Diana Gowins petitioned the trial court for a finding that W. E. Gary was in contempt of court for wilful failure to pay child support due under the court’s April 29, 2005 judgment incorporating the terms of the parties’ July 3, 2002 settlement agreement for custody and support of their two minor children. On August 4, 2006, the trial court found Gary in contempt for failure to pay $135,000 in child support which accrued under the agreement after the court’s April 29, 2005 judgment was entered.1 But the trial court also found that, because the agreement was a contract between the parties and not a court order prior to being incorporated into the court’s judgment, the court had no authority to consider whether Gary was in contempt for any failure to pay child support which accrued under the agreement prior to the date the judgment was entered. The trial court also refused to award interest on the amount of child support it found enforceable by contempt. On appeal, Gowins claims the trial court erred by ruling that it lacked authority to consider the above portion of her contempt petition, and erred by refusing to award interest. For the following reasons, we reverse the trial court’s ruling that it had no authority to consider whether Gary was in contempt for a failure to pay child support accruing prior to entry of the judgment, vacate the court’s ruling with respect to the award of interest, and remand the case to the trial court to consider these issues.
1. The record shows that, after twin children were born to Gowins on November 9, 2000, Gowins and Gary entered into a settlement agreement on July 3, 2002, in which Gary admitted paternity, agreed that Gowins would retain sole custody of the twins, and agreed to pay Gowins $14,000 per month per child as child support. In July 2004, Gowins filed a complaint for paternity and child support in Fulton County Superior Court and attached the settlement agreement. A trial ensued at which Gary did not contest paternity but claimed the amount of child support set forth in the settlement agreement was a mutual mistake of fact. The trial court rejected Gary’s claim and entered a judgment on April 29, 2005, which concluded that Gary had the financial means to make the child support payments he agreed to in the settlement agreement, and which approved the settlement agreement and incorporated the terms of the agreement into the court’s judgment. After entry of the judgment, Gary filed a motion for new trial. At the hearing on the motion for new trial, Gary argued that the judgment incorporating the terms of the settlement agreement could not be construed to apply to child support arrearage accruing from the July 3, 2002 date of the settlement agreement to the entry of the judgment on April 29, 2005. On October 5, 2005, the trial court entered an order denying the motion for new trial. The denial order made clear that the court’s April 29, 2005 judgment incorporated the terms of the settlement agreement, but the court added a comment in the order stating that “the Court did not grant an award of back child support.”
