delivered the opinion of the Court.
*330 In this case we decide whether the court below has the authority to award attorneys’ fees incurred by a wife in a contempt proceeding to enforce the terms of a final decree of divorce.
Christine E. Carswell, née Masterson, obtained an absolute divorce from her husband, Michael J. Masterson, on November 14, 1974. She was awarded custody of their two minor children, and the husband was ordered tо pay for their support. Subsequent thereto, Masterson was three times found in contempt for failure to pay such support, and by January 12, 1980, the arrearage amounted to $6050.94. Although Masterson was found in contempt, imposition of sentence was suspended until March 7, 1980, conditioned upon his payment of $325 each two weeks on the amount he owed. Carswell then moved for an award of attorneys’ fees that she had incurred in pursuing the contempt proceeding against Masterson. Her motion was denied, and she appealed.
Carswell contends,
inter alia,
that courts of equity have the power to award attorneys’ fees to a parent who is forced, by the willful refusal of his or her former spouse to pay the child support ordered by the court, to petition the court to enforce its order. She argues that сourts of equity originated to provide a remedy where none existed in a court of law and are necessary to provide рarties with a complete remedy. She says that if the trial court is upheld equity has not provided her with a complete remedy and that a recalcitrant parent is thereby permitted to frustrate the court’s order. Our decision here is controlled by
Alig
v.
Alig,
In
McKeel,
the wife had beеn awarded spousal and child support by decree of the Florida court which granted her a divorce. Subsequent thereto, her former husband moved to Virginia and refused to make the support payments. The wife then filed a bill in chancery in the Circuit Court of Norfolk County, praying that “ ‘judgment be rendered’ against her husband for both accrued and future installments of alimony and support money, in accordance with the provisions of the Florida decree.”
While the present proceeding is not a suit for divorce, in which a fee is usually allowed the wife’s counsel under the authority of Code, Sections 5106 (as amended) and 5107, under the view we have adopted it is not merely a suit to collect a debt due under a foreign decree. It is a proceeding to collect alimony and support money. Its purpose is to establish and enforce, through the decree of the Virginia court, the decree of the Florida court, requiring the payment of . such alimony and support money. [Citations omitted] The domestic decree based on the foreign decree is enforceаble by means of all of the equitable remedies available to the local court in like cases.
In Alig, a Maryland court granted thе wife an absolute divorce and custody of the parties’ minor children. The husband was ordered to pay his former wife $300 per month as аlimony. He subsequently moved to Virginia Beach, and the wife thereafter instituted a proceeding for enforcement of the alimony рrovisions of the Maryland decree and payment of arrearages. Citing McKeel, we approved use of the comity doctrine to еnforce a foreign decree for alimony which was not enforceable under the full faith and credit clause. We also aрproved the allowance of interest on the award and held that the wife was entitled to recover attorneys’ fees. We sаid:
The allowance of attorneys’ fees in a suit to establish and enforce a foreign decree of alimony has been previously approved by us in McKeel, supra at 116-17,37 S.E.2d at 750-51 . Mrs. Alig was forced to employ attorneys to establish and enforce her rights which were resisted by her former husband throughout this extensive litigation. Her legal expense is attributable to his recalcitrance. '
*332
It therefore appears that we have approved the award of attorneys’ fees incurred by a party to a suit in equity brought in Virginia to enforce a decree for spousal and child support awarded in Florida, and by a party to a proceeding in Virginia to enforce a decree fоr alimony awarded in Maryland. Further, in
Heflin,
v.
Heflin, 177
Va. 385,
The argument is equally compelling for holding that courts have thе power to award counsel fees incurred in divorce cases where contempt proceedings have to be initiated and conducted to enforce an order of the court. This is particularly true where the custody of a child, or child support, is invоlved because of the court’s continuing concern for the welfare of children, and because a parent’s common lаw duty to support his or her children is not affected by the entry of a final decree in a divorce case terminating the parent’s marital relationship.
An aggrieved party to a divorce suit has the right to petition for relief, and the court has the authority to hold the offending party in contempt for acting in bad faith or for willful disobedience of its order. Consistent with our prior decisions, we hold that in such cases a court has the discretionary power to award counsel fees incurred by an aggrieved party incident to contemрt proceedings instituted and conducted to obtain enforcement of an order of the court.
The decree of the lowеr court is reversed, and the case is remanded for such further proceedings as may be indicated, not inconsistent with the views expressed in this opinion.
Reversed and remanded.