Ex parte Haynie

• Decision Date: 12 July 1990
• Docket Number: No. C14-90-00129-CV,C14-90-00129-CV
• Citation: 793 S.W.2d 317
• Parties: Ex parte Weldon Ray HAYNIE, Relator. (14th Dist.)
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 317

793 S.W.2d 317

Ex parte Weldon Ray HAYNIE, Relator.

No. C14-90-00129-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas Houston (14th Dist.).

July 12, 1990.

John J. Knoff, Houston, for relator.

Gregory L. Donnell, Angleton, for respondent.

Before PAUL PRESSLER, CANNON and ELLIS, JJ.

OPINION

CANNON, Justice.

Relator was committed to the Brazoria County Jail on January 5, 1990 for delinquent child support. We granted the relator leave to file his petition for writ of habeas corpus and set bond at $500. Relator contends that the trial court committed him to jail under a void order, as the order was ambiguous and did not state the dates for which Relator was found guilty of contempt. We reluctantly grant the writ.

The relator was divorced from Shirley Adair Haynie on June 3, 1981. In the divorce decree, the relator was ordered to pay child support in the amount of $300 per month until the youngest of his three children reached eighteen. The payments were to be made in two installments of $150 on the fifth and twentieth of each month beginning in June of 1981. On March 23, 1988, Shirley Adair Haynie filed a motion for contempt in which she alleged that the relator had failed to make any of the payments and was in arrears in the amount of $24,300. The motion further stated that the relator also owed a total of $84 to the Brazoria County Child Support Office in service fees for the seven years he had not been paying child support as ordered.

On May 2, 1988, a hearing was held on the motion, and the court signed an "Order Holding Respondent in Contempt for Failure to Pay Child Support and for Suspension of Commitment". That order reflects that the movant and the relator appeared in person and by their respective attorneys, and that the court heard the evidence and considered the pleadings and argument of counsel. The court found that the relator was in arrears in the amount of $15,000, without designating which of the one hundred and sixty two payments were found to be delinquent. The contempt punishment was assessed at 15 days confinement in the Brazoria County Jail and the relator was ordered to pay $15,000 to the movant through the Brazoria County Child Support Office. He was also ordered to pay $66 as costs of the proceeding and $125 to the movant's attorney, in addition to the $84 owed in past due service fees. We agree that this order of commitment would not satisfy the requirements of TEX.FAM.CODE ANN. § 14.33(a) as it does not meet the requisite of specifying the time, date, and place of each occasion on which the relator failed to pay child support. Ex parte Holland, 790 S.W.2d 568 (Tex.1990).

The attorneys preparing these orders should follow § 14.33(a) and put in the order itself the specific time, date, and place of each occurrence for which they seek to hold the respondent in contempt. Time and again this court has been forced to grant writs of habeas corpus for relators who have blatantly refused to comply with court orders to pay child support because they know the orders are unenforceable under the Family Code. It does appear from the face of the order that this adjudication was not intended to constitute the enforcement order under which the relator was confined, as the court suspended commitment. All this order accomplished was to specify the total amount that the court found the relator in arrears and suspend enforcement pursuant to the conditions set out in the "Suspension of Commitment", which provided:

That Respondent pay $15,000.00 in arrearages to date in cash or by money order to Movant, through the Brazoria County Child Support Office, P.O. Box 1636, Angleton, Texas 77515, as follows:

(A) Respondent shall pay $7,500.00 on or before January 1, 1990. In the event Respondent pays $7,500.00 on or before January 01, 1990, the parties have agreed and the Court finds that said payment will discharge the arrearage balance through today's date in the amount of $15,000.00. (emphasis added).

(B) In the event Respondent does not pay $7,500.00 in cash or by money order through the Brazoria County Child Support Office on or before 5:00 P.M. on January 01, 1990, the entire arrearage amount of $15,000.00 through today's date shall be due and payable on or before 5:00 P.M. on January 02, 1990.

The remainder of the "Suspension of Commitment" provided the conditions for the payment of costs as follows:

That Respondent pay $66.00, assessed herein as costs, to the Brazoria County Child Support Office, P.O. Box 1636, Angleton, Texas 77515, by 5:00 o'clock p.m. on the 20th day of July, 1988.

That Respondent pay $125.00, assessed herein as costs, to the attorney appointed for Movant, through the Brazoria County Child Support Office, P.O. Box 1636, Angleton, Texas 77515, by 5:00 o'clock p.m. on the 20th day of July, 1988.

That Respondent pay $84.00 as past due Service Fees to the Brazoria County Child Support Office, P.O. Box 1636, Angleton, Texas 77515, by 5:00 o'clock p.m. on the 15th day of July, 1988.

We find that the above terms would have been sufficiently specific to confine the relator for failing to pay the $7,500 on January 1, 1990 as he agreed, or the $15,000 on January 2, 1990 after failing to pay on the first, and for failing to pay the...