After Three Appeals, Dad Must Pay $23,000 Back Child Child Support

Tennessee child support arrearage case summary.

State ex rel. Sharon Denise Townsend v. Eric Wayne Williamson

This Shelby County, Tennessee, parentage case of a child born in 1998 made three trips to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  After the father filed a 2003 petition to establish parentage, the trial court awarded both parents joint custody with the mother the primary custodian.  The father was ordered to pay $521 per month in child support in addition to medical insurance and other expenses.  The parties continued to litigate various issues over the years, culminating in a 2017 order finding that the father owed over $23,000 in child support arrearages.  The father then brought the third appeal.  He argued that the trial court had committed various errors in the computation.

The father first argued that he was entitled to a credit for amounts paid between 2003 and 2006.  At this time, there was no child support order in effect due to mistakes made by the court clerk’s office, and the appeals court had ruled in the first appeal that there was no final order.

But the appeals court noted that the trial court had corrected the mistakes in 2006, and that if the father had sought credit for amounts paid before this time, he should have appealed the correction order, which he did not.  The appeals court also noted that even if there had not been a valid order at the time, the father still had an obligation to pay support.  Since he was legally obligated to make the payments he made, it would not be proper to credit these payments to offset future support obligations.

The appeals court then turned to the father’s argument regarding errors in computation.  The state had initially claimed over $30,000, but the father’s attorney had stipulated to the $23,000 amount finally awarded.  The appeals court dealt with the issue by pointing out that this stipulation was binding.

The only remaining issue was whether the father was entitled to credit for amounts he had paid for necessaries.  The court stated that to prevail on this claim, the father had the burden to prove that he paid necessary expenses that were the obligation of the mother, but that she had failed to pay.

In this case, the father had submitted a list, including categories such as “entertainment,” “gift,” and “furniture.”  The appeals court first noted that because of the statute of limitations, it is proper to look back only six years.  And the trial court had examined the expenses within the six years and had concluded that they did not meet the definition of necessaries.  The appeals court examined the record and agreed with the lower court that the father hadn’t met the burden of proof.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling.

No. W2017-01290-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. June 21, 2018).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Support Collection & Enforcement in Tennessee.

See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring actual examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.