Hough v. Superior Court

179 Cal. App. 342
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 30, 1960
DocketCiv. No. 24152
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 179 Cal. App. 342 (Hough v. Superior Court) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hough v. Superior Court, 179 Cal. App. 342 (Cal. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

WOOD, P. J.

This is a proceeding to review an order of the superior court adjudging petitioner, Robert L. Hough, guilty of contempt of court and sentencing him to imprisonment in the county jail for five days.

On February 19,1958, Barbara J. Hough, wife of petitioner, obtained an interlocutory decree of divorce. That judgment approved and incorporated therein by reference certain executory provisions of a property settlement agreement, and the parties were ordered to comply with those provisions of said agreement. Those provisions of the agreement, as incorporated in the judgment, were that petitioner (husband) would pay (1) to the wife $500 at the rate of $100 a month, (2) for the support of the child $5.00 a week; and (3) to a babysitter $15 a week.

On February 25, 1959, the wife obtained orders that petitioner show cause on March 13, 1959, (1) why the interlocutory judgment of February 19, 1958, should not be modified to provide that petitioner should pay $20 a week for the support of the child (instead of $5.00 a week) ; and (2) why petitioner should not be adjudged guilty of contempt of court for failure to make the payments as required by the interlocutory judgment.

On March 13, 1959, the orders to show cause in re modification and contempt of court were placed off calendar.

On May 15,1959, the wife obtained an order that petitioner show cause on May 29, 1959, (1) why the interlocutory judgment should not be modified to provide that petitioner should pay $20 a week for support of the child; and (2) why petitioner should not be adjudged guilty of contempt of court for failure to make the payments as required by the interlocutory judgment. In the wife’s affidavit, filed in connection with her application for the order to show cause in re contempt, she stated that the amount paid to her was $346, and that the amount which had not been paid to her was $154 (delinquent) ; that $85 had been paid for child support, and the amount unpaid (delinquent) for child support was $235; that the amount paid to the babysitter was $671, and the amount unpaid for services of the babysitter was $289. She also stated in her affidavit that petitioner had made payments over a period of time without designating which account the payments should be credited to; and that she “designates said payments to the accounts set out hereinabove [in the affidavit] and to those oldest in time.” The accounts, as she set them out in the affidavit, show that she credited practically all of [345]*345the payments to herself and the babysitter. The total amount paid was $1,117, and she credited $85 of that amount for child support.

On May 29,1959, at the hearing of the orders to show cause, the court made an order, pursuant to an oral stipulation, that the interlocutory judgment be modified, as follows: petitioner shall no longer be required to pay the babysitter’s fee; and petitioner is ordered to pay $20 a week to the wife for the support of the child. The order also stated that, pursuant to stipulation, the petitioner was delinquent in payments, as follows: support of wife—payments pursuant to property settlement agreement, $154; support of child, $235; payments to babysitter, $289. It was stated therein that the total arrearage was $678. That order directed petitioner to pay said arrearage at the rate of $5.00 a week. The order to show cause in re contempt was continued to August 28, 1959.

On said August 28, at the hearing in re contempt, the court made a minute order which was in part, as follows: “Plaintiff [petitioner] is found to have had the ability to comply with previous' order of court and has wilfully failed, neglected and refused to do so. Plaintiff is found guilty of contempt and is sentenced to 5 days in the County Jail. The imposition of this sentence is suspended until September 1, 1959, at 9 A.M., at which time plaintiff is ordered to surrender to the Bailiff in SM ‘D.’ Arrearages are found to be in the sum of $678.00.”

Petitioner contends that the order adjudging him guilty of contempt of court was invalid because the property settlement agreement, which was incorporated in the interlocutory judgment, was an integrated property settlement agreement, and because the order for imprisonment for failure to make the payments, under the agreement, was in violation of article I, section 15, of the California Constitution which provides that no person shall be imprisoned for debt.

The property settlement agreement provided, in part: ‘ ‘ The wife does, and shall, accept the provisions herein made for her in full satisfaction of her rights to the community property of the respective parties thereto, and in full satisfaction of her right to support and maintenance.

“The payment to the wife, as above set forth, and her waiver of other support and alimony, form an integral and inseverable part of the property division, and an inseverable part of the consideration for the property settlement.
[346]*346“The parties hereto intend to, and do, by this Property Settlement Agreement, make a complete and final settlement of all of their respective property rights and respective support obligations, each to the other, if any.
“No modification, or waiver, of any of the terms hereof shall be valid unless in writing, and signed by both of the parties hereto.
“This is intended to be a full and complete property settlement between the parties hereto, and is intended to be a complete release of the obligations which existed between the parties hereto for the support and maintenance of each by the other by reason of said marriage or otherwise, and the parties hereby expressly release each other of any hold or obligation of any nature whatsoever from the beginning of the world to this date.”

“An agreement is integrated if the parties have agreed that the provisions relating to division of property and the provisions relating to support constitute reciprocal consideration. The support provisions are then necessarily part and parcel of a division of property. Such an agreement would be destroyed by subsequent modification of a support order based thereon, without the consent of the parties.” (Plumer v. Plumer, 48 Cal.2d 820, 824 [313 P.2d 549].) It was also said in the case last cited, at page 825: “An agreement providing that the purpose of the parties is to reach a final settlement of their rights and duties with respect to both property and support, that they intend each provision to be in consideration for each of the other provisions, and that they waive all rights arising out of the marital relationship except those expressly set out in the agreement, will be deemed conclusive evidence that the parties intended an integrated agreement.”

In Bradley v. Superior Court, 48 Cal.2d 509 [310 P.2d 634], an order adjudging a person in contempt of court for failure to make payments, provided for in a property settlement agreement, was annulled. In that case it was said at page 522: “We are satisfied that the better view is that payments provided in a property settlement agreement which are found to constitute an adjustment of property interests, rather than a severable provision for alimony, should be held to fall within the constitutional proscription against imprisonment for debt.

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179 Cal. App. 342, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hough-v-superior-court-calctapp-1960.