Sager v. Sager
Sager v. Sager
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff in error, Edna K. Sager, filed a petition in the common pleas court seeking to have a former decree of alimony in her favor modified. A demurrer to the petition was sustained, and no further pleadings being filed, the petition was dismissed. Error is prosecuted to this action.
The nature of alimony is set forth by the supreme court in Fickel et al. v. Granger, 83 Ohio St., 101, 106. It is there said:
“Alimony is an allowance for support, which is made upon considerations of equity and public policy. * * * It is based upon the obligation, growing out of the marriage relation, that the husband must support his wife, an obligation which continues even after a legal separation without her fault.”
In Olney v. Watts, 43 Ohio St., 499, it was expressly held that a former decree of alimony may be modified in an original suit brought for that purpose, upon proper allegations of changed condition and circumstances of the parties. It was there determined that such action to modify a former decree must in no wise be based upon facts or circumstances which existed and were or might have been pleaded in the former action, but must be confined to new facts thereafter transpiring, of such character as to make the modification necessary to suit such altered condition of the parties. In that case the award of alimony was made payable in installments, but the exact amount was determined and the exact dates upon which the payments should be made were fixed by the decree. It was not a decree where installments were ordered paid until the further order of the court. So we are unable to distinguish any difference in principle between the case under consideration, in which ali
“The real contention touches the right and duty of the court in a case like this to review, modify, or vacate a former decree granting alimony payable. in installments by an original suit or proceeding instituted for that purpose, when such power had not been reserved by the language and form of the former decree.”
After a learned discussion of the subject the court held, as above indicated, that the court had the power to so review and modify a former decree.
The power of the court to review and modify a former decree of alimony was also sustained by the court of appeals for Hamilton county in Baker v. Baker, 4 Ohio App., 170, 35 C. C., 243, 21 C. C., N. S., 590. The circuit court of this county seems to have reached the same conclusion in the case of Meissner v. Meissner, 5 C. D., 305.
Upon the strength of the decisions above cited, we hold that the common pleas court erred in sustaining the demurrer to the petition. The judgment will, therefore, be reversed and the cause remanded with instructions to overrule the demurrer, and for further proceedings.
It was stated in argument by counsel for defendant in error, and not denied by counsel for plaintiff in error, that the judgment for alimony had been sold by the plaintiff and that she no longer had any interest in the same. This fact does not appear from the allegations of the petition, but if
Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.