Carper v. Carper

• Decision Date: 18 January 1909
• Citation: 48 So. 186,94 Miss. 598
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: LUCY CARPER v. SAMSON CARPER ET AL

48 So. 186

94 Miss. 598

LUCY CARPER v. SAMSON CARPER ET AL

Supreme Court of Mississippi

January 18, 1909

March 1909

FROM the chancery court of Alcorn county, HON. JOHN QUITMAN ROBBINS, Chancellor.

Mrs Carper, appellant, was complainant in the court below Carper, her husband, and others, appellees, were defendants there. The suit was for divorce, alimony and suit money and was besides somewhat in the nature of an attachment in chancery. Deloach and others, debtors of the husband defendants, were charged with being indebted to the husband and enjoined from paying him. Deloach and other like defendants answered the bill, each admitting an indebtedness to the husband. An interlocutory decree was granted awarding complainant alimony pendente lite and suit money, and directing Deloach and others to pay into court the sum admitted by them respectively to be due. The defendant husband failed to pay the decree allowing alimony pendente lite and suit money and Deloach and others, debtors of the husband, failed to pay into court the sums which they had admitted were due from them respectively to the husband. Thereafter complainant began proceedings against defendants for contempt of court for failing to make the payments. The court below refused to adjudge the defendant Deloach and others, debtors of the husband, in contempt. From the decree dismissing the contempt proceedings against them the complainant appealed to the supreme court.

Affirmed.

Lamb & Johnson, for appellant.

Code 1906, § 999, provides that "the supreme, circuit and chancery courts shall have power to fine and imprison any person guilty of a contempt of the court while sitting but the fine shall not exceed one hundred dollars for each offense, nor shall the imprisonment continue longer than thirty days. If any witness refuse to be sworn or to give evidence, or if any officer or person refuse to obey, or perform any rule, order, or judgment of the court, such court shall have power to fine at discretion and imprison such officer or person until he shall give evidence or until the rule, order or judgment shall be complied with." It seems apparent under the facts in this case that the duty of the chancellor is marked out and shown conclusively in this code section. Deloach who had been ordered to pay over to the clerk of the court such sum as he owed to Samson Carper had failed to comply with the requirements of the court to that effect. "Disobedience or resistance to, or a contempt to prevent the execution of, a lawful order, judgment, decree or mandate of the court, is an interference with, or a contempt to obstruct the due administration of justice; and is therefore a contempt. 9 Cyc. 8.

No attempt has been made on the part of the Deloach to explain why the indebtedness shown in his answer was not paid into court. In the case of Watson v. Williams, 36 Miss 341, this court stated that "the power to fine and imprison for contempt from the earliest history of jurisprudence...