Mom Not Liable for Past Due Child Support Due to Conflict
Tennessee child support modification case summary.
Julie Marie Alexander v. Sean Stephen Alexander
The parents in this Sumner County, Tennessee, case were married in 2005 and had two children before their 2010 divorce. They reached a marital dissolution agreement which provided that neither party would pay child support. However, when the trial court approved the order, there were conflicting provisions. It stated that the mother would remit child support of $773 per month, but another portion of the order approved a downward deviation to $0, and the language, “child support will not be necessary.”
In 2015, the mother made a motion to modify the parenting plan. She sought additional parenting time and being named primary residential parent. The parties agreed to many of the issues, but the final order awarded the father almost $60,000 in unpaid child support. A motion to set aside this judgment was denied by Judge Joe Thompson, and the mother appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
On appeal, the father argued that the mother was really attacking the original 2011 judgment, and that this was not timely. The mother, on the other hand, argued that the 2016 judgment was void, based upon the ambiguous language of the earlier order.
The Court of Appeals agreed with the mother. While the 2016 judgment cited the earlier judgment, it did not make reference to the adjustment down to zero. The appeals court noted that the parties had adhered to the deviation, and the father had not requested child support until the mother filed her motion. Under these circumstances, the Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision.
No. M2017-01475-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Jun. 13, 2019).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
To learn more, see Child Support Modification in Tennessee | How to Modify Child Support.
See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring actual examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.
