Tenn. Child Support Award Enforced Despite Father’s Inability to Work

Tennessee child support law case law summary on child support collection from the Court of Appeals.

State of Tennessee ex rel. Ronda M. Letner v. Raymond T. Carriger – Tennessee child support arrearages

This case raises the question of whether child support arrearages may be cancelled retroactively in a case in which the father was determined to be mental disabled.

The mother, Ronda M. Letner, and the father, Raymond T. Carriger, were divorced in 1994 and the father was ordered to pay child support for the couple’s children.  In 1996, and for several years following, the father petitioned the court to modify his child support payments based on his claimed mental disability.   He argued that he was unable to work steadily and therefore could not meet his child support obligations.  By August 2005, the father owed over $32,000 in child support arrearages.   These are the child support payments in question in the case.

In October 2005, the court suspended his future child support obligations until it could be determined if the father was disabled.   Between 2005 and 2010 the father tried to secure disability benefits but he was unsuccessful.  In 2008, a Guardian Ad Litem was appointed for the father.  By this point, all that remained was arrearages, or unpaid child support, since all of the children were no longer minors.

In 2011 the father filed another motion to terminate his child support arrearages because of his disability.   During the hearing, Dr. Peter Young testified that the father was not capable of any substantial employment, nor would he be capable of working in the future.   Based on this, the court terminated the father’s past obligation.

The state appealed the decision, arguing that child support may not be modified retroactively, that is, for payments due prior to the request for modification.   According to Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-5-101 (f)(1) (Supp. 2011), a child  support order is enforceable like any other judgment.   Any payments due before a request to change the child support order is submitted to the court must be paid in full, plus 12% a year, and may not be cancelled or forgiven even if the child support award is later modified.   The Supreme Court of Tennessee, as early as 1991, also ruled that child support arrearages may not be cancelled.

Finally, the appeals court rejected the father’s claim that enforcement of his obligation was pointless since he could not pay it in any case.  While the court understood that the arrearages might not be paid, by law it had no standing to cancel the debt.  The decision of the trial court was reversed.

No. E2011-01853-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Aug. 20, 2012).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

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