Dad Must Pay Greater of 50% Income or $1,200/Mo Back TN Child Support
Tennessee family law on modifying child support after divorce.
KING vs. WULFF – Tennessee Child Support Modification Case
In this appeal involving child support arrears, the Mother, Ashley Wulff King, successfully sued the Father, Kenneth Wulff, for a judgment of child support arrears and college expenses, and also won an increase in the required payments of the Father to satisfy the moneys owed to her (also called an “arrearage payment).
The Parties were originally divorced in 1991, through a decree of divorce that incorporated a comprehensive “Marital Dissolution Agreement” (MDA). The original child support order was payable from the Father to the Mother for $300/month plus half of the necessary and reasonable college expenses of the Parties’ Child. These terms were to run until the Child graduated college or turned 23, whichever occurred first.
The Child turned 18 in April 2008 and graduated high school in May 2008, and the Child went on to college.
In 2008, the Mother filed the first of several child support enforcement actions against the Father, and she won a judgment of $77,764.94 plus attorney fees and court costs. In August 2008, an order was mutually stipulated by the Parties for the Father to pay his child support arrears at the rate of $600/month.
Then, the Mother filed her second enforcement action in 2009, winning an additional judgment of $7,325.50 for unpaid college expenses. Within a year, in 2010, the Mother filed her third enforcement action against the Father, gaining an additional $10,576.50 judgment against the Father for college expenses and attorney’s fees.
Throughout, the Father made various, if not complete, payments as ordered.
At issue in the appeal by the Father was the ruling by the trial court in 2010 that arrears were to be repaid at the rate of $1,200 per month or fifty percent of his earnings, whichever was less. This represented a sum twice that of the $600/month the Parties had previously in 2008 agreed and reduced to a written order, and was four times the original child support order of $300/month.
In so affirming the repayment schedule set by the trial court, the Court of Appeals effectively resolved a potential collision between two statutes in favor of the authority of the courts to determine the rate of repayment of child support, even if that rate exceeds a prior order or agreement of the parties. The specific language was found in the Tennessee Code Annotated at section 36-5-501(a)(1), which says, “The court’s order, shall include an amount sufficient to satisfy an accumulated arrearage, if any, within a reasonable time.” The Court of Appeals affirmed that it was reasonable for the Father to repay his child support arrears of $76,464.94 plus 12% simple interest in 8.5 years.
The legal argument that the Father lost was that a different statute, found at Tennessee Code Annotated at section 36-5-101(f)(3) froze his child support periodic payment at the $600/month amount that was in effect at the time the child support order would otherwise have terminated. The Father lost his argument.
The decision of the Court of Appeals did not contain any information as to either the Father’s or the Mother’s income, employment, education, or other financial resources. There was only one reference to an allegation of the Mother that the Father had acquired over $300,000 of new debt after a bankruptcy.
Ashley King vs. Kenneth J. Wulff, No. M2011-00300-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. 2011).
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. To learn more about Tennessee child support laws and guidelines, read and view:
