Williams v. West

258 S.W.2d 468, 1953 Ky. LEXIS 835
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976)
DecidedMarch 27, 1953
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 258 S.W.2d 468 (Williams v. West) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976) primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. West, 258 S.W.2d 468, 1953 Ky. LEXIS 835 (Ky. 1953).

Opinion

DUNCAN, Justice.

This appeal presents some novel questions of law and an unfortunate state of facts which deserve our sympathetic consideration.

The appellant, Harry V. Williams, and appellee, Mary Shaw Williams West, were formerly husband and wife residing in the State of Texas. On Septémber 18, 1936, the district court of Bexar County, Texas, granted appellee a divorce from appellant and awarded her. the care,(. custody, and control of their three minor children, Bruce, Mary Frances, and Jack. The judgment directed: appellant to pay to ap-pellee for the support, maintenance,' and education of the .children the sum of $100 per month until further ordered by that court. Both parties have since remarried, but áppellee, who now resides in Wichita, Kansas, was divorced from her second husband. The appellant now resides in Louisville, Kentucky, with his second wife and a child born of the subsequent marriage.

After the divorce, all of the children remained with their mother for about two years and thereafter they divided their time between their parents, generally spending the school periods with their mother and the vacation periods with their father. On June 1, 1942, the children visited their father in Louisville, and Mary Frances and Jack remained there until they had married. Bruce, who is now twenty-nine years of age, remained with his father until March, 1944, when he returned to his mother after a short visit with an aunt , in Peoria, Illinois. Since that time, he has continuously resided with his mother.

The medical testimony discloses beyond question that Bruce is suffering from what has been diagnosed as Jacksonian epilepsy. When he was about two years of age, he suffered a fall in which he received a severe blow on his right forehead, and since that time he has had recurring attacks or convulsions. In 1937, when he was thir *470 teen years of age, he was taken to Mayo’s Clinic upon the advice of Dr. Melvin Cooper, of San Antonio, Texas, who is a specialist in nervous diseases. Thereafter, and extending over a period of time up to the taking of testimony in this case, he was treated by physicians in St. Louis, Missouri, Anadarko, Oklahoma, and Wichita, Kansas. He also spent approximately three months in Forest Park Sanitarium, Davenport, Iowa, in October, November, and December, 1944, and from December 10 to 17, 1945, in Wesley Hospital, Wichita, Kansas. The illness is characterized by convulsions particularly involving the right arm and face, and there is usually a lassitude and weakness of several days’ duration preceding and following each attack. Either because of a mental involvment or on account of a complex arising from his illness, he is moody, depressed, and at times suffers loss of memory. His appearance is normal, and there is no physical underdevelopment.

Despite, the handicap under which Bruce has lived, he has attempted to support himself by working. While living with his father during the war, and at a time when there was a scarcity of labor, he was able to obtain employment in Louisville at a filling station' and later at Steiden Stores, where he worked about sixteen months, although he was frequently absent on account of illness. After returning to his mother, he worlréd a short time in a grocery store in Wichita, Kansas. During the' latter employment, he had several convulsions, during ■ which a fellow employee stated he would froth at the mouth and be unable to work fdr several days following each attack: He was discharged from his last position on account of his physical condition and has since been unable to secure employment.

The appellee instituted this action in the Jefferson Circuit Court, seeking by separately numbered paragraphs to recover: (1) $1,958.29, representing what she alleged was the amount by which appellant had defaulted in payments under the Texas judgment; (2) $700 for funds expended by her in providing extraordinary and necessary medical expenses for Bruce after he returned permanently to her home and before he attained his majority; and (3) $1,013.95, representing funds expended by her for necessary medical services, care, and support furnished Bruce since he became twenty-one years of age, and seeking prospectively an allowance of $125 per month for his future treatment and maintenance. , The' Chancellor awarded appellee $758.29 as the balance due under the Texas judgment; $700 for extraordinary expenses incurred for Bruce before his majority; and $1,013.95 for such expenses after majority. The judgment also directed appellant to pay to appellee the sum of $125 per month for the future support and maintenance of their son. The appeal challenges the judgment in its entirety, and appellee has cross-appealed from so much thereof as fails to award the full amount claimed as the balance under the Texas judgment. She also complains of the failure of the court to make her an allowance pendente lite. Since we are disposing of the case on its merits, we shall not consider this complaint.

At the outset, we consider two jurisdictional questions which are urged by appellant. It is insisted that since the Texas judgment merely directed that the maintenance payments should continue until further orders of the court it is interlocutory in nature and not such a final judgment as may be enforced in a sister State. It is further urged that the Texas judgment is void, whether final or interlocutory, to the extent that it may be construed as awarding maintenance beyond the sixteenth birthday of the children because it is vio-lative of Article 4639a, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes of Texas. That section provides that the court may make an order for .periodic payments by the husband for the benefit of children until they have reached the age of sixteen years.

Whatever its prospective effect may be, we do not regard the Texas judgment as interlocutory insofar as it relates to payments which had accrued prior to the filing of this action. The weight of authority supports the conclusion that the *471 power of a court to alter or modify an award for maintenance, whether existing by statute or under the terms of the judgment itself, operates prospectively and does not extend to installments which ‘have accrued prior to such modification. A leading case on the question is Sistare v. Sistare, 218 U.S. 1, 30 S.Ct. 682, 687, 54 L.Ed. 905, in which a New York judgment was held to be final notwithstanding a statute of that State which provided that the “court may * * * at any time after final judgment, vary or modify such directions.” The Supreme Court there said:

“But it is equally certain that nothing in this language expressly gives power to revoke or modify an instalment of alimony which had accrued prior to the making of an application to vary or modify, and every reason-ble impliction must be resorted to against the existence of such power, in the absence of clear language manifesting an intention to confer it.”

Appellant cites the Texas cases of Youngblood v. Youngblood, Tex.Civ.App., 163 S.W.2d 731, and Grubbs v. Grubbs, Tex.Civ.App., 164 S.W.2d 216, in support •of his contention that the Texas judgment is merely interlocutory and enforceable •only in the court in which it was rendered.

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Bluebook (online)
258 S.W.2d 468, 1953 Ky. LEXIS 835, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-west-kyctapphigh-1953.