Devore v. Devore

172 So. 2d 923, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 4499
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 8, 1965
DocketNo. 1739
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 172 So. 2d 923 (Devore v. Devore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Devore v. Devore, 172 So. 2d 923, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 4499 (La. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

SAMUEL, Judge.

This is a suit by a divorced wife against her former husband for past due child support. It was filed on October 15, 1963. The husband, the defendant in this case, obtained a judgment of divorce from the present plaintiff on June 24, 1949 in the matter entitled “Harry Luther Devore v Geneva Eldora Devore”, No. 120-234 of the docket of the Second Judicial District Court of the State of Nevada, County of Washoe. This suit is based on that divorce judgment, a duly authenticated copy of which judgment has been received in evidence. The judgment has not been modified, altered or amended in any way. It awarded sole custody and control of the couple’s two minor children to the wife and directed the husband:

“ * * * to pay to the defendant [wife] the sum of $60.00 per month, each and every month commencing forthwith, for the support of HARRY LEE DE VORE until he reaches his majority, and the further sum of $60.00 per month, each and every month commencing forthwith, for the support of ELDORA JEAN DE VORE until she reaches her majority, and making said payments, the plaintiff is granted the right of reasonable visitation. This Court retains jurisdiction with reference to said minor children to make such other and further order or orders as may from time to time appear just and proper.” (Emphasis ours).

The son Harry, was born on February 25, 1936, reached the age of majority February 25, 1957, and was on active military service in the United States Navy continuously for twenty-four months immediately prior to reaching the age of majority. The daughter, Eldora Jean, was born on December 14, 1939 and reached the age of majority December 14, 1960. She was married on April 20, 1958, just six days less than thirty-two months before reaching majority. On September 7, 1960 plaintiff wrote the defendant requesting payment of the child support balance still unpaid, $2,355, an amount she had determined by taking El-dora Jean’s marriage into consideration. The letter stated that no claim was made for the daughter’s support during the period' of that child’s marriage. Without taking [925]*925into consideration either the military service of the son or the marriage of the daughter, and computing the full amount of $60.00 per month for each child to the date on which that child actually attained the age of twenty-one years, the total amount of unpaid child support is now $3,360. This suit is for that amount with legal interest and costs.

In this court, as he did in the trial court, defendant admits he owes the sum of $320 but contends he cannot be compelled to pay for the support of his daughter after her marriage or for the support of his son for the two year period during which the boy was in military service. Alternatively, defendant contends he has been released from the obligation to pay the sum of $1,920 (32 months from the date of the daughter’s marriage to her majority at $60 per month), which amount he argues has been voluntarily remitted by the plaintiff in her letter of September 7, 1960.

There was judgment in the trial court in favor of plaintiff and against the defendant in the full sum of $3,360 as prayed. Defendant has appealed therefrom.

A provision in a valid divorce decree for alimony or child support, payable in installments, is a final judgment within the full faith and credit clause of the Federal Constitution insofar as accrued installments are concerned unless, by the law of the state where rendered, the decree is subject to modification as to accrued installments at the discretion of the court; and where the decree is final and not subject to such subsequent modification, it must be recognized and enforced without modification of accrued installments in a suit arising in a state other than the one in which the decree was rendered. Barber v. Barber, 21 How. 582, 16 L.Ed. 226; Sistare v. Sistare, 218 U.S. 1, 30 S.Ct. 682, 54 L.Ed. 905, 28 L.R.A.,N.S., 1068; 157 A.L.R. 170.

The question of whether the Nevada judgment with which we are here concerned is a final judgment under Nevada law as to all accrued installments has been the subject of lengthy arguments by opposing counsel. Involved therein are the pertinent Nevada statutory provisions, N.R.S. 125.140 and 125.170, and three Nevada Supreme Court cases, Melahn v. Melahn, 78 Nev. 162, 370 P.2d 213 (1962), Folks v. Folks, 77 Nev. 45, 359 P.2d 92 (1961), and Schneider v. Second Judicial District Court, 64 Nev. 26, 176 P.2d 797 (1947).

N.R.S. 125.140, enacted in 1947, provides:

“1. The court, in granting a divorce, shall make such disposition of, and provision for, the children, as shall appear most expedient under all the circumstances, and most for the present comfort and future well-being of such children.
“2. In actions for divorce the court may, during the pendency of the action, or at the final hearing or at any time thereafter during the minority of any of the children of the marriage, make such order for the custody, care, education, maintenance and support of such minor children as may seem necessary or proper, and may at any time modify or vacate the same.”

The pertinent portion of N.R.S. 125.170 (1), enacted in 1949 (approved March 17, 1949), provided:

“1. In divorce actions * * *, installment judgments for alimony and support shall not be subject to modification as to accrued installments, but only as to installments not accrued at the time a motion for modification is filed.”

As amended in 1961, the pertinent portion of N.R.S. 125.170(1) now provides:

“1. In divorce actions, installment judgments for alimony and support of the wife shall not be subject to modification as to accrued installments. Installments not accrued at the time a motion for modification is filed shall not be modified unless the court ex[926]*926pressly retained jurisdiction for such modification at the final hearing. The provisions of this subsection apply to all such installment judgments whether granted before or after July 1, 1961.”

Defendant relies upon Melahn v. Melahn, supra, which, he argues, holds that a Nevada divorce decree is not a final judgment as to accrued installments for child support. We do not agree. The decree involved in Melahn was based on an agreement between the litigants and provided that “ * * * if he [the husband] made all payments required of him, and the respondent [the wife] refused him his visitation rights (including the right to have the children with him at specified periods), then his obligation to pay anything to the respondent for support of the children would terminate during the period of such refusal.” The court found the wife had unjustifiedly refused the husband’s visitation privileges and, the support of the children being conditional upon the husband’s right of visitation, held that she was precluded from recovering the unpaid support installments. In the instant case payment of support is not conditional upon visitation; just the opposite is true. The requirement to pay is unconditional and it is only after making payment that the present defendant is granted the right to visitation.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
172 So. 2d 923, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 4499, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/devore-v-devore-lactapp-1965.