Opinion
17875.
SUBMITTED MAY 12, 1952.
DECIDED JUNE 9, 1952.
Alimony; contempt. Before Judge Byars. Spalding Superior Court. December 5, 1951.
Leward Hightower, for plaintiff in error.
Russell O. Clay and Barrett Hayes, contra.
1. "An alimony decree of a sister State, providing for future monthly payments, is such a decree as is enforceable in this State, under the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution of the United States, as to such payments as have become due and are unpaid at the time of a judgment thereon in this State. Roberts v. Roberts, 174 Ga. 645 ( 163 S.E. 735); Cureton v. Cureton, 132 Ga. 745, 751 ( 65 S.E. 65); Heakes v. Heakes, 157 Ga. 863, 867 ( 122 S.E. 777); McLendon v. McLendon, 66 Ga. App. 156, 159 ( 17 S.E.2d 252). But the fact that such a decree of another State was for alimony will not make the Georgia suit on such decree an alimony case, since it `is simply an action on a debt of record.' McLendon v. McLendon, 192 Ga. 70 ( 14 S.E.2d 477), and cit." Lawrence v. Lawrence, 196 Ga. 204 (3) ( 26 S.E.2d 283); Belcher v. Belcher, 204 Ga. 436 ( 49 S.E.2d 904).
2. Under the foregoing rules, a citation for contempt based upon an alleged failure to comply with a judgment rendered by a court of another State is not an alimony case within the provisions of the Constitution, article 6, section 2, paragraph 4 (Code, Ann., § 2-3704), and jurisdiction of the writ of error is vested in the Court of Appeals.
Transferred to the Court of Appeals. All the Justices concur, Atkinson, P.J., not participating.
No. 17875. SUBMITTED MAY 12, 1952 — DECIDED JUNE 9, 1952.
Julia Kate Henderson brought an action in Spalding Superior Court against Sam Henderson Sr., alleging that the plaintiff and the defendant were granted a final decree of divorce in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Dade County, Florida, and that the defendant is indebted to the plaintiff in the sum of $540 for alimony due under the Florida judgment. She prayed that process issue requiring the defendant to show cause why he should not be held in contempt of court for failure to pay the alimony alleged to be due, and for judgment in the sum of $540. A duly authenticated copy of the decree in the Florida case was attached to the petition.
When the matter came on for hearing, the trial judge entered an order reciting that the defendant had failed to show any sufficient reason why he had not complied with the order of the Florida court, adjudged him in contempt of court, and ordered that he be committed to the common jail of Spalding County until he purged himself of contempt.
The bill of exceptions assigns this ruling as error "upon the ground that it was contrary to law, in that the court had no legal right under the law of Georgia to find the defendant in contempt at an interlocutory hearing, based on a decree of a court of another State, before the same had been made the judgment of the Georgia court after a trial thereon at regular term."
The writ of error was directed to the Court of Appeals, and has been transmitted by that court to this court.