Mom Could Enforce Old Arkansas Child Support Judgment in Tennessee
Tennessee child support law case law summary on child support collection from the Court of Appeals.
Carole Hoke Johns v. Sam N. Johns, Jr. – Tennessee divorce child support.
Carole Hoke Johns and Sam N. Johns, Jr., were divorced in Arkansas in 1981. Under the Arkansas court order, the father was to pay $1000 per month in child support for the children, who had been born in 1975 and 1979. That court found the father in contempt in 1982 for failing to pay. Up to that time, he had paid only $775, and the mother received a judgment for over $10,000. In 1986, the mother got another judgment for over $14,000.
In 1988, the father moved to Tennessee. In 1993, the father went to court in Tennessee to reduce his child support, since one of the children had reached 18 years old. The other child turned 18 in 1997.
In 1999, the Arkansas court found the father in contempt and calculated his indebtedness at over $40,000. Contempt orders were entered in Arkansas in 2006 and 2007. This time, his indebtedness was over $43,000. The father took this case to the Arkansas Court of Appeals, which affirmed the trial court’s order.
The mother then filed a petition to register a foreign judgment in Madison County, Tennessee, asking for over $46,000. The father filed an action in Tennessee to declare this Arkansas judgment unenforceable, as being past the ten-year statute of limitations for judgments. He claimed that the whole judgment was based on the 1986 judgment, which was time barred.
The trial court agreed that the relevant clock started to run in 1986, and that the judgment could not be registered in Tennessee. The mother appealed this ruling to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
The Court of Appeals looked at the Tennessee statute of limitations, but it also noted that the case was also governed by the federal Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act, which was signed into law in 1994. Under this law, the Tennessee statute of limitations is not applicable. Instead, the case is governed by the Arkansas statute. The father attempted to argue that the case was also barred by the Arkansas statute. But the Tennessee Court of Appeals noted that this same argument had been made and rejected at the Arkansas Court of Appeals. It did, however, look at the Arkansas statute, and determined that the judgment was not too old to be enforced. Therefore, it reversed the trial court and remanded the case for the mother to enforce the Arkansas judgment in Tennessee.
No. W2013-01102-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Nov. 15, 2013).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
For more information, see 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 setting or modifying child support. To schedule your confidential consultation about Tennessee child support, call us today at (901) 683-1850.
