55 results for 'cat:"Contempt" AND cat:"Family Law"'.
J. Abele finds the trial court violated the mother's due process rights when it held her in contempt for alleged violations of the couple's shared parenting plan. The pro se motions filed by the father lacked specific dates and details about the mother's alleged interference with his parenting time and prevented her from mounting a defense to the claims. Reversed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Abele, Filed On: October 19, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-3896, Categories: contempt, family Law, Due Process
J. Gruber finds the circuit court properly denied the ex-wife’s request that her ex-husband be held in contempt for nonpayment to her from his military retirement or disability payments according to the couple’s divorce decree. The wife cited cases where the court enforced agreements without contempt findings, and she chose to settle instead of pursuing a court decision. Because the circuit court denied her motion for contempt, there was no ruling on how the decree should be interpreted and enforced. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Gruber, Filed On: October 4, 2023, Case #: CV-22-294, Categories: contempt, family Law, Contract
J. Dorrian finds the lower court properly denied the father's motion to hold the mother in contempt for a violation of the parties' shared parenting plan because the only reason she was unable to transport the child to the father for his weekend visitation was because of a positive Covid-19 test that required a quarantine period for her and the child. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Dorrian, Filed On: September 26, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-3437, Categories: contempt, family Law, Covid-19
J. Stafford finds the lower court improperly narrowed the scope of a petition for contempt. A mother filed a petition for civil and criminal contempt against a father for failure to pay child support. The lower court chose to move forward with only the civil contempt allegation and found that while the father was in contempt and had failed to make child support payments for a period of time, he subsequently made timely payments for two years, and the lower court decided he had absolved himself of the civil contempt. The trial court’s decision to consider only the civil contempt portion of the mother's petition for contempt is reversible error. The matter is remanded for further proceedings. Vacated.
Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals, Judge: Stafford, Filed On: September 21, 2023, Case #: W2022-00443-COA-R3-CV, Categories: contempt, family Law
[Consolidated.] J. Miller finds that the trial court properly denied the father's motion for contempt against the mother. The father did not buy a plane ticket for the child and the child therefore had no way to travel to see him. The father was responsible for costs associated with the children's visits under the parenting plan. The trial court incorrectly found the father in contempt of the final judgment in the divorce case because he was not properly served with process in Florida. The father presented evidence showing that the process server had not been appointed as a process server in Duval County, Florida. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Court of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: September 20, 2023, Case #: A23A0869, Categories: contempt, family Law
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J. Welch finds that the trial court properly issued contempt rulings in the parties' divorce proceeding. The ex-husband failed to show that he was owed more than the $1,500 in attorney fees awarded on his rule for contempt against the ex-wife, and he was correctly found in contempt for not reimbursing the ex-wife for certain expenses for which he was responsible. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Welch, Filed On: September 15, 2023, Case #: 2023CA0242, Categories: contempt, family Law, Attorney Fees
J. Keough finds the trial court properly denied the father's motion to hold the mother in contempt for child support violations. In the period during which she failed to provide private health insurance for their child, the child was covered by Medicaid and any award of payments would have unfairly benefited the father. Meanwhile, the trial court properly found the father in contempt for violations of the parties' parenting agreement after he turned off the GPS on the child's phone and refused to return him after a holiday weekend, actions that clearly indicated a willful violation of the agreement and not an honest mistake. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Keough, Filed On: August 24, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-2960, Categories: contempt, family Law
J. Brody finds that the district court improperly imposed an unconditional monetary sanction on an ex-husband for his failure to pay the spousal support, interest and fines owed under an Oregon contempt judgment. An unconditional sanction is criminal in nature but the district court did not provide the ex-husband the due process protections guaranteed by the federal constitution, such as the right to notice at his arraignment of criminal liability, the right to a public trial and the right to cross-examine witnesses. Vacated.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: August 22, 2023, Case #: 49772, Categories: contempt, family Law, Sanctions
J. Swiney finds the lower court properly ordered timely payment of alimony to a husband, but improperly found a wife in contempt. Because the wife failed to make timely alimony payments to the husband, the lower court ordered the bi-weekly payments must be made by 4:45 p.m.; the instant court finds the order to be within the boundaries of the parties Marital Dissolution Agreement (MDA). The husband also alleges that the wife made multiple violations of the MDA and should be held in contempt, and the lower court agreed. But the instant court finds the husband was, or should have been aware of the alleged violations, as they occurred prior to the parties voluntarily entering into the MDA. Because the MDA effectively resolved the issues, the wife is not in contempt. Reversed in part.
Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals, Judge: Swiney, Filed On: August 18, 2023, Case #: E2022-00981-COA-R3-CV, Categories: contempt, family Law
J. Emfinger finds the lower court properly found both parties in contempt. The parties were granted a divorce without fault. The husband filed a complaint for contempt alleging the wife failed to allow visitation. The wife filed a counterclaim for contempt, alleging the husband failed to pay her approximately $10,000 awarded to her in the final judgment of divorce. The lower court did not abuse its discretion in finding them both in contempt. Affirmed.
Court: Mississippi Court Of Appeals, Judge: Emfinger, Filed On: August 8, 2023, Case #: 2022-CA-00019-COA, Categories: contempt, family Law
Per curiam, the Nebraska Court of Appeals finds the county court properly found the father to be in contempt for failure to pay child support. He challenges the child support orders rather than the contempt order, and he is precluded from this. The father was found to be in contempt after failing to make child support payments according to modifications. His assigned errors are an improper collateral attack on prior orders. No assigned error is related to the contempt order. Affirmed.
