but agreed verbally to sign over the titles of my two cars and my house to me when she gets her half of the sale of the property. She has said that she would not sign these over to me before because she is afraid I might steal some of those proceeds. She refuses to sign these to me on the day of the closing because she is working. She wanted to wait 5 days to sign them over to me, but then agreed to do it 3 days after. She will not respond to me request to have these signed on the Saturday after the house closes? She did tell me repeatedly verbally and in a text message that she will meet me on the Monday to do this. Does that text message, which I named Official Understanding, constitute a type of written and binding agreement? Should I be concerned about her actions? If so, what do you suggest I do?

Thank you very much.

Steve

2

She cannot seek alimony from her previous husband at this point, and you cannot force her to seek child support. You are not financially responsible for her children, and the court may deduct any expenses she includes in her financial affidavit for these children, as those expenses are not related to her personal needs.

A text message is not a binding agreement. If she does not cooperate you may sue her for equitable distribution of martial property and have the court distribute the property between the two of you.