Pay up or else: Enforcement of alimony orders through contempt proceedings
Jim Siemens
Certified Family Law Specialist
It is all-too-common for supporting spouses who are ordered to pay alimony to refuse to make these payments, leading to contempt proceedings and a contempt order requiring the supporting spouse to pay or face arrest.
Because contempt orders are immediately appealable, in past decades supporting spouses could use the appeal process to extend their willful refusal to pay. Nearly thirty years ago, the North Carolina Supreme Court noted this injustice:
Counsel correctly argued that supporting spouses have a lengthy period of virtual immunity from support obligations while cases work their way through the appellate process… We agree …that a more satisfactory answer should be found, but that answer can come only from the Legislature.
Quick v. Quick, 305 N.C. 446, 461-462, 290 S.E.2d 653 (1982).
Three years later, the General Assembly acted on the Supreme Court’s invitation in Quick by passing North Carolina Session Law 1985-482, which provides:
Section 1. G.S. 50-16.7(j) is rewritten to read:
“(j) ….Notwithstanding the provisions of G.S. 1-294 or G.S. 1-289, an order for the periodic payment of alimony that has been appealed to the Appellate Division is enforceable in the trial court by proceedings for civil contempt during the pendency of the appeal. …the Court of the Appellate Division in which the appeal is pending may stay any order for civil contempt entered for alimony until the appeal is decided if justice requires.”
This Act created a new norm for enforcement of alimony judgments during appeal: contempt proceedings in the trial court continue during the pendency of the appeal, and stays of such proceedings now are the exception.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently affirmed this appellate enforcement of alimony through trial court contempt proceedings in Romulus v. Romulus. The Romulus Court reviewed the Quick opinion and noted that our legislature has found a “more satisfactory answer” by making alimony orders enforceable by contempt pending appeal.
Dependent spouses should aggressively enforce any court-ordered alimony through contempt proceedings. Supporting spouses should pay up or face the consequences.