Opinion
49893 No. 0473-94-3
Decided February 21, 1995
(1) Domestic Relations — Appellate Review — Standard. — The Court of Appeals has jurisdiction over appeals of final judgments, orders or decrees and over interlocutory decrees granting, dissolving or denying an injunction, or adjudicating the principles of a cause; an order adjudicating the principles of a cause is one which will necessarily affect the final order.
(2) Domestic Relations — Appellate Review — Standard. — An order bifurcating the divorce from the other issues in the case, including equitable distribution, is not an appealable order because it does not determine the rules by which the court will determine the rights of the parties.
Barbara Hudson for appellant.
James A. L. Daniel (Robert J. Smitherman; Daniel, Vaughan, Medley Smitherman, P.C., on brief), for appellee.
SUMMARY
Wife appealed the order of the circuit court bifurcating the divorce proceeding from the equitable distribution proceeding (Circuit Court of the City of Danville, James F. Ingram, Judge).
The Court of Appeals dismissed, holding that the order was not appealable.
Dismissed.
OPINION
In this domestic relations appeal, we hold that an order bifurcating the divorce proceedings from the equitable distribution proceedings is not appealable.
(1) In a divorce proceeding, we have jurisdiction over appeals of "final judgment[s], order[s] or decree[s]" and over "interlocutory decree[s] . . . (i) granting, dissolving, or denying an injunction or (ii) adjudicating the principles of a cause." Code Sec. 17-116.05. An order "adjudicating the principles of a cause" is one which will necessarily affect the final order. Polumbo v. Polumbo, 13 Va. App. 306, 307, 411 S.E.2d 229, 229 (1991).
(2) The order in this case bifurcating the divorce from the other issues is not such an order because it does not "determine the rules by which the court will determine the rights of the parties." Id. Here, the divorce has not been decreed nor has equitable distribution been ordered. The separation of the two parts of the suit is not determinative of the outcome of either issue.
Code Sec. 20-107.3 permits the court to retain jurisdiction in the final decree of divorce, but in this case, the court simply ordered bifurcation without decreeing divorce.
The appeal is dismissed.
Dismissed.
Moon, C.J., and Koontz, J., concurred.