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Belcher v. Belcher

In a dispute over unpaid alimony, the trial court improperly awarded the wife attorney fees under O.C.G.A. § 9-4-9, since an award under that statute allows only costs , which does not include attorney fees, and improperly awarded attorney fees under O.C.G.A. § 9-15-14 subsection a, since the trial court did not make express findings specifying the abusive conduct for which it made the award.

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Donald Belcher Husband and Sarah Belcher Wife divorced in 2005. Following a dispute over unpaid alimony to Wife in which Wife eventually prevailed, the trial court awarded $2,500 in attorney fees to Wife in a December 17, 2014, order. Husband initially filed a timely application for discretionary appeal of this order in the Court of Appeals, and the Court of Appeals properly transferred the application to this Court. This Court granted Husband’s application to determine whether the trial court erred in its award of attorney fees to Wife, and, for the reasons set forth below, we must reverse the trial court’s December 17th order in part, vacate the order in part, and remand this case to the trial court for further proceedings.

By way of background, the parties’ divorce decree requires Husband to pay Wife alimony of $500 per month until her death or remarriage. In December 2013, Husband stopped making alimony payments and had a stop payment order put on the previous month’s alimony check. On April 16, 2014, Wife called Husband’s telephone number and spoke to his current wife, and, in early May, she sent Husband and his current wife certified letters, which the current wife signed for, notifying them that payment was declined on the November 2013 check and requesting payment by cashier’s check or money order. On May 15, 2014, Husband’s attorney wrote to Wife, acknowledging her certified letters, saying that Husband has held all alimony payments in savings, and demanding adequate proof of Wife’s current health status before the funds would be released to Wife. Wife then hired an attorney, who wrote to Husband’s attorney on June 11, explicitly stating that she i.e., Wife is alive and demanding immediate payment of all past due alimony and resumption of monthly alimony payments.

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