Court Opinion

ID: 9849032
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:33:21.168499+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:57.652564
License: Public Domain

Duckworth, Chief Justice,
dissenting. I dissent from the judgment of affirmance for the reason that a casual reading of the judgment in the habeas corpus order, allegedly flouted and defied, shows clearly that the court merely declared the rights of the parties thereto by granting custody and control of the minor child of the parties for definite periods during the year to each of them. The portion of the judgment which is allegedly open-ly defied states that “It shall be the duty and responsibility of the said Cecil Jerome Gore to pick up said minor child . . . and return said child ... for the heretofore set out periods of custody.” There is no express command or prohibition in the order which could be used as a basis for contempt proceedings. Brown v. Smith, 150 Ga. 111 (102 SE 813); Hammock v. Hammock, 209 Ga. 751 (76 SE2d 15); Mote v. Mote, 214 Ga. 134 (103 SE2d 565). In fact, if the words “duty and responsibility” are given the interpretation and construction which the majority here do, the father would be in contempt if he failed to pick up the child for the specified period of custody. I do not think even the majority would insist such failure would be contempt on the part of the father. But they seek to ignore this portion of the sentence and construe it to be that, if the father takes custody he is commanded to give full recognition to the other party’s rights. So to construe this judgment requires additional wording to an order which is otherwise unambiguous and needs no construction. Our basic freedoms are clearly set forth in the bill of rights of both our State and Federal Constitutions, and to give sanction to the judge’s order committing the respondent to the common jail for violation of this order by *482affirming the judgment amounts to a total disregard of the rights of the citizen as set forth therein. See Constitution of the United States, Bill of Rights; and Code Ann. Ch. 2-1, Constitution of 1945. The powers of our courts to punish for contempt are limited by legislative acts (Code Ann. § 2-120, Const, of 1945; and Code § 24-105), and so to construe the power thus given is an open invitation to the legislative branch to limit further this authority.
While there are voluminous authorities affirming punishment for contempt for non-payment of alimony, I do not think the mere order to pay alimony is in itself a command to do so, and would not so hold the violation of such an order to be contemptuous, but I bow to the weight of these authorities although it amounts to imprisonment for debt. But I will not sanction an extension of this rule by the legal gymnastics of stretching it to cover a mere failure to transfer the custody and control of a child by the parents, no longer within the jurisdiction of the court and no longer immediately before the court, as being contemptuous. The court has no such authority.
Head, Presiding Justice, dissenting. An award of custody of a minor child or children in a habeas corpus or divorce proceeding is a final judgment on the facts then existing, and any further proceeding relating to the award of custody must be brought in the county of the residence of the defendant against whom relief is sought. Constitution, Art. VI, Sec. XIV, Par. VI {Code Ann. § 2-4906); Jordan v. Jordan, 195 Ga. 771 (25 SE2d 500); Handley v. Handley, 204 Ga. 57 (48 SE2d 827); Goodloe v. Goodloe, 211 Ga. 894 (89 SE2d 654); Anthony v. Anthony, 212 Ga. 356 (92 SE2d 857); Brown v. Goodloe, 215 Ga. 755 (113 SE2d 393).
The present proceeding, being a contempt proceeding, seeks to evade the remedy of habeas corpus as provided by law, and substitute therefor a remedy authorized neither by statute nor by any decision of this court. The statement relied upon in the majority opinion, from Moore v. Berry, 210 Ga. 136 (78 SE2d 6), to the effect that only the court offended has power to punish for contempt^ or entertain proceedings to that end, is not authority for a ruling that contempt proceedings can be substituted for the writ of habeas corpus under Code § 50-121.
*483The majority opinion cites no decision wherein it has been held by this court that a contempt proceeding is the proper remedy under facts similar to those in the present case. A proceeding for contempt can be based only upon a judgment which has “directed”, “ordered”, or “commanded” the person against whom the contempt proceeding is brought to do, or not to do, a specific act. In the present case no such language appears. In the judgment fixing the custody of the child in question the court provided: “It shall be the duty and responsibility of the said Cecil Jerome Gore to pick up said minor child at the residence of said Jean Aldred Gore and return said child to said Mrs. Gore for the heretofore set out periods of custody.” There is no other language in the order of the court that could be construed as “directing”, “ordering”, or “commanding” either of the parties to do or perform any act.
In fixing the rights of the parties in a prior habeas corpus proceeding between the parties, the court failed to give any order or direction to either, and in the absence of a “command”, there could not possibly be any basis either in fact or in law to support the proceeding in the present case. I therefore dissent from the judgment of affirmance.