Mom Gets Attorney Fees For Child Support Contempt

Tennessee child support case summary on child support and attorney’s fees in divorce and family law.

Mom gets atty fees for child support contempt, even though dad wins on one issue.

Clayton Sugg Wilson, Jr., v. Rebecca Lynn Blocker Wilson

The parents in this Lincoln County, Tennessee, case were divorced in 2017, and the mother was named the primary residential parent of their child.  The father was ordered to pay $535 per month in child support, plus half of the child’s uninsured medical expenses.  Four years later, the father petitioned to modify the child support on the grounds that his income had decreased.  The mother countered with a petition for contempt, and the trial court agreed with the mother.  It did, however, reduce the obligation going forward.  It awarded the mother her attorney’s fees for the contempt action.  The father sought to have those fees apportioned, but the trial court disagreed.  The father then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

As part of the contempt petition, the mother had made a discovery request, and the husband claimed that he had no bank account.  The mother’s attorneys responded by subpoenaing every bank in the area, and this revealed that the father did have various bank accounts, and that $3.6 million had been deposited.

At trial, the father countered that he didn’t know anything about the $3.6 million, and that his father handled all of the bookkeeping for the family business.  He testified that the only money he received was an allowance of $350 per week, plus some money paid out by partnerships.  The trial court did reduce the child support, but granted the mother’s contempt motion.  She submitted an attorney’s fee affidavit of over $35,000, and the trial court found that these fees were reasonable.

In his motion for apportionment, the father noted that he was the prevailing party in his petition to modify, and that some of the fees were attributed to that matter.  The mother argued that she was the prevailing party, since the father had willfully failed to pay, even though the amount was later reduced somewhat.

The trial court ruled that the fees were reasonable under the circumstances and affirmed.

The appeals court started by noting that attorney’s fees can be awarded only to a “prevailing party” and that this determination is fact intensive.

The trial court had found that the father was “clearly in civil contempt,” and the mother was awarded a lump sum.

And while the father got some relief as far as his ongoing obligation, it was not nearly what he had requested.  In fact, the father had requested that the mother pay him child support, and this request was denied.  Under these facts, the mother was deemed to be sufficiently successful to be considered the prevailing party.  It quoted a 2007 case applying a standard of a party being “sufficiently successful,” and found that the mother met this standard.  It then reviewed the fee award, based upon the facts of the case, and found it to be reasonable.

The appeals court went on to find that the mother was entitled to her attorney’s fees for bringing the appeal.  It therefore affirmed the lower court and remanded the case to determine the amount of those fees.

No. M2023-01026-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 11, 2024).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Support Laws in Tennessee.

To learn more, see Child Support Collection & Enforcement in Tennessee.