Opinion
20395.
SUBMITTED MARCH 9, 1959.
DECIDED APRIL 9, 1959.
Alimony; contempt. Polk Superior Court. Before Judge Foster. December 4, 1958.
Marson G. Dunaway, Jr., for plaintiff in error.
The evidence in the present case does not show such wilful disobedience of the court's decree as would require that the defendant be held in contempt for failure to pay alimony. The trial judge did not abuse his discretion in holding that he was not in contempt of court. Yancey v. Mills, 210 Ga. 684 ( 82 S.E.2d 505).
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.
SUBMITTED MARCH 9, 1959 — DECIDED APRIL 9, 1959.
Bennie Bell Carroll brought a petition for citation for contempt against her former husband, Snoie E. Carroll, alleging that he was in arrears in the amount of $150 in the payment of alimony under a valid decree of the court in a divorce action between the parties. On the contempt hearing, she testified: that, at the time of bringing the citation for contempt, her former husband owed her $150; he has not paid her any sum since July 1, 1958; sometime prior to July 1, 1958, she was ill and required hospitalization, and he paid $200 on her hospital bill, but she never discussed the matter with him nor agreed that this payment could be subsequently deducted from the amount of alimony awarded her in the divorce decree. The defendant in the contempt citation, in regard to the payment of the hospital bill, testified: He was called on the telephone by his former wife's sister, and she asked him to pay his former wife's hospital bill; he told her that he would help with the hospital bill provided he could take the amount out of future payments on alimony; he did not discuss the hospital bill with his former wife.
The trial judge entered an order in which he adjudged that a credit of $200 be allowed the defendant on his alimony payments, and that he not be held in contempt of court for failure to pay alimony up to the date of the filing of the petition for citation for contempt. The bill of exceptions assigns error on this order.