Franklin v. Franklin, 294 Ga. 204

Elisha Franklin (Wife) and Elijah Franklin (Husband) divorced on June 3, 2011; Husband awarded custody primary with Wife visitation; child support set at $1,518/mo based on Wife allegedly earning $106,000/yr.
Parties had previously agreed to a final division of marital assets; trial court later ordered sale of the marital residence with proceeds split equally.
Husband moved for disposition of real property; Wife filed a new trial motion; Wife later challenged the final decree; Husband asserted contempt for Wife’s failure to pay child support.
October 4–5, 2011 hearing; October 28, 2011 order denied Wife’s contempt and granted Husband’s contempt, increasing child support to $4,555.
Final decree preliminarily found Wife’s gross monthly income to be $8,833.33, a finding challenged on appeal as unsupported by the record.
Court reversed on the income finding, remanding for a proper determination based on evidence, while affirming other challenged rulings and remanding with directions.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Wife's gross monthly income was correctly determined	Wife earned $8,833.33/month as found by trial court	Wife earned far less; evidence shows average monthly income around $1,108.25	Income finding reversed; remand for proper income determination
Whether the divorce decree must resolve all marital property issues before entry	Prior agreement/division of assets rendered property issues moot	Trial court should have resolved property division at final decree	Record supported that property division was already addressed; no reversal on this point
Whether Wife's contempt for unpaid child support during pendency of new-trial motion was proper	Supersedeas under OCGA § 9-11-62(b) prevented enforcement during appeal	Trial court’s temporary order remained in force during appeal and could be enforced	Contempt upheld; temporary order valid and enforceable pending appeal

Frazier v. Frazier, 280 Ga. 687 (2006) (appellate review of bench trial credibility and findings under the any-evidence standard)
Southerland v. Southerland, 278 Ga. 188 (2004) (any-evidence standard governs trial court factual findings)
Herrin v. Herrin, 287 Ga. 427 (2010) (income must be supported by evidence; erroneous income findings require reversal)
Duncan v. Duncan, 262 Ga. 872 (1993) (remand for ordered award supported by evidence)
Rank v. Rank, 287 Ga. 147 (2010) (attorneys' statements to the court may serve as evidence if not objected to)
Walker v. Walker, 239 Ga. 175 (1977) (temporary order binds during appeal; supersedes prior relief)
Teasley v. State, 293 Ga. 758 (2013) (cannot rely on post-trial evidence to show error in decision made on original record)