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NOTICE: This opinion is subject to motions for rehearing under Rule 22 as well as formal revision before publication in the New Hampshire Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter, Supreme Court of New Hampshire, One Charles Doe Drive, Concord, New Hampshire 03301, of any editorial errors in order that corrections may be made before the opinion goes to press. Errors may be reported by E-mail at the following address: reporter@courts.state.nh.us. Opinions are available on the Internet by 9:00 a.m. on the morning of their release. The direct address of the court's home page is: http://www.courts.state.nh.us/supreme. THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE ___________________________ Laconia Family Division No. 2010-876 IN THE MATTER OF JUDITH RAYBECK AND BRUCE RAYBECK Argued: February 15, 2012 Opinion Issued: May 11, 2012 FamilyLegal, of Concord (Gregory A. Kalpakgian on the brief, and Jay D. Markell orally), for the respondent. Law Office of Joshua L. Gordon, of Concord (Joshua L. Gordon on the brief and orally), for the petitioner. LYNN, J. The respondent, Bruce Raybeck, appeals an order of the Laconia Family Division (Sadler, J.), recommended by the Marital Master (Garner, M.), ruling that the respondent was required to continue paying alimony to the petitioner, Judith Raybeck. We vacate and remand. I The relevant facts are as follows. The parties were divorced in Texas in August 2005 after a forty-two-year marriage. The respondent was awarded property in North Carolina and Texas, and the petitioner was awarded property in Laconia, New Hampshire. The divorce decree, based upon the parties' agreement, obligated the respondent to pay the petitioner alimony of $25,000 per year for ten years, in yearly installments. That obligation would cease, however, if the petitioner "cohabitates with an unrelated adult male."

Approximately three months before the January 2010 alimony payment was due, the petitioner moved out of her Laconia house and rented it to reduce her expenses. She moved into the upper level of a single family home in Plymouth owned by Paul Sansoucie, a man she had met through an online dating service. Sansoucie lived on the lower level and did not charge the petitioner for rent. She did, however, pay about $300 per month for food and often cooked for him. They also shared living space on the middle level of the house. When the respondent learned that the petitioner lived with another man, he stopped paying alimony. In response, the petitioner asked the family division to enforce the alimony agreement and require the respondent to resume his support payments. After a hearing, the marital master recommended a finding that the petitioner was not cohabiting with Sansoucie under the terms of the divorce decree, and the family division approved the recommendation ordering the respondent to continue his alimony payments. This appeal followed. II In his brief, the respondent argues that the court erred as a matter of law in concluding that the petitioner was not cohabiting with Sansoucie under the terms of the divorce decree. The respondent abandoned that argument at oral argument, however, arguing instead that "the trial court below was not able to establish a workable definition of what constitutes cohabitation," and asking this court to adopt a standard of cohabitation enacted recently by legislative initiative in Massachusetts. See An Act Reforming Alimony in the Commonwealth, 2011 Mass. Acts ___ (H.B. 3617, ch. 124

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New Hampshire Law