Opinion
July 22, 1985
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Rockland County (Walsh, J.).
Order affirmed, with costs.
The parties entered into a separation agreement which was thereafter incorporated, but not merged, into a judgment of divorce. Accordingly, the separation agreement continued in effect as a separate and independent contractual arrangement between the parties ( Goldman v. Goldman, 282 N.Y. 296), and a subsequent modification of the judgment of divorce would not operate as a modification of the separation agreement absent a clear expression by the parties of such an intent ( see, Kleila v Kleila, 50 N.Y.2d 277). Since there was no clear expression of such an intent by the parties to the separation agreement, the fact that petitions were brought in the Family Court by the Department of Social Services and the plaintiff wife, which resulted in reductions in the awards of child support below that incorporated into the judgment of divorce, did not foreclose the wife's right to sue on the contract for the difference between the reduced awards and the amount provided for in the separation agreement ( see, Kleila v. Kleila, supra; Galyn v. Schwartz, 77 A.D.2d 437, mod on other grounds 56 N.Y.2d 969; Burtch v. Burtch, 98 A.D.2d 704). Mollen, P.J., Mangano, O'Connor and Weinstein, JJ., concur.