Case Name: Alice Heard MORRIS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John C. MORRIS, Defendant-Appellee
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1983-01-17
Citations: 426 So. 2d 318
Docket Number: No. 15043-CA
Parties: Alice Heard MORRIS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John C. MORRIS, Defendant-Appellee.
Judges: Before PRICE, HALL, MARVIN and JASPER E. JONES and SEXTON, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 426
Pages: 318–323

Head Matter:
Alice Heard MORRIS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John C. MORRIS, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 15043-CA.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.
Jan. 17, 1983.
Rehearing Denied Feb. 24, 1983.
Writ Denied April 15, 1983.
Paul Henry Kidd, Jr., Kidd and Kidd, Monroe, for plaintiff-appellant.
James D. Sparks, Monroe, for defendant-appellee.
Before PRICE, HALL, MARVIN and JASPER E. JONES and SEXTON, JJ.

Opinion:
PRICE, Judge.
Plaintiff appeals a judgment declaring her right to alimony pendente lite abated and dismissing with prejudice her rule to make executory past due alimony payments. On reargument before a five-judge panel as required by Art. 5, § 8(B) Louisiana Constitution, we reverse and remand.
Plaintiff filed suit for separation from bed and board against defendant in the Fourth District Court, Ouachita Parish. As an incident of that action, judgment was rendered on July 15,1981, ordering defendant to pay alimony pendente lite of $1,300 per month to plaintiff. That judgment was never appealed by either party. No further action has been taken in the separation proceeding.
Morris filed suit for divorce against his wife, based upon their continuous separation for a period of one year or more, by a separate proceeding instituted in the Fifth District Court, Richland Parish. Judgment for Morris was rendered on November 30, 1981, and Mrs. Morris perfected a suspen-sive appeal from that judgment on December 10, 1981. Although a "no-fault" divorce, the judgment denied the wife permanent alimony due to her fault. The only question raised on appeal by Mrs. Morris was the failure of the trial court to award her post-divorce alimony. The trial court's judgment was affirmed by this court on September 20, 1982.
Meanwhile, on December 15, 1981, plaintiff filed a rule in the Fourth District Court seeking to make executory past due alimony pendente lite which had accrued since November 30, 1981. Defendant answered that rule and filed exceptions of no right and no cause of action contending no alimony pendente lite was owed because the rendition of the divorce judgment by the Fifth District Court had the effect of abating the pendente lite alimony judgment. The trial court sustained defendant's exception and dismissed the rule with prejudice.
The sole issue presented on this appeal is whether or not the judgment granting pen-dente lite alimony was abated by the rendition of the subsequent divorce judgment which denied Mrs. Morris permanent alimony-
Defendant, as well as the trial court, primarily relied upon the cases of Lewis v. Lewis, 404 So.2d 1230 (La.1981); Donica v. Donica, 324 So.2d 847 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1975); and Malone v. Malone, 282 So.2d 119 (La.1973). We do not find these cases to be controlling of the issue presented here.
Lewis, supra, and the authorities cited therein, are factually inapposite to this case because in each of those instances all applicable delays for seeking appellate review had expired prior to the issue of abatement being raised. In the case at bar a timely appeal was taken and was pending at the time defendant sought to show abatement. Therefore, the divorce judgment was not final and definitive and could not act to abate the separation proceeding or the judgment rendered therein granting plaintiff alimony pendente lite. We find no inconsistency between our holding in this case and the rule enunciated in Lewis and the cases cited therein.
We have no quarrel with the holding of Malone, supra, which defendant cites in support of his contention that the pendente lite award has abated. However, that case does not support defendant's position. Malone simply holds that under the provisions of LSA-C.C.P. arts. 3942 and 3943 only a devolutive appeal may be taken from an alimony judgment and it must be perfected within the thirty day delay period provided by the Code of Civil Procedure. In this case pendente lite alimony is at issue. That award was made by the judgment rendered on July 15, 1981. Defendant never took any appeal to question that judgment. The right plaintiff currently seeks to enforce springs from that judgment and the pending separation suit. Since the divorce judgment may be subjected to further appellate review, it is not final and definitive and has not acted to abate the separation proceeding or its incidental alimony judgment. Therefore, plaintiff's right to collect pen-dente lite alimony accruing after November 30, 1981, remains intact.