Court: Nebraska Court Of Appeals, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: August 1, 2023, Case #: A-22-755, Categories: contempt, family Law
J. Fridy finds that the lower court improperly ruled against the former wife in this contempt action that she brought against the former husband involving certain stock certificates. The evidence shows that the husband "willfully refused" to deliver the certificates to the former wife as required. Accordingly, the lower court erred by denying her contempt claim. Reversed.
Court: Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, Judge: Fridy, Filed On: July 28, 2023, Case #: CL-2022-1235, Categories: contempt, family Law, Property
J. Donovan finds that the lower court properly denied the father's request to hold the mother in contempt for violating a parenting plan because she took their children out of school a few days early for a vacation. The decision to take the children out of school early was made with proper arrangements with the children's school and was not a willful violation of the parenting plan. Affirmed.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Donovan, Filed On: July 25, 2023, Case #: 2022-0517, Categories: contempt, family Law
J. Usman finds the lower court properly determined that a father committed 16 counts of criminal contempt in this matter of divorce, and as such sentenced him to jail and awarded the mother attorney fees. In all, the lower court found the father guilty of 23 counts of contempt, but the instant court found that evidence was insufficient to support five of the counts; four of those counts are reversed and one is vacated, the lower court’s findings are otherwise affirmed. Reversed in part.
Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals, Judge: Usman, Filed On: July 17, 2023, Case #: W2021-01018-COA-R3-CV, Categories: contempt, family Law, Attorney Fees
J. Alvord denies the husband's appeal of a judgment holding him in contempt for not complying with a provision of the court’s pendente lite parenting plan. The husband does not prove that the trial court abused its discretion when it found him in contempt for violating the provision regarding summer vacation parenting time, as the provision was clear and unambiguous, and the husband does not provide a factual basis to explain his non-compliance. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Alvord, Filed On: July 14, 2023, Case #: AC44803, Categories: contempt, family Law
J. Bennett finds the lower court improperly dismissed a wife's petition in this matter of criminal contempt. When the parties divorced in 2021 they had a Marital Dissolution Agreement (MDA) that was incorporated into the final decree and established the terms of administration and distribution of a 529 account for their minor child’s education. The wife motioned to compel so that funds from the account could be applied to the child’s private school tuition, and petitioned for criminal contempt alleging Husband had failed to provide statements per the MDA, failing to apply funds to the tuition, and violating her decision-making authority on the child’s education. While the lower court dismissed the petition, finding that double jeopardy had attached to the pending charges, the instant court finds it did not as there is no second prosecution at this stage, only a request for continuation of the same proceeding. The matter is remanded for further proceedings. Reversed.
Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals, Judge: Bennett, Filed On: July 14, 2023, Case #: M2022-00953-COA-R3-CV, Categories: contempt, family Law, Double Jeopardy
J. Palafox finds a lower court did not err in clarifying and enforcing the division of property in a divorce case. The ex-husband argued the terms of an agreed-upon divorce decree were not “ambiguous” and that the court therefore had no business to further modify and clarify it — but after a dispute arose among the parties about the terms of the agreement, the lower court determined the agreement was not “specific enough to allow enforcement by contempt” and therefore committed no error in further clarifying. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: July 14, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00218-CV, Categories: Civil Procedure, contempt, family Law
J. Bishop finds the county court properly declined to hold the mother in contempt for missed court-ordered parenting time with their father following his release from prison on convictions for sexual assault of a child not involving his own children. The father argues that the mother gave the children a choice as to whether or not they would visit him, though this isn’t the case. The children missed visits only two times due to unforeseen circumstances, and, though the mother discussed rules of visitation behavior with the children there is no evidence establishing that she intentionally interfered. Being the father was also found not to be in contempt, there is no authority for the court’s award of attorney fees to the mother. Affirmed in part. Reversed in part and remanded.
Court: Nebraska Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bishop, Filed On: July 11, 2023, Case #: A-22-578, Categories: contempt, family Law, Guardianship
J. Savoie finds that the trial court improperly found the ex-wife in contempt and that she was liable for sanctions due to allegedly frivolous pleadings. There was no judgment ordering the ex-wife to pay or reimburse for the child's tuition at the specified private school. Also, the ex-wife's motion for a new trial was not sanctionable. Reversed in part.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Savoie, Filed On: July 5, 2023, Case #: CA-22-804, Categories: contempt, family Law, Sanctions
J. Lynch finds that the lower court properly determined a father willfully violated a prior support order and sent him to jail for six months. The father provided proof that back surgery necessitating a lengthy hospital stay rendered him unable to work, but he failed to demonstrate he tried to find work within his health limitations. Affirmed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: Lynch, Filed On: June 15, 2023, Case #: 536053, Categories: contempt, family Law
J. Doyle finds that the trial court properly granted the father's petition for modification of child custody. There was a material change in circumstance and the trial court's decision to give the father primary physical custody and the mother visitation was in the best interests of the children. However, the trial court incorrectly denied the mother's motion for contempt. The father admitted that he violated the final agreement by making decisions despite the mother having final decision-making authority in the areas of extracurricular activities and non-emergency healthcare. Affirmed in part.
Court: Georgia Court of Appeals, Judge: Doyle, Filed On: June 6, 2023, Case #: A23A0208, Categories: contempt, family Law