Lowry v. Lowry

90 So. 2d 852, 229 Miss. 376, 1956 Miss. LEXIS 617
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 3, 1956
DocketNo. 40213
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 90 So. 2d 852 (Lowry v. Lowry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lowry v. Lowry, 90 So. 2d 852, 229 Miss. 376, 1956 Miss. LEXIS 617 (Mich. 1956).

Opinion

Kyle, J.

This case is before us on appeal by James Samuel Lowry, cross-defendant in the court below, from a de[379]*379cree of the Chancery Court of Franklin County, awarding- alimony, after a decree of divorce, to Mrs. Mary Lee Anderson Lowry, cross-complainant in the court below.

The record shows' that the appellee was granted a decree of divorce from the appellant on- her cross bill at the February 1955 Term of the court. The court in its decree retained jurisdiction of the cause as to alimony and support for cross-complainant and the minor child of the marriage, Emma Joy Lowry. The decree recited that the cross-defendant had been paying to the cross-complainant the sum of $100 a month for the support of the cross-complainant and the minor child; and it was ordered that such payments continue until a final adjudication was made as to the cross-defendant’s liability for alimony and the amount thereof. After the rendition of the above mentioned decree the cross-complainant filed a formal petition for the allowance of permanent alimony in the sum of $250 per month, and for the allowance of an additional sum of $100 per month for the support, education and maintenance of the child. A hearing was granted on the petition at the September 1955 Term of the court, and a final decree was entered directing that the cross-defendant pay to the cross-complainant the sum of $200 per month as permanent alimony and support for herself and the minor child, and requiring the cross-defendant to enter into a good and sufficient bond to secure the payment of the same, such bond to be filed with the clerk within ninety days.

Before considering the question presented for our decision in the appellant’s assignment of errors, it is necessary that we dispose of a motion filed by the ap-pellee asking that the appeal be dismissed on the ground that the appellant is in default in the payment of some of the monthly installments of alimony which have already accrued under the provisions of the above mentioned decree, and has absented himself from the state for the purpose of avoiding compliance with the decree. The [380]*380motion was filed oü October 29, 1956, and attached to the motion are two affidavits signed by the appellee and the assistant cashier of the local bank, at Meadville, from which it appears that the appellant is in default in the payments ordered to be made in the snm of approximately $1,300. The appellee has also alleged in her affidavit that the appellant left Franklin Connty on or about May 21, 1956, and that the appellee has been informed by the Post Office Department of Memphis, Tennessee, that the appellant is now employed as a clerk in the Post Office at Gilroy, California. •

We are of the opinion that the motion to dismiss the appeal should be overruled.

The' decree appealed from in this case is a final decree directing the payment of money in specified amounts as permanent alimony and for the support of the minor child. It is a decree from which the appellant had a right under the statute (Section 1147, Code of 1942) to prosecute an appeal. And we are of the opinion that the appellant’s failure to pay in full the monthly installments of alimony ordered to be paid and which have matured while the appeal was pending does not warrant a dismissal of the appeal. Eastes v. Eastes, 79 Ind. 363; Dwelly v. Dwelly, 46 Me. 377; Vosburg v. Vosburg, 131 Cal. 628, 63 P. 1009; State ex rel. Bordeau v. District Ct., 31 Mont. 511, 79 P. 13; Wolfe v. Wolfe, 120 W. Va. 389, 198 S. E. 209.

“As a general rule, where an appeal or writ of error is a matter of right, the party aggrieved by a judgment or decree is not deprived of the privilege of having it reviewed by the fact that he is in contempt of court. ’ ’ 4 C. J. S. 391, Appeal and Error, par. 208, and cases cited.

The appellant in this case has not ignored or failed to comply with any order of this Court for the payment of temporary alimony or suit money. If he has failed to comply with the order of the trial court directing the [381]*381payment of monthly installments of alimony and support money, he may be proceeded against as for a contempt; bnt snch failure does not constitute sufficient cause for the dismissal of the appeal.

The motion to dismiss the appeal is therefore overruled.

The only point argued by the appellant’s attorney as ground for reversal of the judgment of the lower court is that the amount of alimony allowed was excessive, unjust and oppresive in view of the financial conditon and earning capacity of the appellant, and in view of the financial condition of the appellee.

The record shows that the appellant and the appellee were married on December 6, 1931, and that the parties separated on July 23, 1954. Two children were born of the marriage, one daughter 23 years of age at the time of the hearing’, who was married, and one daughter, the above mentioned Emma Joy Lowry, who was 15 years of age at the time of the hearing.

The appellee testified that she was 44 years of age, and that she and her minor daughter, Emma Joy, resided in the family dwelling house on the 367-acre tract of land south of White Apple, in Franklin County, which she had inherited from her father. ■ She had worked for the Halton Lumber Company as a bookkeeper and secretary until a few weeks before the divorce suit was filed, and was paid $52.50 per week for her services. She had not worked since she and her husband separated. She was asked what her physical conditon was, and whether she was able to work. Her answer was, “I sure am not, not after all I’ve gone through. I am all to pieces and nervous.” The appellee testified that the appellant was a rural mail carrier; that his salary amounted to $388 per month; and that in addition to his salary he received a mileage allowance of 9‡ per mile for the use of his automobile in carrying the mail.

[382]*382The appellee testified that she was the owner of thé above mentioned 367 acres of land; that approximately 40 acres of the land was in cnltivation and was nsed for the production of hay crops; that she owned 40 head of grown cattle and 12 calves; and that her cattle sales amounted to about $383 a year. She stated that she and her husband had sold about $600 worth of timber during the year 1954, and that she had sold about $1,000 worth of timber during the year 1955. She stated that she had received the sum of $10,000 in December 1952 as a bonus on an oil lease. She had used $1,000 of the bonus money to buy a piano for her daughter, and had spent some of the money in rebuilding and furnishing her house. She had invested $5,000 of the bonus money in Investors Syndicate certificates, which she still owned and from which she received an annual income of $126. She also owned $2,000 of two per cent bonds, from which she received an annual income of $40.

The appellant testified that his salary was $422.76, plus a car allowance of 9‡ a mile. He owned no property other than the car that he used to deliver the mail, and he had no income other than that received by him as a mail carrier. At the time of the hearing he was living with his mother, who was 74 years of age, in an apartment built over a warehouse behind the post office in the Town of ftoxie. He paid $45 a month rent for the apartment. His mother’s health was very poor; and she had no income other than what the appellant and his brother and sister gave her. The appellant testified that he had been paying the appellee $100 per month since the divorce was granted. His grocery bills amounted to $85 a month.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
90 So. 2d 852, 229 Miss. 376, 1956 Miss. LEXIS 617, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lowry-v-lowry-miss-1956.