21 S.E.2d 229 | Ga. | 1942
1. Where a wife's petition for permanent and temporary alimony under the Code, § 30-213, is dismissed for want of prosecution, a previous award of temporary alimony to the wife, based upon such petition, terminates with such dismissal. Bishop v. Bishop,
2. Where such an action has been dismissed for want of prosecution, and has not been reinstated, the case is entirely out of court, and no further relief can be granted thereon. A petition "supplementary" to and expressly made a part of the first petition will not authorize a grant of permanent alimony or additional temporary alimony to the wife.
3. The dismissal of the suit for alimony does not terminate the right of the wife to enforce the installments of temporary alimony which became due before such dismissal. Fauver v. Hemperly, supra, and cit.
4. Subsequent voluntary cohabitation will render void a judgment for temporary alimony. Weeks v. Weeks,
5. An order granting temporary alimony is always in the breast of the *333
court, and the court is authorized at any time, in the exercise of a sound discretion, to revise or revoke such an order. Code, § 30-204; Jennison v. Jennison,
Judgment affirmed. All the Justicesconcur.
On September 17, 1941, the defendant filed a plea and answer to the "supplementary petition" of the plaintiff, in which he alleged that the temporary alimony judgment was null and void, because the parties resumed cohabitation within a week after that judgment was entered, and because the original petition on which it was based had been dismissed on November 3, 1931. For the reasons stated he alleged that that judgment should be declared null, void, and of no effect. At the trial in February, 1942, the facts stated above, with reference to the orders and judgments of the court, appeared without dispute. On the question whether the parties had resumed cohabitation after the grant of temporary alimony, the evidence was in direct conflict. At the conclusion of the evidence the judge withdrew the case from the jury and entered an order denying all of the relief prayed for by the plaintiff, declaring null and void the award of temporary alimony of July 25, 1931, except as to the attorney's fees, and ordering cancellation of any execution theretofore issued in the case. The plaintiff excepted.