Defendant contends that since the divorce judgment denied plaintiff permanent alimony, and since only a devolutive appeal may be taken from that judgment under the holding of Malone, the denial of alimony to plaintiff pending appeal is executory. The denial of permanent alimony due to the wife's fault does not affect the pendente lite award granted by the earlier judgment. Defendant cannot rely on the denial of permanent alimony in the not yet final and definitive divorce judgment to abate or terminate his wife's right.
Defendant contends that Donica, supra, is dispositive of the issue before this court. However, we conclude that case misconstrues the holding of Malone which has been explained above. While correctly following the holding of Malone that an alimony judgment may not be suspensively appealed, the court in Donica fails to note the fact that it is dealing with two different judgments awarding two different types of alimony resting upon two separate and independent legal and theoretical bases. For that reason we decline to follow Donica.
The case truly dispositive of the issue is Viser v. Viser, 243 La. 706, 146 So.2d 409 (1962). Therein it was held that alimony pendente lite awarded by judgment on a rule in a separation proceeding continues to accrue pending the final disposition of any appeal from that proceeding or a divorce decree subsequently rendered in connection therewith. We find nothing in Malone which convinces us this is no longer the rule and, apparently, we are not alone in this belief. Palama v. Palama, 338 So.2d 776 (La.App. 4th Cir.1976). Additionally, it should be noted that the Donica court has apparently adopted the rule set forth in Viser. Sumrall v. Sumrall, 393 So.2d 249 (La.App. 1st Cir.1980). Furthermore, the cases of Bruner v. Bruner, 373 So.2d 971 (La.App. 2d Cir.1979), and Frederic v. Frederic, 302 So.2d 903 (La.1974), while not factually congruent to the instant case, are indistinguishable in all critical aspects and consistent with the rule herein applied.
Defendant also cites a related line of cases, including Fellows v. Fellows, 267 So.2d 572 (La.App. 3d Cir.1972), and Worley v. Worley, 247 So.2d 254 (La.App. 3d Cir. 1971), for the proposition that the signing of a divorce judgment which contains provision for permanent alimony abates a previous award of pendente lite alimony. Those cases simply do not stand for that proposition. The language concerning abatement in those cases is dicta. The holding of each of those cases is that there exist two distinct bases for the obligations of permanent alimony and pendente lite alimony. Therefore, a spouse need not show a change in circumstances in order to be entitled to a higher or lower award of permanent alimony in a divorce judgment that he or she was receiving or paying as pendente lite alimony prior to divorce because the awards are based upon two separate judgments and theoretical foundations.
Defendant's last contention is that, since plaintiff's appeal from the divorce judgment deals only with the denial of permanent alimony, the divorce judgment is final and definitive insofar as it relates to the status of the parties. Therefore, he asserts, they are no longer man and wife and consequently, the obligation of penden-te lite support is extinguished. We find this contention to be without merit. Plaintiff's appeal from the judgment granting the divorce and denying permanent alimony was not qualified or limited in any way to the portion of the judgment dealing with alimony. Under LSA-C.C.P. art. 3942 the effect of the judgment as it related to the granting of the divorce was suspended. The fact that plaintiff initially assigned no error in the appellate court relating to the granting of the divorce did not have the effect of making the divorce judgment definitive.
While defendant has correctly identified the legal foundation for requiring payment of pendente lite alimony as set forth by LSA-C.C. arts. 119, 120 and 148, he overlooks the broad power granted to the appellate court in its review of the trial court's judgment by LSA-C.C.P. art. 2164. Under the mandate of that article the appellate court is required to examine all issues present in the case before it for error, whether or not such issues have been assigned as error in the appeal. Therefore, the status of the parties was before this court during the appeal of the divorce judgment and remains subject to further appellate review. Consequently, the judgment is not final and definitive as to status and does not act to abate the accrual of penden-te lite alimony in the wife's suit for a separation.
For these reasons, the judgment of the trial court is REVERSED and REMANDED for further proceedings consistent with this opinion, with all costs of this appeal assessed to defendant. Assessment of all other costs shall await final disposition of this case.
SEXTON, J., dissents with assigned reasons.
. From a proposed reversal of the lower court on our original hearing, one judge of the three-judge panel dissented as to the proposed result reached by that panel.