Winemiller v. Winemiller

• Decision Date: 16 May 1888
• Docket Number: 14,032
• Citation: 17 N.E. 123,114 Ind. 540
• Parties: Winemiller et al. v. Winemiller
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

17 N.E. 123

114 Ind. 540

Winemiller et al. v. Winemiller

No. 14,032

Supreme Court of Indiana

May 16, 1888

From the Knox Circuit Court.

The judgment is affirmed.

W. A Cullop, G. W. Shaw and J. C. Adams, for appellants.

G. G Reily, for appellee.

OPINION

Mitchell, C. J.

On the 9th day of March, 1886, Rachel Winemiller obtained a decree of the Knox Circuit Court by which the marriage relation theretofore existing between herself and Thomas Winemiller was annulled. By the terms of the decree, she was awarded the gross sum of $ 2,250 as alimony. The court ordered that upon the defendant, within thirty days, giving a bond in the penal sum of three thousand dollars, payable to the plaintiff, with sufficient surety, conditioned for the payment of the instalments and interest thereon as they severally became due, the amount awarded for alimony should become due and payable as follows: Two hundred and fifty dollars at the expiration of ninety days, and the residue in four equal instalments of five hundred dollars each, payable, respectively, in one, two, three and four years from the 10th day of June, 1886.

The defendant filed a bond in compliance with the order of the court. He paid the first two instalments when they fell due, but refused to pay interest. An execution was issued, upon the assumption that the full amount due had not been paid. This suit was brought to restrain the officer from proceeding to enforce payment of the amount claimed. Judgment for the complainant.

The sole question involved is, whether or not the deferred payments draw interest from the date of the order or decree of the court.

Section 1047, R. S. 1881, requires that the decree for alimony to the wife shall be for a sum in gross, and not for annual payments, but that the court, in its discretion, may give a reasonable time for payment by instalments, on sufficient surety being given.

In pursuance of the statute, $ 2,250 was fixed in the decree under consideration, as a sum in gross, for alimony to the wife. In the exercise of its discretion the court gave time for the payment of the amount fixed, upon condition that sufficient security by bond should be given. The effect of the decree, therefore, was to make the sum of $ 2,250 fall due in instalments of the several amounts, and at the respective dates, mentioned. At each given date a specified sum was to be paid. The court, undoubtedly, within its discretion,...