Alimony insults result in lawsuit

A Hopatcong woman who says she is terminally ill with cancer is being sued by her exhusband for alleged harassment and infliction of emotional distress because she has written “bum” and “loser” and other insults on the memo line of her $186 weekly spousal support checks to him.

Attorney Gregg Trautmann filed a lawsuit Thursday in Superior Court in Morristown, N.J., on behalf of client Francis Wagner Jr., 61, who contends that he has suffered emotional distress and that the memo line notes have exacerbated his poor health, which includes cancer and a bad heart.

The ex-spouse, Diane Wagner, 57, said she endured drunken bouts from her former husband during their 10-year marriage, and she filed for divorce. She said her ex-husband collects Social Security/disability, and she couldn’t afford a divorce trial, so she agreed to pay her non-working ex-husband $744 a month in spousal support, so she could end the marriage.

“As far as I’m concerned I can write anything I want on the memo line because it’s a note to myself,” Wagner said.

Diane Wagner said she is un- dergoing treatment for cancer that began in her lungs and has progressed to her bones. She said she can barely afford the alimony/spousal support but when she filed for a reduction, she said, she was refused by a Superior Court family division judge.

The lawsuit states that the divorce between the Wagners was finalized July 21, 2014. Attached to the complaint are some of the weekly checks that Diane Wagner said she mails to her ex-husband’s mother’s home in Denville, N.J. The weekly support amount of $186.04 is made payable to Francis Wagner and in the memo lines the words “bum,” “loser” or alimony/adult child support appear.

Diane Wagner said she was faithfully mailing the checks, then felt humiliated when a friend alerted her to postings on a Facebook page maintained by the Trautmann & Trautmann law firm.

The posting, dated March 11 and still on the Facebook page as of Thursday, included a copy of one of Diane Wagner’s checks to Francis Wagner.

FACEBOOK An image was posted March 11 on Facebook by law firm Trautmann & Trautmann of an alimony check paid by Diane Wagner of Hopatcong, N.J., to her ex-husband. Wagner says she was humiliated when she learned of the post.