Child Support Not Owed if Mom Had Access to Dad’s Bank Account

Tennessee law case summary on child support in Tennessee divorce and family law from the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

Kirk Alan Estes v Kathy Jo Estes – Child Support

In the child support appeal of Kirk Estes, father, and Kathy Estes, mother, who divorced in 2001, the father was required to pay child support. The parents reconciled in 2002 and lived together. They had another child in 2004. They shared a bank account during this time where the father’s paychecks were deposited and from which the mother paid the living expenses, including the children’s expenses. They separated again in 2006. The father resumed paying child support at that point. The mother filed a petition seeking child support payments for the period of 2002 through 2006, since the father did not make payments during that time.

The trial court determined that the father should receive credit for the necessaries he paid for during that period but ordered him to pay $32,886 for child support payments during that time. The mother appealed the child court’s denial of child support owed for the child born during the parties’ reconciliation and the father appealed the ruling of how much credit he received during the reconciliation period.

The parties married in 1994 and had two sons. They separated in 1998 and received a divorce in 2001, ending their 7 year marriage. The father was required to pay $41,270 in child support payments at that time. The father admitted to not paying child support for April though May of 2002, when they began to reconcile, though he paid for moving expenses and anticipated living as a family. In June of 2002, the parties lived together. During the time they lived together, a third child was born in November of 2004. The mother worked during that period and deposited checks into the joint account initially, though she opened a separate account in 2004. The father deposited all of his paychecks into the account and the mother had unlimited access to those funds.

The trial court held the father responsible for the two months of nonpayment when they were not living together stating there was no basis for the court to provide relief for those months. The trial court gave the father credit for the children’s necessaries paid while the two were living together and granted a judgment for the difference from June 2002 to August 2006 for the non-paid child support. The trial court reduced the children’s expenses the father claimed by one-third, assuming the mother paid those. It then treated half of what was left as father’s support for the two children and the other half was for the father’s expenses himself.

The appeals court determined that the father deposited more than the amount of child support during the time of the reconciliation into the joint account. He was required to pay $1,270 each month and deposited over $5,000 into the parties’ joint account each month. The mother had access to the joint account at all times during that period. As such, the appeals court determined the father satisfied his obligation to pay child support during that period and it reversed the trial court’s judgment as such.

No M2010-01243-COA-R3-CV, April 16, 2012.

Disclaimer: See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

Memphis divorce attorney, Miles Mason, Sr., JD, CPA, practices family law exclusively with the Miles Mason Family Law Group, PLC in Memphis, Tennessee. To learn more about Tennessee child support laws, read and view:

 

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