Tennessee Child Support Worksheets Requires Specific Information
Tennessee child support law case law summary on modification from the Court of Appeals.
Kimberly Renea Smith vs. Stephen Ward Smith, Sr. – Tennessee child support modification law
The Mother in this case, Kimberly Renea Smith, gave birth to two children (born 1989 – prior to the marriage, and 1994 – after the Parties married in 1991). In 2004, the Parties divorced through a decree that incorporated a “Marital Dissolution Agreement” and a “Parenting Plan.” The Father, Stephen Ward Smith, Sr., was to pay $1,000/month in child support and obtain a life insurance policy with a face value of $100,000, naming the Children as beneficiaries. The Mother was to provide health insurance for the Children, as long as it was available through her employer, else the Father would obtain health insurance for the Children.
In 2006, the Parties filed petitions against each other for modification. While these matters were pending, the Father asked to have DNA testing to determine paternity of the first child (born in 1989), and the test established that he was not the biological father of the Child. A temporary order was entered in 2007, reducing the Father’s child support obligation to $550 for the “second child” only, reducing the life insurance obligation to $50,000, and to provide health insurance (due to the Mother’s unemployment).
Both Parties then filed motions to amend their original petitions, and a hearing was conducted in 2008. The trial court set child support of the Father at $686.43/month plus $50,000 in life insurance benefits with the Mother as the named trustee. The trial court also included reimbursement to the Mother for extra-curricular baseball expenses.
The steps in the child support analysis begin with a strict calculation of child support, using the “Child Support Worksheet” set forth by Tennessee Comp. Rules & Regulations section 1240-02-04-.05(3). This strict calculation is “presumptively correct,” unless there is a “significant variance” of at lest fifteen percent (15%) between the current support calculation and the prior child support order entered on or after January 18, 2005, as per Tennessee Comp. Rules & Regulations section 1240-02-04-.05(2)(c).
Unfortunately for the Parties, the trial court failed to conduct these two, basic steps after hearing the evidence. Because the trial court did not create a sufficient record for the analysis of the appellate court, the Court of Appeals remanded the case back to the trial court to properly set forth its findings of fact.
Both the terms of the Parents’ Agreement and Tennessee Code Annotated section 36-5-101 gave the trial court the authority to direct the Father provide health insurance coverage for the second Child, and this ruling was affirmed by the Court of Appeals. The correction then made by the appeals court was to calculate each Parent’s pro rata share of the cost of the health insurance coverage for the Child under Tennessee Comp. Rules & Regulations section 1240-02-04-.04(8)(a)(3), and to credit the Father for the Mother’s pro rata obligation for this expense.
Although the Court of Appeals conducted a detailed, financial analysis of the pro rata shares of each Parent’s contributions to the Child’s health insurance, it did not set forth either Parent’s income, occupation, employment history, or education. Of note, although income information was apparently available at a satisfactory level for computation of the pro rata shares of the health insurance obligation, it was apparently – in some unspecified way – inadequate for computation of the Father’s child support obligation. While the child support calculation was remanded back down to the trial court, the health insurance computation was not.
Also, the Court of Appeals vacated the upward deviation for the “extraordinary expenses” of baseball, given the contradiction in the Mother’s testimony and receipts of amounts between $935 and $322.96.
No. M2008-01589-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Sep. 2, 2009).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
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