Court Opinion

ID: 9589850
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:49:30.740811+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:04.511787
License: Public Domain

Gunter, Justice,
dissenting. I am of the opinion that a Georgia trial court, having jurisdiction of the divorced parents and the minor children of the marriage, can modify a final decree of a court of a foreign State with respect to permanent alimony for the support of minor children contained in the foreign decree. Such modification, of course, must be based on changed circumstances of the parties or the minor children.
Since the enactment of our modification statute, Ga. L. 1955, p. 630 (Code Ann. §§ 30-220, 30-223), decrees awarding permanent alimony are subject to revision by the proper trial court in this State.
Since the foreign decree in this case could be subsequently modified by a court in that State with respect to amount of alimony to be paid, I can see no logical reason *787why the courts of this State cannot modify such a decree after the divorced parents and minor children have become domiciled in the State of Georgia.
It is rather clear that under the facts here presented a Georgia court could modify the foreign decree with respect to custody of the minor children. See Milner v. Gatlin, 143 Ga. 816 (85 SE 1045, LRA 1916B 977), where this court said that a divorce decree, in which disposition of the child has been made, is binding on the parties, so as to conclude their respective rights to the custody of the children at the time of its rendition. But as to conditions subsequently occurring, the trial judge has full discretion in changing custody. If a Georgia court can revise a foreign custody decree based on changed conditions since the rendition of that decree, it seems to me that a Georgia court can also modify a foreign alimony decree based on changed conditions since the rendition of that decree when the Georgia court has jurisdiction of the parties involved.
With respect to Georgia’s public policy in this area, the General Assembly settled this by the enactment of the Uniform Support of Dependents Law (Ga. L. 1951, p. 107) and the subsequent enactment of the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act (Ga. L. 1958, p. 34); and the Court of Appeals in the case of Barfield v. Harrison, 101 Ga. App. 497 (114 SE2d 302) has said that whatever the status of the law in regard to a final award of support money for a child prior to 1951, it is clear that since the Uniform Support of Dependents Law was enacted, a father continues to be. liable for the support of his children, and no decree made since the effective date of that Act for the support of children entered in any divorce proceeding is a final and unalterable adjudication precluding a later adjustment of the alimony award.
Furthermore, this court has held that a complaint seeking revision of an alimony award is essentially a new and separate cause of action and must be filed in the county of the defendant’s residence. See Bugden v. Bugden, 224 Ga. 517 (162 SE2d 719).
*788I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.
I respectfully dissent.