The “clean hands doctrine” requires parties to comply with all of their obligations under an order before filing a Motion for Contempt or to Modify against the other party. This doctrine is a fundamental element of family law practice. You have to “do right” to be able to ask that the other person “do right.” This is often difficult for divorced persons because the temptation is to retaliate instead of continuing to do right when you believe the other person is treating you wrong. A good example is the Mother who denies visitation because the Father is not paying support. Her logic is, “Why should he be allowed to see them if he won’t support them.” One can hardly blame the Mother, but, unfortunately, a Court will.
In the recent case of Mitchell v. Mitchell, No. 2010–CA–00897–COA (Decided 8/9/11), Bobby Mitchell got his hand called on playing games with the clean hands doctrine. Apparently, Bobby feared that Kimberly was not using his $1,000 alimony check to pay the house note on a house he was still liable for. So, he stopped paying the alimony. Then he filed suit for contempt against Kimberly for not paying the house note. He argued that Kimberly came into Court with unclean hands because she had not paid the house note. The Court didn’t buy it and held that Bobby had put Kimberly in the position where she could not pay the house note because he hadn’t paid his alimony. Bobby got held in contempt and Kimberly didn’t.
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