Opinion ID: 1857682
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Temporary Alimony.

Text: The final issue raised by this appeal concerns whether our court had jurisdiction to award Sara temporary alimony during the pendency of this appeal. The issue arose this way. As previously mentioned, A.J. was ordered to pay Sara alimony in the amount of $7000 per month commencing February 1, 1995, until either one of the parties dies or Sara remarries or cohabitates with a person of the opposite sex, whichever occurs first. After filing his notice of appeal, A.J. filed a motion for supersedeas bond pursuant to Iowa Rule of Appellate Procedure 7 seeking a stay of execution of all spousal support becoming due between April 1, 1995, and April 30, 1996. The district court allowed A.J. to post a $150,000 bond and thereby stay all enforcement proceedings to collect support from April 1, 1995, through May 1, 1996, and attorney fees. Thereafter, on June 16, 1995, Sara filed an application for temporary alimony with our court. In a single-justice order, we denied the application. We, however, ordered the following issue to be submitted with the appeal: whether and under what circumstances this court has jurisdiction to award temporary alimony pending appeal. The general rule is that an appellee may invoke the power of the district court to enforce a decree while its correctness is being appealed, unless a supersedeas bond is filed. Lutz v. Darbyshire, 297 N.W.2d 349, 352 (Iowa 1980), overruled on other grounds by Phillips v. Iowa Dist. Ct., 380 N.W.2d 706, 709 (Iowa 1986). In this case, A.J. filed a supersedeas bond, and therefore, without an order from this court, Sara could not enforce the alimony provision of the decree during the pendency of the appeal. We frequently remand these matters for the district court to rule on them, but the issue now before us is whether we have authority to address the merits of the alimony application. There is express statutory authority under Iowa Code section 598.11 for a district court to award temporary spousal support, but this section is silent as to the power of our court to award alimony during appeal. Nevertheless, we have held we have the inherent authority to grant such applications as an exercise of our constitutional mandate to issue all writs and process necessary to secure justice to parties under article V, section 4 of our constitution. See Shors v. Shors, 133 Iowa 22, 26, 110 N.W. 16, 18 (1906) (suit money for appeal). In Scheffers v. Scheffers, 241 Iowa 1217, 44 N.W.2d 676 (1950), we said that the present rule in this state and generally seems to be that after appeal in a divorce or separate maintenance case the trial court has no further jurisdiction over the controversy until some part thereof is remanded for further action. Accordingly, any further allowances to the wife during pendency of the appeal cannot be made by the trial court but must be made by us. Scheffers, 241 Iowa at 1227, 44 N.W.2d at 681. It is generally held that appellate courts as well as trial courts have jurisdiction of an application for temporary alimony and suit money while an appeal is pending, and the courts of a few jurisdictions go to the extent of holding that the jurisdiction of the appellate court is exclusive. In many instances the power of an appellate court to allow temporary alimony and counsel fees has been held to be inherent. Such decisions have been based on the ground that the jurisdiction to review decrees of divorce carries with it by implication the incidental power to make such allowances, since they are necessary to enable a spouse to maintain rights on appeal. 24 Am.Jur.2d Divorce and Separation § 548, at 564 (1983). We conclude we have the authority to grant alimony pending appeal and, in the interest of expediency, we address the merits of the application here rather than to order a remand. We affirm the single-justice order denying the application for temporary alimony. As mentioned, the district court allowed A.J. to post a $150,000 supersedeas bond and thereby stay all enforcement proceedings to collect support from April 1, 1995, through May 1, 1996. Unless a party seeking temporary alimony pending appeal shows a need for such alimony, we think the opposing party should have the benefit of a supersedeas bond to stay enforcement of a decree for alimony. Here, A.J. had already paid Sara $250,000 as part of the property award and an additional $14,000 in alimony for February and March 1995. Given this total amount of payment, we think Sara has failed to show a need for any temporary alimony pending appeal.