TN Dad Reimbursed $40,000 from Mom After Overpayment of Child Support
Tennessee child support law case law summary on overpayments from the Court of Appeals.
Martin William Huffman v. Angela Shayne Huffman – Tennessee child support overpayment
The mother and father were the parents of three children and were divorced in 2002. In 2006, the father asked the court to modify his child support obligation. The trial court ordered an upward deviation from the Tennessee child support guidelines, and the father appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. In 2009, that Court reversed the trial court’s ruling and remanded the case because the trial court had failed to give specific reasons for the departure.
On remand, the trial court found that the father was entitled to a reduction, and that he had overpaid child support, based upon the guidelines, for approximately five years. Under the child support worksheets, the father’s obligation would have paid approximately $35,000 during that period of time. But during that time, the father had overpaid by approximately $39,000. Even though the father had overpaid, the trial court held that he was not entitled to any credit or judgment for overpayment. It accomplished this by including an upward deviation from the guidelines retroactively “due to the drastic nature of the modification” that would have otherwise been retroactively applied. The trial court reasoned that it was not “economically viable” for the mother to pay back the overpayment, and that neither party was to blame for it.
The father brought a second appeal to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, and argued that the trial court should have given him a credit or judgment for the amount of the overpayment. The Tennessee Court of Appeals agreed. The court stated that prior precedents required a credit for overpayment, and there was no authority for giving the trial court discretion to forgive repayment. The court called the situation an injustice to the father. Therefore, it reversed the judgment, and remanded the case once again for the trial court to come up with an appropriate repayment schedule for the mother to reimburse the father.
The Court of Appeals also uncovered a mathematical error in the trial court’s computation of the overpayment. After analyzing the situation, it held that the father had overpaid $40,607, and was entitled to a refund of this amount. The court also assessed the costs of appeal against the mother.
No. M2012-01538-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 1, 2013).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
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