MCCURTY v. ROBERTS (2024)

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

It is hereby ORDERED that the amended order so appealed from is unanimously affirmed without costs.

Memorandum: Defendant appeals from an amended order that, inter alia, held him in contempt of the parties’ judgment of divorce for failing to pay a portion of his maintenance obligation and ordered him to pay the arrears owed to plaintiff. We affirm.

We note at the outset that defendant's notice of appeal incorrectly states the date on which the amended order was entered. However, we exercise our discretion to treat the notice of appeal as valid pursuant to CPLR 5520 (c) (see Cook v. Estate of Achzet, 214 A.D.3d 1369, 1371, 183 N.Y.S.3d 881 [4th Dept. 2023]).

We reject defendant's contention that Supreme Court erred in finding him in contempt for violating the parties’ judgment of divorce. A finding of civil contempt must be supported by four elements: (1) a lawful court order “expressing an unequivocal mandate”; (2) “reasonable certainty” that the order was disobeyed; (3) knowledge of the court's order by the party in contempt; and (4) prejudice to the right of a party to the litigation (El-Dehdan v. El-Dehdan, 26 N.Y.3d 19, 29, 19 N.Y.S.3d 475, 41 N.E.3d 340 [2015] [internal quotation marks omitted]). “The party seeking an order of contempt has the burden of establishing those four elements by clear and convincing evidence” (Dotzler v. Buono, 144 A.D.3d 1512, 1514, 40 N.Y.S.3d 846 [4th Dept. 2016]). Contrary to defendant's contention, the court properly determined that plaintiff met her burden by clear and convincing evidence inasmuch as the provision of the judgment requiring defendant to pay plaintiff a certain amount of maintenance for a period of three years was unambiguous and expressed an unequivocal mandate (cf. Matter of Brookover v. Harris, 217 A.D.3d 1411, 1412, 190 N.Y.S.3d 769 [4th Dept. 2023]).

Contrary to defendant's further contention, the court did not err in finding defendant in contempt without conducting a hearing. “A hearing is required only if the papers in opposition raise a factual dispute as to the elements of civil contempt, or the existence of a defense” (El-Dehdan v. El-Dehdan, 114 A.D.3d 4, 17, 978 N.Y.S.2d 239 [2d Dept. 2013], affd 26 N.Y.3d 19, 19 N.Y.S.3d 475, 41 N.E.3d 340 [2015]; see Jaffe v. Jaffe, 44 A.D.3d 825, 826, 844 N.Y.S.2d 97 [2d Dept. 2007]). Here, defendant failed to raise an issue of fact on his defense, i.e., his inability to pay the maintenance obligation (see generally El-Dehdan, 26 N.Y.3d at 35-36, 19 N.Y.S.3d 475, 41 N.E.3d 340). Instead, defendant simply stated in his affidavit that permitting the award of full maintenance for the three-year period would be “unaffordable.” “Such ‘[v]ague and conclusory allegations of ․ inability to pay or perform are not acceptable’ ” (id. at 36, 19 N.Y.S.3d 475, 41 N.E.3d 340; see Ovsanikow v. Ovsanikow, 224 A.D.2d 786, 787, 637 N.Y.S.2d 805 [3d Dept. 1996]).