Title: Miles v. Gay

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

190 So. 2d 686 (1965)
Dollie MILES et al.
v.
Doris GAY.
7 Div. 667.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
November 4, 1965.
On Rehearing October 6, 1966.
Inzer, Martin, Suttle & Inzer, Gadsden, for appellants.
Copeland & Copeland, Gadsden, for appellee.
COLEMAN, Justice.
The original opinion is withdrawn and the following is substituted as the opinion of the court.
The wife obtained a divorce from the bonds of matrimony and an award of $10.00 per week, payable by the husband beginning *687 September 29, 1945. The decree granting divorce and awarding the payments to the wife was rendered October 16, 1945. The decree did not undertake to impose any lien on the property of the husband.
The husband made some payments to the wife, but he never fully complied with the decree.
In 1949, the husband's father died and the husband inherited from the father a certain undivided interest in land.
On April 20, 1953, the wife recorded in the office of the Judge of Probate a certificate of the register, which, when an error is corrected, recites that on October 16, 1945, the wife recovered from the husband a "Judgment for the sum of Ten & no/100 ($10.00) [Dollars] per week, beginning on the 29th day of September 1945," and names the wife's attorney of record.
On December 21, 1954, the husband executed a mortgage on his interest in the land he had inherited. The mortgage was filed for record January 25, 1955, all subsequent to the date on which the wife recorded the first certificate in 1953.
On October 14, 1955, the wife recorded a second certificate of the register which corrects the judgment date, names a different person as the wife's attorney, and is otherwise the same as the first certificate.
The wife caused execution, based on the decree of divorce, to issue against the husband. The execution was levied on the land inherited by the husband and it was sold to the wife at execution sale on May 5, 1956.
The wife then filed a bill to sell the land for division. The holders of the mortgage executed by the husband claim that the mortgage lien is superior to the title of the wife which she acquired by purchase at the execution sale.
The trial court decreed that the wife's title is superior to the lien of the mortgage and the holders of the mortgage appeal.
The only theory on which it can be contended that the wife acquired a title, superior to the mortgage, is to say that by recording the first certificate in the office of the Judge of Probate on April 20, 1953, the wife acquired a lien on all property of the husband by virtue of §§ 584 and 585 of Title 7, Code 1940, which recite as follows:
The question for decision is whether the recording of a certificate, which recites that the wife has recovered a judgment against the husband for $10.00 per week, beginning seventeen days before the date of the judgment, was sufficient to fasten a lien on all the property of the husband.
Other courts have dealt with the question.
In McClanahan v. Hawkins, 90 Ariz. 139, 367 P.2d 196, the court was called to decide whether the grantees of a divorced husband were the rightful owners of real property which the husband had conveyed subsequent to a divorce decree. The facts were that on March 16, 1956, the divorce court entered a decree granting divorce and awarding the real property to the husband as his sole and separate estate. The decree provided that he should make periodic payments for support of wife and two children and should pay $250.00 for attorney's fees. On July 31, 1957, the decree was duly recorded. On October 8, 1957, the husband conveyed the real property to the grantees. Three days later, October 11, 1957, the husband appeared in the divorce court in response to an order to show cause and was adjudged to be in arrears (1) in payment of the attorney's fees and (2) for $1,157.00 in support payments. On October 14, 1957, execution was issued from the divorce court and levied on the property. The grantees instituted an action for a judgment declaring that the decree of divorce was not a lien on the property. The wife contended that a judgment lien on the land existed by reason of statutes which recited as follows:
"`§ 33-961 ...
"`§ 33-964 ...
The trial court held that the wife did not have a lien on the property and the Supreme Court of Arizona affirmed. The court observed:
The court noted that the legislature had given the court continuing jurisdiction to modify a divorce decree as to payment of money for alimony or support or expenses of the proceedings, and, therefore, that a divorce decree is not final and conclusive as to some of its terms. The court said, however, that it followed the rule that installments become vested when due and the *689 court had no power to modify as to past-due installments. The court said also:
"...
In Harris v. Worsham, 164 Miss. 74, 143 So. 851, the court considered a wife's claim that she was entitled to a lien on the husband's property to secure periodic support payments awarded in a divorce decree. Subsequent to the divorce decree and after the decree had been enrolled in the office of the circuit clerk, the husband executed a deed of trust to secure a debt. The wife contended that she had a lien under the divorce decree superior to the deed of trust. In deciding that the wife had no lien, the court said:
"...
The Supreme Court of Florida has said:
In Dickenson v. Sharpe, supra, the court held that the general judgment lien statute, Section 2802, Rev.Gen.St.Fla., did not apply to divorce decrees for alimony which should be governed by a separate statute, to wit, Section 3198, Rev.Gen.St.Fla. Referring first to Section 3198, the court said:
In a proceeding by a divorced wife to collect past due monthly alimony payments, the Supreme Court of Arkansas said:
In a proceeding to collect monthly payments allowed to a divorced wife, the Court of Appeals of Maryland said:
In Slack v. Mullenix, 245 Iowa 1180, 1185, 66 N.W.2d 99, 101, the court said:
See Beesley v. Badger, 66 Utah 194, 240 P. 458; Chero-Cola Co. v. May, 169 Ga. 273, 149 S.E. 895, 66 A.L.R. 1469.
