Reconciling undoes a separate maintenance award. Georgia says so by statute, and it happens automatically.
The Statute
OCGA 19-6-12 provides that “[t]he subsequent voluntary cohabitation of spouses, where there has been no total divorce between them, shall annul and set aside all provision made either by deed or decree for permanent alimony.”
The Georgia Supreme Court applied that language in Southworth v. Southworth, 265 Ga. 671 (1995), confirming that where a permanent alimony decree has been entered in a separate maintenance action and no divorce has followed, voluntary cohabitation “shall annul and set aside” it.
Two words in the statute are doing real work. The cohabitation must be voluntary, and it applies only where there has been no total divorce.
You Keep What You Already Received
Annulling the award does not mean paying anything back. In Moss v. Moss, 200 Ga. 8 (1945), a wife had received $8,000 under an alimony settlement before the parties resumed living together. When the reconciliation later failed, her husband argued the settlement should be unwound.
The Georgia Supreme Court disagreed, holding the nullification did not “depend on a restoration of the $8000 received by the wife.” Its reasoning was practical: “If he had demanded a restoration, the reunion might not have taken place; and now that the reunion itself has failed, the court could not well go back and impose conditions which he himself did not see fit to impose at the time cohabitation was resumed.”
Children Are Protected
The statute carves them out. The rights of children “under any deed of separation or voluntary provision or decree for alimony shall not be affected by such subsequent voluntary cohabitation.”
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!