Can Tenn. Child Support Payments Be Returned After Paternity Fraud?

Tennessee child support law on paternity fraud in Tennessee family law from the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

Can Tennessee child support payments be returned in a case of paternity fraud?

TINA MARIE HODGE v. CHADWICK CRAIG – Tennessee child support law – paternity fraud

This is a case of paternity fraud.  The Court of Appeals ruled on whether or not child support payments made by the father, who was not the child’s biological father, may be returned to him retroactively.

Craig Chadwick (the father) and Tina Marie Hodge (the mother) were married in December, 1991, after the mother discovered she was pregnant.  At the time, she had been having sexual relations with both the father and another young man.  She assured the father, however, that he was indeed the father of the as yet unborn child.  The couple had a son in June 1992.  During the marriage, the father also legally adopted another child the mother had from a previous union.  Following her extra-marital affair, the mother filed for divorce in November 2000 and in February 2001, after over nine years of marriage, the divorce decree was finalized.   The court awarded custody of the child to the mother and the father was ordered to pay $250 per week in child support for both children and to provide them with medical insurance.   In January 2005, following the son’s decision to live with the father, the mother began paying child support to the father.

In February 2007, the father obtained a DNA test and discovered that he was not the biological father of the child.  The father continued to treat the child as his own, but following the child’s request to return to live with his mother in March 2007, the father notified her about the test results.  The mother in turn notified the child and relations cooled between the father and the child.

In April 2007, the mother filed a request to obtain custody of the child and to have the child support she paid to the husband cancelled.  In July 2007, the court returned the child to the mother’s custody, cancelled her child support obligations and opened the door for a counter-claim by the father.

In February 2008, the father filed a petition against the mother, alleging that the mother had assured him back in 1991 that he was the father when she actually knew, or should have known, that he was not the father.   The trial court questioned the mother’s credibility and said that she knew that the child’s father might be someone else.  Further, the court held that her decision not to tell the father that she was having sexual relations with another man at the time she discovered that she was pregnant and allowing him to marry her, showed her intent to deceive him into thinking he was the father.  Following a trial, the court ruled in 2009 that the mother’s conduct constituted fraud, intentional misrepresentation and negligent misrepresentation.   The court awarded the father over $23,000 in child support already paid, over $2,000 in medical expenses and insurance paid on behalf of the child and over $1,000 for health plans.  In addition, the court awarded him $100,000 for emotional distress and over $8,000 in attorney fees.

Following the mother’s appeal, the Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s ruling that the mother had intentionally misrepresented to the father that the child was his, but reversed all of the monetary awards.   The appellate court held that the damage award for child support, medical expenses, and insurance premiums was a retroactive modification of the earlier child support order, which was not permitted according to the Tennessee code.   The court also reversed the $100,000 in damages, concluding that noneconomic damages (ie emotional distress) could not be awarded for a misrepresentation claim.  Finally, the appellate court cancelled the award of attorney’s fees because it reversed all the other compensatory damage awards.

The father appealed to the Supreme Court of Tennessee.  He asked the court to determine whether misrepresenting the paternity of a child is actionable as fraud, intentional misrepresentation, or negligent misrepresentation and whether the award of damages based on child support, medical expenses, and insurance premiums was an improper retroactive modification of child support.

Supreme Court: Misrepresenting the paternity of a child is actionable as intentional misrepresentation

The Supreme Court recognized that there were two opposing considerations.  The first is the welfare of the child, including the financial and psychological security established by the initial parent-child relationship.  The second consideration is the unfairness inherent in demanding a man support a child who is not biologically his own.  The Supreme court held that although there was no definitive law on the issue, two laws guided the courts.  Tenn. Code. Ann . 36-2-304(b)(3) held that the proof for rebutting or disproving paternity is based on the weight of the evidence and  Tenn. Code. Ann 36-2-309(b) held that a judgment could be made against the mother or biological father and in favor of the man found not to be the biological father.   The Supreme Court held that the public policy of Tennessee, as “reflected in the Constitution of Tennessee and the statutes enacted by the General Assembly, does not prevent the former spouse of a child’s mother from pursuing common-law damage claims against the child’s mother based on her intentional misrepresentations regarding the identity of the child’s biological father.”

The Supreme Court also found that the mother’s actions were indeed an intentional misrepresentation.  When the mother told the father she was pregnant, she recklessly represented to him that he was the father, even though she did not know if this was true or not.  The father had no reason to know that this representation was false, so he was justified in relying on her statement.  Finally, the father was financially damaged by his belief in what he was told and paid child support, insurance premiums and medical expenses.  There was no issue of family stability that might be influenced by awarding damages since the parents were divorced and the father no longer had a relationship with the child.  The court did not allow a claim of negligent misrepresentation because this claim is limited to commercial transactions.

Supreme Court: A damage award is not a retroactive modification of child support

The Supreme Court held that although Tennessee law, in Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-5-101(f)(1),  prohibits retroactive modification of a child support obligation, the damage award granted to the father was not a retroactive modification.    This section refers to unpaid child support, and prohibits a parent from obtaining legal permission to cancel money owed.  In this case, the father paid all child support owed until the date the child moved to live with the mother and the father’s child support obligation was cancelled.  Further, the father had no legal obligation to pay child support.  The Supreme Court held that the father was tricked by the mother’s  intentional misrepresentations regarding the child’s paternity, and was entitled to recover the monetary loss he suffered as a result.  The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Appeals court that the mother had intentionally misrepresented the child’s paternity, but reversed the Appeals court decision and awarded the father monetary damages for child support, medical expenses and insurance premiums he paid following the divorce.

No. M2009-00930-SC-R11-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Oct. 1, 2012).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

For more information, see Tennessee Paternity Fraud | Child Support Owed After Negative DNA Test and  Tennessee Child Support Answers to FAQ’s.  For legal updates, news, analysis, and commentary, visit our Tennessee Family Law Blog and its Child Support category.  A Memphis child support attorney from the Miles Mason Family Law Group can help you with Tennessee child support issues including setting or modifying child support. To schedule your confidential consultation about Tennessee child support, call us today at (901) 683-1850.