Court Opinion

ID: 9844716
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:07:19.826176+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:40.764627
License: Public Domain

Bobbitt, J.,
concurring in result: The decision is to remand the case because the findings of fact are insufficient to support the order committing defendant to jail for wilful contempt of the court’s prior orders. With this I am in full accord.
Too, I agree that Howell v. Howell, 206 N.C. 672, 174 S.E. 921, is direct authority for decision here. The differences I regard as immaterial.
In the action for absolute divorce brought by the husband (defendant herein), the wife (plaintiff herein) pleaded the orders entered pendente lite in her prior action for alimony without divorce; and her said pleading indicated that her primary interest was to preserve her rights thereunder. Apparently, she did not actively resist the husband’s effort to obtain an absolute divorce. In any event, the decree of absolute divorce made no mention of the pendente lite orders in the prior action. Notwithstanding, the husband continued to make payments under such orders. It would seem that both husband and wife and their respective counsel relied upon Howell v. Howell, supra, as authority to the effect that said pendente lite orders were not impaired or destroyed by the decree of absolute divorce. Hence, I agree that Howell v. Howell, supra, should be followed as authority for decision here.
*86But I would not recognize Howell v. Howell, supra, as applicable to pendente lite orders entered subsequent to this decision. Rather I would limit its authority to orders heretofore made, for these reasons:
1. Such pendente lite orders are interlocutory, designed to insure that a dependent wife suffer no disadvantage in the prosecution of her action on account of lack of funds for subsistence and counsel fees during its pendency. Oliver v. Oliver, 219 N.C. 299, 13 S.E. 2d 549.
2. Since Ch. 814, Session Laws of 1955, a wife may file a cross action for alimony without divorce in her husband’s action for absolute divorce; and conversely, a husband may file a cross action for absolute divorce in his wife’s action for alimony without divorce.
3. A trial of an action for alimony without divorce, subsequent to a valid decree of absolute divorce, would present, to say the least, an anomalous situation. If such action could be tried, and the wife obtained a final decree for alimony without divorce after trial on the merits, the judgment in her favor, which would supersede all pendente lite orders, would be rendered subsequent to the commencement of the action for absolute divorce and so not within the protection of G.S. 50-11.
In short, while I approve the decision here under the doctrine of stare decisis, I think it appropriate to indicate that I would not approve such decision in relation to such order pendente lite made hereafter except for such period as precedes the rendition of final judgment of absolute divorce.
BakNhill, C. J., joins in this opinion.