On April 24, 2015, the trial court issued an order finding appellant Husband in willful contempt of the parties’ final order of divorce which was issued on July 24, 2009 after a jury trial. Based on the jury’s verdict regarding the division of property, the divorce decree required Husband to pay appellee Wife one-third 1/3 of the gross of his pension funds1 until Wife remarried, though a portion of the pension funds payable to Wife was to be withheld for the payment of taxes. The jury declined to award alimony to Wife. Neither party appealed the jury’s verdict or the final decree of divorce. In 2013, Wife moved for contempt when appellant failed to pay her the proportionate increase in the pension funds. Shortly after Wife filed her motion for contempt, Husband filed a motion for termination of alimony because he alleged Wife was remarried and because he alleged he made overpayments of the pension funds to Wife. After conducting an evidentiary hearing,2 the trial court found Husband in willful contempt of the divorce decree, concluded Husband owed Wife $8,490.25 in unpaid pension payments, and ordered Husband to repay the amount owed in monthly installments. In addition, the trial court awarded Wife attorney fees which Husband was also required to pay in monthly installments. In this final order on the contempt action, the trial court incorporated a previous order in which it had reiterated the language in the final divorce decree that the pension fund payments to Wife were marital property. We granted Husband’s application for discretionary review to determine whether the trial court’s final ruling was in error. On appeal, Husband maintains that the payments at issue are not marital property, but, rather, constitute periodic alimony; and, because the jury expressly denied alimony to Wife, Husband contends he does not owe Wife and cannot be held in contempt.3 We now affirm the order of contempt for the reasons set forth below.
1. OCGA § 19-6-1 a defines alimony as an allowance out of one party’s estate, made for the support of the other party when living separately. Alimony can be either permanent or temporary. Periodic alimony is characterized by an indefinite number of payments and may also be contingent or indeterminable as to a total amount. See Dillard v. Dillard, 265 Ga. 478 458 SE2d 102 1995. Periodic alimony typically terminates on the death of the paying spouse, the death of the surviving spouse, or the remarriage of the receiving spouse. Stone v. Stone, 254 Ga. 519 1 330 SE2d 887 1985.
