Garris v. McDuffie

• Decision Date: 27 March 1986
• Docket Number: No. 0706,0706
• Court: South Carolina Court of Appeals
• Parties: Allen R. GARRIS, Appellant, v. Susan Page Garris McDUFFIE, Respondent. . Heard

Page 186

344 S.E.2d 186

288 S.C. 637

Allen R. GARRIS, Appellant, v. Susan Page Garris McDUFFIE, Respondent.

No. 0706.

Court of Appeals of South Carolina.

Heard March 27, 1986.

Decided May 12, 1986.

G. Gordon McLaurin, Jr., Dillon, for appellant.

James M. Saleeby, Hartsville, for respondent.

CURETON, Judge:

The issues in this appeal concern child support, contempt of court citations, costs and attorney's fees. Appellant Allen R Garris (Garris) appeals an order holding him in contempt of court and requiring him to pay to respondent Susan McDuffie (McDuffie) accrued medical bills, costs and attorney's fees. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

The parties were married on September 6, 1969. They had two children: Kristen, born on September 30, 1972, and Britta, born on February 14, 1977. The parties were divorced in November 1977. McDuffie was awarded custody of both children; One Hundred Fifty Dollars ($150.00) per month as alimony; and Four Hundred Dollars ($400.00) per month as child support. Garris was awarded visitation privileges and was required to pay for private school tuition and for the children's medical expenses.

Both parties have remarried. Garris has three children by his current wife, Roberta, and he supports both of her children from former marriages. Mrs. Garris works part-time for three months each summer. Both McDuffie and her husband are teachers and no children have been born to them.

By petition dated October 13, 1978, Garris prayed for the termination of his alimony obligation, a reduction in child support and McDuffie's payment of medical expenses not covered by insurance. He claimed that he was unable to meet his financial obligations because of poor crop yields and an unprofitable law practice. By order dated February 7, 1979 the trial judge: (1) reduced the alimony award to Seventy Five Dollars ($75.00) monthly; (2) sustained the Four Hundred Dollars ($400.00) per month figure for child support; (3) required Garris to provide health insurance and to pay two-thirds of the children's uninsured medical costs "conditioned upon his being supplied reasonable medical information and reports promptly"; and (4) released him from having to pay for private school tuition.

On December 7, 1983, Garris brought this action for an order reducing his child support obligations, enforcing his visitation rights, holding McDuffie in contempt for violating the visitation provisions in the divorce decree and awarding attorney's fees and costs. McDuffie answered and counterclaimed for an order restricting visitation, requiring Garris to pay alimony and child support arrearages, holding him in contempt for failure to make timely support payments, requiring him to pay Seven Hundred Forty-nine Dollars and Sixty-nine Cents ($749.69) for children's medical bills and awarding attorney's fees and costs.

The parties were able to reach an agreement concerning visitation prior to trial. Their agreement was read into the record and a separate order was issued concerning visitation. The trial judge ruled that Garris' request to have McDuffie held in contempt for denying visitation had been settled by the agreement concerning future visitation. Thereafter, the trial judge held Garris in contempt of court and incarcerated him for seventy-two hours before he was allowed to purge himself of contempt by paying support arrearages. The trial judge also required Garris to pay both Seven Hundred Forty-nine Dollars and Sixty-nine Cents ($749.69) for children's medical expenses and a portion of McDuffie's attorney's fees and costs.

At trial Garris admitted that he had chosen to earn a living as a farmer; that his parents had given him two unencumbered farms as his inheritance; that he owed Two Thousand Four Hundred Dollars ($2,400.00) in past due alimony and Seven Thousand Four Hundred Dollars ($7,400.00) in past due child support; that he was unable to pay support timely because of continued poor crop yields, but that 1983 was a profitable year; and that he had limited his law practice to work for himself and family members.

McDuffie admitted that visitation ceased in June 1982 and that in 1983, Garris sent her three checks totalling Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000.00), but she did not cash them immediately in part because she believed that if she accepted the money, she would have to allow Garris to visit the children.

The issues on appeal are: (1) whether the trial judge abused his discretion by refusing to reduce Garris' child support obligation; (2) whether the trial judge erred in holding Garris in contempt of court for willful failure to make support payments and incarcerating him; (3) whether the trial judge erred in failing to hold McDuffie in contempt for denying Garris his visitation rights; (4) whether the trial judge erred in requiring Garris to pay the medical bills; and (5) whether the trial judge committed an abuse of discretion in requiring Garris to pay one-half of McDuffie's attorney's fees and one-half of the guardian ad litem fee.

I.

The question of child support is largely within the discretion of the trial judge whose decision will not be disturbed on appeal unless an abuse of discretion is shown. Sauls v. Sauls, 287 S.C. 297, 337 S.E.2d 893, 895 (Ct.App.1985). The trial judge has authority to modify the amount of support upon a showing of a substantial or material change of circumstances. Calvert v. Calvert, 287 S.C. 130, 336 S.E.2d 884, 888 (Ct.App.1985).

Here, the family court awarded Four Hundred Dollars ($400.00) monthly as support for two children in 1977. The family court continued to require Garris to pay the same amount in 1979 and again in 1984. Garris' showing of a change of circumstances amounted to assertions that he was barely making a living as a farmer and that he had remarried and now supports a total of five children in addition to McDuffie's children.

We agree with the trial judge's finding that Garris failed to show a substantial change of circumstances. Our review of the record reveals that Garris' 1978 action for reduction of his child support obligation was premised upon poor crop yields and an unprofitable law practice. The trial judge rejected these grounds as a basis for reducing child support. Clearly, these matters do not now constitute a change of circumstances inasmuch as these are the same grounds which Garris had presented to the court in the 1978 action. Moreover, the evidence supports the trial judge's finding that 1983 has been Garris' best farming year in several years. Thus Garris' financial situation has actually improved since the 1979 order.

II.

A judgment of contempt should be imposed sparingly and the determination whether to hold a party in contempt lies within the trial judge's discretion and will not be disturbed on appeal unless it is based on a finding without evidentiary support or where there has been an abuse of discretion. Pratt v. South Carolina Department of Social Services, 283 S.C. 550, 324 S.E.2d 97, 98 (Ct.App.1984); Hicks v. Hicks, 280 S.C. 378, 312 S.E.2d 598, 599 (Ct.App.1984). Garris argues that the trial judge abused his discretion by punishing him for the support arrearages since Garris initiated the litigation, acknowledging his indebtedness, but claiming an inability to pay.

We find that this issue is moot. "A case becomes moot when judgment, if rendered, will have no practical legal effect upon existing controversy. This is true when some event makes it impossible for [a] reviewing [c]ourt to grant effectual relief." Jones v. Dillon-Marion Human Resources Development Commission, 277 S.C. 533, 536, 291 S.E.2d 195, 196 (1982). State appellate courts will not issue advisory opinions on questions for which no meaningful relief can be granted. Gainey v. Gainey, 279 S.C. 68, 301 S.E.2d 763, 764 (1983). Here, Garris has already served his sentence and paid the arrearages. No effectual relief--i.e. releasing him...