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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 2, 1978)
Pre-marital contracts foresee pitfalls By CAROLYN BE AYER Of the Emerald Even though not many people use them yet, Chuch Spinner, at torney at the Office of Student Ad vocacy, suggests couples con sider marriage also consider pre-marital contracts. A pre-marital contract, Spinner says, looks down the road and says “in the event that things don’t work out, here’s what will happen. “People don’t use them for the same reason a lot of contracts of this nature aren’t common,” says Spinner. “People are not used to looking at things negatively.” Contracts can make settle ments clear should there be a di vorce, so the “emotional trauma” associated with the split doesn’t Settlements drawn before split get carried into the property set tlement, he says. Some contracts stipulate that property brought into the marriage by an individual should remain with that person if the marriage dissolves. Some also distinguished between property acquired during the marriage by either individual or the couple and stipulated how they should be divided. Alimony is another topic con tracts can address. A couple may decide to waive alimony, unless special circumstances arise and one party cannot support himself or herself. Spinner likes to include what he calls a “catch-all provision," which decides how arguments that wouldn’t be covered in the contract should be settled. A husband and wife might even decide to bring in a state mediator, which Oregon statutes provide. “It’s a matter of foreseeing ev erything you can and even foreseeing things you can’t,” says Spinner. It removes the ‘light” from divorce settlements, he says. “People get unreasonable when they’re angry or hurt,” com ments Spinner. “It’s better to talk things out and make decisions when you’re still friends” Spinner isn’t sure how the courts view marriage contracts. He says because there have been so few contracts, the courts really haven’t had to deal with them. He does say, however, that courts would not condone some thing in a contract that “clearly was not fair.” Divorces are han dled on the “equity” not “law” side of the courts, says Spinner. At least it gives the courts "an idea of where these people’s heads were at when they were level-headed about the whole thing,” he says. Most of the time, the couns would not have problems with marriage contracts because they’re “arms-length transac tions,” Spinner says, adding arms-length transactions give both parties equal bargaining power. Although it’s a "total guessti mate,” Spinner thinks the kind of people who draw up pre-marital contracts have a much lower di vorce rate. “They’re obviously thinking about what they’re doing.” Spinner cites a couple he knows who drew up a contract be fore they were married. “They’re still married after five years and not thinking about get ting a divorce. How often does that happen?” When ESCAPE student vol unteers go out into the commun ity, there is a mass desire to com mit suicide. No one knows why the ESCAPE program draws this type of a person, but it works better than a fly trap. We recently sent a spy into the organization to figure out its methods of brainwashing. He made the following report. “I infiltrated the organization by going to the ESCAPE desk and volunteering to be a friend to the A Typewriter Warmed In Hell By JOCK HATFIELD Of the Emerald old farts. They sent me to an ad justment seminar. “This was no ordinary seminar. We were told to think of five |IAIR TODAY._ j Spring Special I Save 500 on Jhirmack & Regime professional hair products I to insure beautiful hair between professional visits to our s salons. Limit 2 products per coupon. Good at either location of Hair today EMU Rec. Center ■ 687-1347 561 E. 13th Ave. Across from Max’s 485-4422 hundred items. The other stu dents came up with “star, grass, bird, wonderbread and rose.” I put together corrugated iron, fast food, igloo, bricks and tampons. “I could see they were begin ning to suspect something. They told me to kill a mouse with these PSYCHIC Advises on business, love & personal direction Jamil P.0. Box 10154 Eugene, Oregon 97401 Phone anytime: 342-2210 484-2441 five items. “I hit the mouse over the head with an igloo and considered the matter finished. But the group leader would have none of it. She said I should use all five items on my mouse to increase my creativ ity. I pointed out that my mouse was dead and deserved to be left in peace. I was given another mouse and told to be more devi ous with my murder, so I wouldn’t run out of mouse before I had thrown in all my items. “I killed that mouse all night. I iglooed it to death. I stuffed it with bricks and fast food. I smothered it in tampons. And still the ES CAPISTS wouldn’t give up. Finally I said I refused to kill my mouse any more. I had had enough prac tice and was ready to try out my methods on the old people. ,e-'0'''Vo0’ i\7 ° 'L>* 'ZxcA^°!do^e' c??<>e;>'0 ^°V' SP< ^,0\'f,eX^0 “Next we delved into death. This group was fun to be with. They passed out sheets with sen tences to be completed such as “After I die...” I didn't want to book myself up too far in advance. But the ESCAPISTS had a full calen der. They planned to be floating around, viewing video tapes of their former lives and having a high old time. Their philosophical dilemma was why they should not commit suicide right away and get in on the fun. I said I would be glad to help them. "I went on to tell them some death jokes. I told them the one about the blind guy who last month entered an elevator on the fourth floor of a building, only to discover it wasn’t there. "The elevator door had made a mistake and opened without an elevator. It seems they keep spikes at the bottom of elevator shafts to catch blind guys who drop in. It took four hours to extract him. “After I finished laughing about this, I looked around and disco vered I had blown my cover. All six of the group were sitting around looking as though they had just been impaled. “They accused me of being a spy and threw me out.” 1 Heineken on draft... ^ at The favorite from Holland You've tasted it in bottles, now enjoy it as the Dutch enjoy it —on draft! de Frisco?) A BUR DRINKERS ESTABLISHMUn In the Atrium Eugene Downtown
