Potts v. Potts

• Decision Date: 02 February 1888
• Citation: 68 Mich. 492,36 N.W. 240
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: POTTS v. POTTS.

36 N.W. 240

68 Mich. 492

POTTS v. POTTS.

Supreme Court of Michigan

February 2, 1888

Appeal from circuit court, St. Clair county, in chancery; H. W STEVENS, Judge.

On motion of Alice Potts that the defendant, Lewis Potts, show cause why he should not be found guilty of contempt in not obeying an order of court for the payment of temporary alimony made in the divorce proceedings then pending in the circuit court of St. Clair county. The motion was sustained and defendant was adjudged guilty, and he appeals.

Frank Whipple, (Atkinson & Vance, of counsel,) for appellant.

Chadwick & Wood, for appellee.

MORSE, J.

May 24 1887, the complainant filed her bill for divorce in the circuit court for the county of St. Clair in chancery. She alleges extreme cruelty and adultery. The defendant filed an answer denying the charges. The parties were married December 6, 1882, and have one child, the issue of such marriage, of the age of three years and six months at the time of the filing of the bill. Upon petition and hearing, the circuit judge made an order requiring the defendant to pay to the complainant weekly the sum of eight dollars per week as temporary alimony, such payments to be made from the twenty-fifth day of June, 1887, and continue until the further order of the court; and that he also pay to complainant's solicitors $30 within 15 days, and the same sum within 30 days, from the same date, towards the payment of her expenses in taking proofs. This order was made June 25, 1887. The alimony was not paid. On the twenty-sixth of September, the circuit judge entered an order in the cause that the defendant, on the third day of October, show cause why an attachment as for contempt should not issue against him. This order was based on the affidavit of one of complainant's solicitors that on the seventh, fifteenth and twenty-second days of July, and on the eighteenth day of September, he personally served upon the defendant copies of the order for the payment of alimony, and that said defendant refused to pay the same to him, or any part thereof. There was also filed the affidavit of the other solicitor for complainant that no alimony had been paid to him, and the affidavit of complainant that she had given a power of attorney to Chadwick & Wood, her solicitors, to collect the amount allowed to her per week, and that defendant had at various times informed her that he would not pay any of said money, and defied her to take any steps to compel payment, stating that he would take the case to the supreme court, and that his counsel had advised him to defy the order of the court; that defendant had not paid her any portion of said alimony. On the twenty-sixth of September, a copy of the order to show cause, and affidavits upon which it was based, was personally served upon the defendant. October 3d, the defendant did not appear, and the hearing of the matter of contempt was continued until October 8, 1887. On that day the defendant did not appear, and, upon the showing of service of the order to show cause, the court adjudged that the defendant was guilty of contempt, and...