Case Title: Silavent v. Silavent

Citation: 198 So. 2d 785

Docket Number: 

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1967-05-05T00:00:00Z

Document:
198 So. 2d 785 (1967)
Jason T. SILAVENT
v.
Anna Marie SILAVENT.
4 Div. 266.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
May 5, 1967.
*786 Joe S. Pittman, Enterprise, for appellant.
Henry B. Steagall, II, and T. L. Borom, Ozark, for appellee.
GOODWYN, Justice.
This appeal is from a decree modifying a divorce decree awarding custody of the parties' minor children.
The principal question presented concerns the sufficiency of the evidence to support the decree of modification. Appellee takes the position, in which we concur, that this question cannot be considered since it affirmatively appears from the record that there was evidence before the trial court, consisting of the court's private examination of the two oldest children, which is not included in the record. A similar question was presented in Ruck v. Ruck, 265 Ala. 29, 31-32, 89 So. 2d 274, where it was held that, in such state of the record, the trial court's findings from the evidence were not open for review. In the case before us it affirmatively appears from the trial court's decree, as was also the situation in Ruck, that, in reaching a decision, the court took into consideration "the results of private interviews with the two oldest children." As said in Ruck (265 Ala. at 31-32, 89 So.2d at 276):
* * * * * *
There is an assignment of error as follows:
Assuming, without deciding, the sufficiency of this as an assignment of error, it cannot be considered because it is not substantially argued. Supreme Court Rule 9, 279 Ala. XIX, XXVI, provides that "assignments of error not substantially argued in brief will be deemed waived and will not be considered by the court." The entire argument with respect to this assignment is as follows:
This, in effect, is nothing more than a repetition of the assignment of error. It *787 is not substantial argument of the assignment, as required by Rule 9. See: Fountain v. Vredenburgh Saw Mill Company, 279 Ala. 68, 70, 181 So. 2d 508; City of Boaz v. Kelley, 266 Ala. 690, 692, 99 So. 2d 192; Calvert v. Bynum, 255 Ala. 172, 174, 50 So. 2d 731.
Affirmed.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and LAWSON and COLEMAN, JJ., concur.