Nettles v. Nettles

256 So. 2d 189, 47 Ala. App. 448, 1971 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 484
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedNovember 24, 1971
Docket1 Div. 57
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 256 So. 2d 189 (Nettles v. Nettles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nettles v. Nettles, 256 So. 2d 189, 47 Ala. App. 448, 1971 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 484 (Ala. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinions

WRIGHT, Judge.

This cause was first begun with the filing of a bill of complaint for divorce by appellee, Ethel Mae Nettles, against Woodrow Nettles in the Circuit Court of Mobile County on May 26, 1966. Hearing was [450]*450held ore tenus on January 4, 1968. There appears in the transcript an order of submission fpr final decree dated January 4, 1968. There is an order for resubmission with ten days allowed for filing of briefs dated January 16, 1968. There next appears an answer and cross-bill filed April 22, 1968, and another order of re-submission for final decree upon pleadings and testimony “heard this day in open court,” dated June 26, 1968. There is no transcript of any evidence heard by the court on that date. There then appears a final decree dated June 27, 1968.

The final decree found that the bill of complaint of complainant was not supported by the evidence and the same was dismissed out of court. The cross-complaint praying for an annullment of the marriage on the ground that the wife, appellee here, had a living husband at the time of her marriage to cross-complainant from whom she had not been legally divorced, was found to be sustained by the evidence and the marriage was held void ab initio. It was further decreed that the parties were tenants in common in the “homeplace” of the parties, (quotation marks ours) and said homeplace was particularly described in the decree as a square of land, 6Q'x60'x60'x60', said description being by metes and bounds in relation to various points and distances on the ground in fractional section 12, Township 1 North, Range 1 West in Mobile County, Alabama.

Cross-complaint was directed to convey all of his rights, title and interest in and to said “homeplace” to appellee within 30 days. Title to other properties accumulated by the parties during their void marriage was directed to be divested out of appellee into appellant.

Ethel Mae Nettles filed notice of appeal. Woodrow Nettles conveyed the property described in the decree to Ethel Mae Nettles, and the register conveyed title to the other properties to Woodrow Nettles. The appeal from the decree was dismissed on motion by the Supreme Court of Alabama on January 23, 1969.

Subsequent to dismissal of the appeal various motions and requests for writs of assistance and rules nisi were filed by Woodrow Nettles. These grew out of alleged failures of Ethel Mae to abide by the original decree. During the pending of the case the parties have changed attorney’s about as frequently as there have been pleadings filed.

On July IS, 1970, present attorney for Ethel Mae filed a petition entitled a petition for modification, together with a motion to appoint a surveyor to prepare a plat of the “homeplace.”

The allegations of these petitions were that the description of the “homeplace” in the original decree did not in fact describe it, but rather was a description of a vacant tract of land. The court was requested to appoint a surveyor to locate and properly describe the homeplace, and that upon receipt of such proper description the decree be modified so that a proper conveyance could be made of the “homeplace” to Ethel Mae as directed therein.

On November 6, 1970, a decree was entered. The portion thereof pertinent to this appeal appears as follows: “Order Modifying Decree, Directing Register to Execute Deed Conditionally; Determining Arrearage and Directing Complainant to Satisfy Same, and Taxing Costs.

“It appears to the court that a petition for modification has been filed by the above Complainant, and it also further appears to the Court that in the final decree entered in this cause on June 27, 1968, the Court found inter alia that the parties were tenants in common in the ‘homeplace’ of the parties and directed the Respondent and Cross-Complainant Woodrow Nettles to convey to Complainant Ethel Mae Nettles, all of his right, title and interest in and to said ‘homeplace’, and it also further appears to the Court that the said decree was incorrect as to the legal description of said ‘homeplace’ in that by the plat as submitted with the petition and prepared by [451]*451Bedsole Surveying Company on October 19, 1970, said ‘homeplace’ in the decree described a vacant tract of land with perimeter boundaries of 60 feet by 60 feet, and does not in any way encompass the ‘home-place,’ and it also further appears to the Court that the Complainant Ethel Mae Nettles, is residing in the ‘homeplace’ and has continuously occupied the same since the execution of the decree and that a true and correct description of the said ‘home-place’ is shown on the plat of survey as prepared by Bedsole Surveying Company as Parcel ‘B’ on said plat and that the said petition should be granted and the decree modified and the Register directed to execute a Register’s deed to the Complainant, >{i ‡

The appeal to this Court was from the decree quoted from above, rendered November 7, 1970. Appellant has made four assignments of error. After consideration, we think the assignments of error are in reality only two. The primary matter involved in the objections to the decree of November 7, 1970 is whether the court was empowered under Title 7, Section 567, and Equity Rules 63 and 65, to amend nunc pro tunc its decree rendered June 27, 1968.

The decree of June 27, 1968, was a final decree and after the expiration of thirty days from the date thereof, the court lost all power to alter it, except for clerical errors contained therein, there having been no motion for rehearing duly filed. Equity Rule 65. Neither was there any power to modify after thirty days had expired. It is only in matters involving custody and support that a court of equity has inherent power to modify a final decree, upon proof of changed circumstances. Tucker v. Tucker, 280 Ala. 608, 196 So.2d 724; Hardy v. Hardy, 250 Ala. 297, 34 So.2d 212; Manery v. Manery, 256 Ala. 441, 55 So.2d 194. There being no such issues involved in the final decree of June 27, 1968, there was no authority of modification of said decree after thirty days. There only remained authority in the court to implement or enforce the carrying out of the provisions of said decree by contempt proceedings or upon petition, the directing of ancilliary relief.

Therefore, the question remaining to be answered is—Was the court under authority of Equity Rule 65 and Title 7, Section 567, Code of Alabama 1940, empowered to amend the judgment of June 27, 1968, nunc pro tunc?

Section 567 reads as follows:

“Section 567. Amendment within three years; when allowed.—The circuit courts, or courts of like jurisdiction, may, at any time within three years after the rendition of final judgment, upon the application of either party, amend any clerical error, mistake in the calculation of interest, or other mistake of the clerk or register, and may direct the writing up of any judgment, when the order for judgment was made at a previous time and the clerk or register had failed at such previous time to enter such judgment on the minutes of the court, when there is sufficient matter apparent on the record or entries of the court to amend by. No cause shall be reversed for such error or defect by the appellate court, unless the court of original jurisdiction refused to make the amendment.”

There are many cases construing the effect and purpose of this statute. Ford v. Tinchant, 49 Ala. 567; Sisson v. Leonard, 243 Ala. 546, 11 So.2d 144; Ex parte Sharp, 259 Ala. 652, 68 So.2d 545; Tombrello Coal Co. v. Fortenberry, 248 Ala. 640, 29 So.2d 125; Ala. Hide & Tallow Co.

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Related

Callaway v. Callaway
739 So. 2d 1134 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 1999)
Buchanan v. Buchanan
274 So. 2d 84 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 1973)
Nettles v. Nettles
262 So. 2d 764 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
256 So. 2d 189, 47 Ala. App. 448, 1971 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 484, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nettles-v-nettles-alacivapp-1971.