That the certificate filed by the wife in the instant case did not fasten a lien on the husband's land seems to be the better rule. A consideration of our own cases and §§ 584 and 585 seems to require that we follow the rule that no lien attached to the husband's land in the instant case.
In Morris v. Waldrop, 213 Ala. 435, 105 So. 172, this court considered the sufficiency of a certificate recorded in the office of the judge of probate to fasten a judgment lien on real estate of the defendant. This court decided that the certificate was insufficient to establish a lien, saying, with respect to the judgment creditors:
The judgment creditors were J. B. Gorman and Mary J. Gorman. In deciding that their judgment certificate was insufficient to establish a lien, this court said:
In an earlier case, this court held the certificate insufficient because the name of the owner of the judgment was not stated in the certificate, as was required by the original act which has since been amended as to this requirement. This court said:
It has not been shown that this court has heretofore repudiated its holding that §§ 584 and 585 are in derogation of the common law and are to be strictly construed.
In Booth v. Bates, 215 Ala. 632, 634, 112 So. 209, 210, this court said:
In Duncan v. Autauga Banking & Trust Company, 223 Ala. 434, 435, 136 So. 733, this court said:
"...
In Peterson v. Drennen Motor Car Co., 256 Ala. 99, 102, 53 So. 2d 375, 378, this court said:
The certificates which the wife filed in the instant case do not mention costs at all. For failure to state the amount of costs, the certificates are insufficient to establish a lien, or else Morris v. Waldrop, supra, must be overruled.
§ 584 requires also that the certificate shall show the amount of the judgment. The certificates filed by the wife in the instant case do not show the amount of the judgment. It is no answer to this to say that the amount is $10.00 for each week. As the court said in Harris v. Worsham, supra, "That portion of the decree providing for the future maintenance of the appellant [wife] by her former husband by directing him to pay her a stipulated amount thereafter in monthly installments creates not a present debt due her by her husband...." By the very nature of the case, the amount the husband may become obligated to pay cannot be ascertained. Whether the husband will live one week or a hundred weeks cannot be known. How many weeks the wife may live or remain unmarried cannot be foretold. Will the amount of the judgment and lien continue to increase each week after death of husband or remarriage of the wife?
To say that the legislature intended to give a lien when the amount of the judgment is unknown is to fly in the face of the statute and the holding in Morris v. Waldrop, supra. Since that decision, § 584 of Title 7 without material change, has been carried into the Code of 1940. The statute still requires the certificate to show the *694 amount of costs. By well understood rules of statutory construction, it must be presumed that the legislature approved the construction given to the statute in Morris v. Waldrop, supra.
Where a statute requires that the certificate show the amount of the judgment and also the amount of costs, it would be inconsistent to hold that the certificate must state the amount of the costs but need not state the amount of the judgment.
As the court said in McClanahan v. Hawkins, supra, "... the lien does not arise automatically as to each installment as it becomes due, but arises only when the court has formally determined the total amount due and has reduced the delinquent payments to judgment." (90 Ariz, at page 144, 367 P.2d at page 199)
In addition to the remedy for contempt, the wife, who has obtained a decree requiring the husband to make periodic payments for the wife, can protect herself under the present statute as to past-due installments by obtaining from the court an adjudication that the husband is indebted to her in the amount of the delinquent payments as determined by the court. It would seem clear that recording a proper certificate based on such a judgment for a stated amount would give the wife a lien on the property of the husband for the amount judicially ascertained to be due.
We are of opinion that, under the present statute, §§ 584, 585, Title 7, a lien for periodic installment payments can be acquired only by a judicial ascertainment and declaration of the amount of past-due installments and filing a proper certificate showing such a judgment or decree. If the law ought to be changed to provide for a lien to secure future installments under a divorce decree, that is a matter confided by the Constitution to the legislature and not to this court.
To hold in the case at bar that the certificates filed by the wife complied with all requirements of §§ 584 and 585 would be to make sufficient now that which was held insufficient by this court forty years ago. Being of opinion that the wife acquired no lien on the husband's land, we are further of opinion that the lien of the mortgage is superior to the wife's title and that the decree appealed from is due to be reversed.
Original opinion withdrawn.
Rehearing granted.
Reversed and remanded.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and SIMPSON, GOODWYN, MERRILL, and HARWOOD, JJ., concur.
LAWSON, J., concurs specially.
LAWSON, Justice (concurring specially):
LAWSON, J., concurs in the reversal because the certificate is insufficient to establish a lien in that the amount of costs is omitted from the certificate.