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DeGouras v. DeGouras

Supreme Court of Georgia1949-06-13No. No. 16678
205 Ga. 362

Summary

Holding. The judgment is affirmed. The trial court properly dismissed the plaintiff's petition to modify or set aside the divorce judgment and alimony award because the petition failed to establish good and sufficient grounds for modification or setting aside under applicable law.

Nina Williams DeGouras sought to modify or set aside a divorce judgment and alimony award of $7,500 granted in her favor, raising fourteen grounds for relief. Her objections included claims that the verdict lacked evidentiary support, that the trial court erred in charging the jury, and that the judgment's language deviated from statutory requirements. The trial court sustained the defendant's general demurrer and dismissed her petition without addressing the merits of her claims.

The appellate court affirmed the dismissal, finding that none of the plaintiff's grounds constituted valid legal reasons to modify or set aside the judgment. The court reasoned that the alimony award was substantial and supported by the evidence presented, that the plaintiff had effectively condoned the defendant's prior marriage by continuing to live with him after discovering it and obtaining a subsequent divorce and remarriage, and that the judgment's language substantially complied with statutory requirements. Additionally, the court noted that the plaintiff bore the responsibility of presenting expert testimony regarding property valuation at trial rather than raising its absence on appeal.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether a divorce judgment and alimony award may be modified or set aside within thirty days absent good and sufficient grounds
  • Whether prior marriage discovery and subsequent condonation affect grounds for divorce relief
  • Whether substantial alimony awards are supported by evidentiary findings
  • Whether party failure to present expert testimony at trial constitutes grounds for post-judgment modification

Procedural posture

A trial court sustained a general demurrer to the plaintiff's motion to modify and set aside a divorce judgment and alimony award, dismissing the petition, and the plaintiff appealed.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Wyatt, Justice.

Mrs. Nina Williams DeGouras filed her suit for divorce and alimony against Paul DeGouras, based upon the ground of cruel treatment. The jury granted both parties a total divorce, removing the disabilities of both, and awarded the plaintiff $7500 as permanent alimony. Within thirty days from the date of the verdict and judgment, the plaintiff in the court below (the plaintiff in error here) filed her petition to modify and set aside the verdict and judgment. The motion as amended contains fourteen pages, but in substance alleges that the verdict and judgment should be modified and set aside for the following reasons: 1. The verdict was not authorized by the evidence. 2. The defendant was granted a divorce and his disabilities removed, notwithstanding the fact that the evidence disclosed he was married to another woman from whom he had not been divorced at the time he married the plaintiff. 3. The verdict and judgment was not couched in the language of § 30-116, Code Annotated. 4. The judge erred in his charge to the jury, for the reason that he did not charge them to the effect that alimony could be awarded the plaintiff even if she •was denied a divorce; that he failed to charge the jury that alimony could be awarded the plaintiff for life; and that he failed to charge the jury that they might award the plaintiff all of the property of the defendant, both real and personal, as alimony. 5. There was no competent expert testimony as to the value of the property of the defendant. The defendant filed a general demurrer to the petition to modif3 and set aside, upon the ground: “Said petition fails to set forth any good and sufficient grounds for the modification or setting aside of said verdict and judgment.” This demurrer was sustained and the petition dismissed, and to this judgment the plaintiff in error excepts. There were other grounds of demurrer not passed upon by the trial court. Held:

1. If the jury believed the testimony of the defendant, which they had a right to do, more than half the value of the property of the defendant was awarded to the plaintiff as alimony. We cannot say that the verdict was not authorized by the evidence; on the contrary, the amount awarded as alimony seems to have been a very substantial amount. The contention that the disabilities of the defendant should not have been removed, for the reason that, after the previous marriage was discovered by the plaintiff, the defendant obtained a divorce, remarried the plaintiff, and they then lived together for several years, is wholly without merit. She cannot now complain after such condonation. While the verdict and judgment was not couched in the exact language contained in § 30-116, Code Ann., the language used was substantially the same.

2. The exceptions to the charge of the court, set out in the foregoing statement of facts, all appear on their face to be without merit.

3. If the plaintiff in error desired expert testimony as to the value of the defendant’s property, there was nothing to have prevented her from providing such testimony on the trial, and she will not now be heard to complain on account of her failure to do so.

4. For the foregoing reasons, it appears that the petition in this case set forth no valid or legal reason why the verdict and judgment should be modified or set aside. The act of 1946 (Ga. L. 1946, pp. 90. 91) expressly provides that a divorce verdict and judgment, within the thirty-day period, cannot be modified or set aside except upon “good and sufficient grounds.” This court has so held in Gault v. Gault, 204 Ga. 205 (48 S. E. 2d, 819); Allison v. Allison, 204 Ga. 202 (48 S. E. 2d, 723); Huguley v. Huguley, 204 Ga. 692 (51 S. E. 2d, 445). It follows, as a matter of course, that, when a petition of the kind now under consideration fails to set forth “good and sufficient grounds” for the modification or setting aside of the verdict and judgment, it should be dismissed upon general demurrer.

No. 16678.

June 13, 1949.

O. Lee White, for plaintiff.

J. A. McCurdy Jr., for defendant.

Judgment affirmed.

All the Justices concur. Atkinson, P. J., concurs in the judgment only.