Haley v. Haley

In this child support modification action, the parties entered into a settlement agreement in which the appellant, Mr. Haley, agreed to increase his child support payments from $750 per month per child for two children to $2,700 per month for one child. The parties, however, were unable to resolve Ms. Haley’s claim that Mr. Haley should reimburse her for up to $40,848 in attorney fees. Thus, the agreement provided as follows: “The issue of Ms. Haley’s claim for expenses and attorney fees will be submitted to the trial judge by brief for decision by the Court. Mr. Haley will not seek from Ms. Haley expenses of litigation or attorney fees.” In subsequently ruling on Ms. Haley’s claim for attorney fees, the trial court determined that Ms. Haley “prevailed” on her child support modification action,1 and awarded Ms. Haley $16,150 in attorney fees. We granted Mr. Haley’s application to appeal to consider whether the trial court erred in awarding attorney fees to Ms. Haley. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the parties’ settlement agreement authorized the trial court to make the award in question.

Although Mr. Haley contends that Ms. Haley’s claim for attorney fees is controlled by OCGA § 19-6-19 d,2 we conclude that Ms. Haley’s claim for attorney fees rests not on § 19-6-19 d but rather on the parties’ contract.3 In this regard, the attorney fee clause in the settlement agreement makes no reference to § 19-6-19 d. Moreover, by agreeing to submit the attorney fees issue to the trial court for resolution, we conclude that the parties authorized the trial court to exercise its discretion to consider whatever factors it found to be relevant to determine if Ms. Haley was entitled to attorney fees, including whether she was a prevailing party in the litigation. Moreover, if, in the exercise of the foregoing discretion, the court determined that Ms. Haley was entitled to attorney fees, we also conclude that the parties authorized the court to award her attorney fees in an amount the court found to be appropriate and reasonable under the circumstances.