Court Opinion

ID: 9581559
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:16:15.758923+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:04.105081
License: Public Domain

Gunter, Justice,
concurring and dissenting. The judgment in this case provided for a weekly payment for child support until the child reached the age of eighteen, married, or became self-supporting. The judgment further provided:"... As additional child support the defendant shall transfer title to the following described real estate, to a trustee for the use, benefit, education and support of said child, . . .”
In this case the majority reasserts what the majority asserted in Clark v. Clark, 228 Ga. 838 (188 SE2d 487), as follows: "... It is clear that the husband’s responsibility for the support of his children does not extend to awarding them title to his property. *685He is not required to settle an estate upon them.” I dissented in the Clark case, stating: "I interpret these Georgia statutes as giving a divorce court authority to award support for children out of the property of the father, and it is my opinion that a jury by its verdict may divest the father of title to real estate and the decree based on such a verdict does transfer such real estate to the children for their maintenance and support.”
In Fitts v. Fitts, 231 Ga. 528, this court upheld a judgment that required the husband-father to pay to a trustee the sum of $13,500 for the maintenance and support of his minor child. Mr. Justice Jordan and I dissented in Fitts on other grounds.
In the present case a judgment awarding real estate of the husband-father to a trustee for the support of a minor child is upheld. I agree that the judgment should be upheld. However, we now have what is, to me, a most illogical situation. The Clark case holds that a divorce judgment cannot award the husband’s property to his children as support. Fitts and this case hold that a divorce judgment can award the husband-father’s property to a trustee for the support of his minor child.
It seems to me that this is a distinction without a practical difference. Awarding such property to a trustee fpr the support of a minor child is essentially the same thing as awarding such property to a minor child for, by legal necessity, some party acting in the capacity of a trustee must hold and manage the trust property during a child’s minority.
Code § 30-201 defines alimony as "an allowance out of the husband’s estate.” Code § 30-207 provides that the jury, on final verdict, may provide permanent alimony for the wife and may specify what amount the minor children shall be entitled to for their permanent support. I adhere to the position that I took in Clark: a divorce judgment can award property of the husband-father to minor children for their support.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Ingram concurs in this special concurrence and I join his dissent.