Appellate Law

Order Was Not Final Which Did Not Address Request to Modify Child Support

 A trial court's order adjudicated the wife's contempt petition but did not address her request for a change in the husband's child-support obligation.  The order therefore was not final and would not support an appeal.  Cooper v. Cooper, No. 2080210 (Ala. Civ. App. Apr. 24, 2009).

 A wife petitioned the circuit court to modify the husband's child-support obligations under the parties' divorce judgment, and to hold the husband in contempt for failing to comply with provisions of that judgment.  The trial court entered a handwritten order into the State Judicial Information System on August 1, 2008, which ordered the husband to pay the wife $1100.  The order did not address the request to modify child support.

At the wife's request, on October 6, 2008, the trial court entered a typewritten order identical to the earlier handwritten order.

The husband appealed on October 3, 2008, and the wife moved to dismiss the appeal as untimely.

The Court of Civil Appeals agreed that the appeal had to be dismissed but for a reason different from that given by the wife.  Because the trial court had not disposed of the wife's request to modify child support, neither of its orders was final.  Neither would support an appeal.  The court thus dismissed the appeal.

Full post as published by Alabama Appellate Watch on April 30, 2009 (boomark / email).