Reysa v. Reysa

521 S.W.2d 746
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 28, 1975
DocketNo. 8264
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 521 S.W.2d 746 (Reysa v. Reysa) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reysa v. Reysa, 521 S.W.2d 746 (Tex. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinions

CORNELIUS, Justice.

Appellee was granted summary judgment against appellant for $7,658.53 representing accrued and unpaid alimony installments provided by an Illinois divorce decree. The judgment will be reversed.

The parties were divorced in 1966 in Illinois. An agreement of the parties which was “incorporated into and merged into” the decree provided that appellant would pay appellee “as and for her permanent alimony” the sum of $475.00 per month (being one-third of appellant’s salary less deductions) plus one-third of any salary increases which appellant received in the future. The decree provided that all of the terms of the alimony agreement were binding on the parties, and that “this court shall retain jurisdiction of this cause until the terms of this decree have been fully complied with in all respects.” Appellant moved to Texas, and in 1973 appellee filed suit in Dallas County to recover the unpaid alimony. Appellee’s last amended petition, filed on January 16, 1974, sought only to recover installments of $703.44 for the months of July, August, September, October, November and December of 1973, totaling $4,406.64, plus “. . . any other amounts coming due during the pendency of this action . . .’’On January 21, [747]*7471974, appellee filed her motion for summary judgment. The motion was supported by appellee’s affidavit dated November 12, 1973, and appellant’s answers to certain interrogatories. On April 4, 1974, appellee filed a second amended motion for summary judgment asserting that the installments for July through December, 1973 were $833.06 each rather than $703.44, and were $896.39 per month for January, February and March of 1974, for a total of $7,-687.53. The amended motion was not supported by an amended pleading or a new affidavit, but merely referred to the affidavit of November 12, and depended upon the answers to interrogatories to show the amount of appellant’s salary. The District Court granted summary judgment for the amount which the amended motion for summary judgment asserted was due.

Appellant urges eleven points of error which contend, among other things, that the summary judgment is not supported by the pleadings or by legally sufficient evidence.

To be entitled to summary judgment, ap-pellee had the burden to show by summary judgment proof that there was no material issue of fact genuinely in dispute and that she was entitled to the judgment prayed for as a matter of law. Gulbenkian v. Penn, 151 Tex. 412, 252 S.W.2d 929 (1952); Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway v. McBride, 159 Tex. 442, 322 S.W.2d 492 (1958); Campbell v. Avinger, 505 S.W.2d 788 (Tex.1974). In this case that means that appellee must have shown that the Illinois decree was a final judgment entitled to full faith and credit in Texas, by which specific alimony installments in a sum certain had become fully vested and were due and unpaid. Restatement of the Law Second, Conflict of Laws, Secs. 107 and 108; 50 C.J.S. Judgments, p. 448 and cases there cited.

In some states alimony installments which have already accrued are nevertheless subject to modification by the court under the authority of statutes, judicial decisions or provisions contained in the decree. See Annotation, 94 A.L.R. p. 332, et seq. Where such installments are subject to modification after accrual, the judgment is not entitled to full faith and credit even as to accrued installments. Sistare v. Sistare, 218 U.S. 1, 30 S.Ct. 682, 54 L.Ed. 905; Gard v. Gard, 150 Tex. 347, 241 S. W.2d 618 (1951); Criteser v. Gaffey, 222 S.W. 193 (Tex.Comm’n.App.1920, judg. approvd); Stout v. Stout, 214 S.W.2d 891 (Tex.Civ.App. Texarkana 1948, writ ref’d) ; Restatement of the Law Second, Conflict of Laws, Sec. 109. Therefore, to show that the Illinois judgment was final and entitled to full faith and credit, appel-lee must have shown not only that it had not been rescinded or modified, but also that under Illinois law, the accrued installments were not subject to modification.

Appellee’s summary judgment proof consisted only of her affidavit of November 12, 1973, a certified copy of the Illinois decree, and answers to certain interrogatories. The material portions of her affidavit alleged only that the Illinois decree “has not been rescinded or in any way modified,” that she had not remarried since the entry of the decree, and that she had received none of the installments since June of 1973. The answers to interrogatories only confirmed that the Illinois decree had not been modified as far as appellant knew, and gave the amount of appellant’s salary. There was no summary judgment proof as to whether Illinois law permitted modification of installments which had already accrued.

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521 S.W.2d 746, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reysa-v-reysa-texapp-1975.