Court Opinion

ID: 9663905
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:54:50.144374+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:58.910740
License: Public Domain

HAMITER, Justice
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
As to the increase ordered in the monthly alimony award I agree that the evidence in the record does not disclose an abuse of the trial judge’s discretion. Also, I concur in the view that the claim for attorney’s fees cannot be allowed.
In my opinion, however, the judgment is erroneous insofar as it condemns defendant to pay the alleged accumulated alimony. Civil Code Article 160 provides for an allowance of alimony to a wife on divorce only in the event that she “lias not sufficient means for her maintenance.” The fact that this plaintiff did not protest defendant’s failure to satisfy the monthly payments during the period for which she claims the accumulation creates the presumption (it has not been rebutted) that she was not then in need of financial assistance, and it constitutes a waiver of such benefits.