Court Opinion

ID: 9698436
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:50:26.368936+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:40.785291
License: Public Domain

*102On Rehearing
STAKELY, Justice.
On application for rehearing it is very earnestly insisted that we have overlooked some important considerations in the original opinion. Our statement that the attack in this case is collateral is assailed, the position of the appellant being that the attack is direct. Appellant’s position is not correct. The attack in this case on the portion of the decree providing for permanent alimony was made long after the court had lost jurisdiction over its decree. There is no ’ allegation, however, that the decree was founded on fraud, accident or mistake. In Johnson v. Johnson, 182 Ala. 376, 62 So. 706, 709, it was said: “In this state it is settled that any attempt to impeach and annul a judgment other than by a direct appeal, or by a direct proceeding in the court that rendered the judgment, before the expiration of the term at which it was rendered, is a collateral attack. Friedman v. Shamblin, 117 Ala. 454, 466, 23 So. 821. This, of course, does not deny the well-settled jurisdiction of equity to review judgments founded on fraud, accident, or mistake and to review final judgments and decrees in a few cases as prescribed by statutes. But, in the aspect under present consideration, the bill does not escape the ban of the general rule stated, and its attack on the decree must be regarded as collateral and therefore unavailing.” Penton v. Brown-Crummer Inv. Co., 222 Ala. 155, 161, 131 So. 14; Constantine v. Constantine, 261 Ala. 40, 72 So.2d 831.
It is further argued that the original opinion in effect overrules the rule of law laid down in Lawrence v. Lawrence, 141 Ala. 356, 37 So. 379; Drew v. Drew, 226 Ala. 43, 145 So. 495, and Smith v. Smith, 243 Ala. 488, 10 So.2d 664. What we have said is not intended to militate against the holding in the foregoing cases. Where the question is appropriately raised while the court has jurisdiction of the cause an allegation alleging “faculties” on the part of the opposite party when permanent alimony is sought, is a necessary allegation. But we point out again that we are dealing here with the sufficiency of the allegations to support a claim of permanent alimony where the question is raised on collateral attack and long after the court has lost jurisdiction of the cause.
It is claimed that our holding will lead to great abuses and perhaps fraudulent decrees. We simply say that when a party enters a general appearance in a cause and thereby submits himself to the jurisdiction of the court and agrees, as was done in this case, that testimony be taken and the case submitted without further notice to the party, it is incumbent on the party to keep up with the cause as long as the court has jurisdiction and see to it that a decree is not rendered which is improper or not in accordance with an understanding between the parties. Although what we now say is not said to buttress the original opinion, it is true that in the present case prior to the entry of the decree the parties agreed on permanent alimony in the amount of $15 per week and after an entry of the decree the appellant for something over a year made payments substantially in accordance with the decree.
The application for rehearing is overruled.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and LAWSON and MERRILL, JJ., concur.