Opinion ID: 2076775
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Contempt Ruling

Text: Civil contempt orders are reviewed for abuse of discretion. Wagley v. Evans, 971 A.2d 205, 210 (D.C.2009). For the trial court to issue a civil contempt order, the movant must make a clear and convincing showing that (1) the alleged contemnor is subject to a court order, and that (2) he or she has failed to comply with that order. Id. The trial court twice adjudicated Bansda in contempt, first for violating its June 5, 2007 order requiring her to pay Wheeler $1,300 per month in rent for residing at Rittenhouse and, second, for violating a November 5, 2007 order to vacate the property within thirty days of its ruling. On May 24, 2007 Bansda moved to continue the trial and represented to the court that Wheeler had consented to the motion. The court granted the motion, whereupon Wheeler filed a motion to hold Bansda in civil contempt, arguing that he was prejudiced by any delay because he loses rental income from his house the longer Defendant remains in the house without paying rent. The court found that Bansda had misrepresented Wheeler's consent to the continuance, that the delay was Bansda's fault, that she should shoulder the burden of the delay, and that she was required to pay Wheeler $1,300 on the first day of any month she resided in the property from the date of the order. This gave Bansda the option of either moving out or paying rent to Wheeler. Bansda argues that the June 5, 2007 order was an abuse of discretion because the trial court had not yet heard evidence about Bansda's financial status; because she, in fact, could not afford to make the rental payments; and because the key issue of Bansda's equitable interest [in Rittenhouse] remained to be litigated. She appears to be arguing on appeal that because the June 5 order was invalid, the November 5 contempt finding was also an abuse of discretion. Bansda also contends that Wheeler was not entitled to the extraordinary relief of a Writ of [Attachment] that resulted in the garnishment of Bansda's funds when she refused to pay the $6,500 in back rent that the court found she owed Wheeler in its November 5 order. Citing Super. Ct. Dom. Rel. R. 69(a)(2), and D.C.Code § 16-920, Bansda argues that both remedies were premature because her motions for stay and for reconsideration of the November 5, 2007 order were still pending when the writs were issued, and because there was no final judgment of divorce. Finally, Bansda claims that the court erred when, on February 20, 2008, it granted Wheeler's January 15, 2008 contempt motion and sentenced her to forty-five days of incarceration without granting the option of purging her contempt. Compliance with court orders is required until they are reversed on appeal or are later modified. Baker v. United States, 891 A.2d 208, 212 (D.C.2006). Thus, even if the court's June 5, 2007 order was invalid, Bansda's conviction for contempt must be upheld for her failure to comply with the order to vacate the Rittenhouse property or to pay rent to Wheeler in the amount of $1,300 per month. See id.; In re Evans, 411 A.2d 984, 993 n. 10 (D.C.1980) (As a general rule, violations of an order are punishable as criminal contempt even though the order is set aside on appeal. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)). This rule applies to cases of civil, as well as criminal, contempt. See generally Cummings-Landau Laundry Machinery Co. v. Koplin, 386 Ill. 368, 54 N.E.2d 462 (1944). Before the court held Bansda in contempt for violation of its June 5, 2007 order it held a hearing to determine whether Bansda had the financial ability to pay the amount she owed. She indicated at the hearing that she could afford to pay $500 per month, but she did not say that she had attempted to find housing at this rate. In its November 5 order, the trial court found that Bansda had failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that she was unable to pay the $1,300 monthly rent and had remained in the Rittenhouse property. We perceive no error. Bansda's other contentions lack merit. She appears to argue that because she had applied for a stay of the court's November 5, 2007 divorce order, the court's contempt finding on that day, as well as the court's orders that she purge the contempt by paying $6,500 in back rent and vacating Rittenhouse within thirty days, did not become immediately effective. She relies on D.C.Code § 16-920, which states that if a party applies for a stay, a judgment for absolute divorce does not become effective until entry of the court's order denying a stay. See id. The court denied the stay several days after the writ of attachment had been filed against her bank accounts to secure payment of the rent arrearages due Wheeler. But, as the court noted at its February 20, 2008 hearing on the motion to quash the writ, Bansda had been adjudged in contempt of the court's June 5, 2007 order on November 5, 2007 and had a duty to pay Wheeler the rental amounts she owed him as soon as she was held in contempt. Because she did not do so, there was nothing prohibiting Wheeler from lawfully seeking a writ of attachment to secure payment pursuant to the court's contempt order. Finally, although the court sentenced Bansda to a forty-five day period of incarceration, contrary to the assertion in her brief, the court suspended the sentence and gave her the opportunity to purge her contempt, in order to avoid incarceration, by moving out of Rittenhouse by February 29, 2008. In her brief, Bansda asserts that she had in fact vacated the premises on time and that she had turned the keys over to Wheeler's counsel. Even if she had served the forty-five day sentence, and even assuming for argument's sake that the sentence had been unlawful, this court could provide no remedy for an illegal sentence for civil contempt already fully served, and thus the appeal on this issue is moot. See, e.g., Holley v. United States, 442 A.2d 106, 107 (D.C.1981) (Where, as here, a judgment has been fully executed, and an appellate decision will not affect the rights and duties of the litigants, there is no longer a live controversy, and the appeal must be dismissed as moot.).