Crowder v. Crowder

Decided April 6, 1976

Supreme Court of Georgia · decided 1976-04-06

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“If there is any evidence in the record to support a trial judge's determination that a party either has or has not wilfully disobeyed the trial court's order, the decision of the trial court will be affirmed on appeal. [Cit.]”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including City of Cumming v. Realty Development Corp., 283 Ga. App. 385 - Webb v. Watkins

Relies on Durham v. Spence · Mason v. Mason

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1976-04-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently October 2010

20 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Ingram, Justice.

¶1 The essence of civil contempt involved in a proceeding to enforce payment of an alimony or child support award is wilful disobedience of the court’s order. Georgia Divorce, Alimony, etc., § 14-1. See also Mason v. Mason, 232 Ga. 336 (206 SE2d 479) (1974).

¶2 The trial court in this case determined that the father had not wilfully disobeyed its 'earlier order which awarded child support in the amount of $40 per week. There is some evidence that some arrearage may be owed by the father, but we cannot hold the trial court abused its broad discretion in reaching the conclusion that the father had not wilfully disobeyed its order. If there is any evidence in the record to support a trial judge’s determination that a party either has or has not wilfully disobeyed the trial court’s order, the decision of the trial court will be affirmed on appeal. See Durham v. Spence, 228 Ga. 525, 530 (186 SE2d 723) (1972).

¶3 Judgment affirmed.

All the Justices concur.