Mom Lost Claim for Retroactive Tennessee Child Support Because Claim Too Old

Tennessee child support law on statute of limitations in Tennessee family law from the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

[See, Back Child Support Can Be Limited to 5 Yrs: New Law in 2017]

Anna Ruth Collins (Eisenberg) v. The Estate Of Harvey L. Collins – Child Support and the Statute of Limitations

Anna Ruth Collins, the mother, and Harvey L. Collins, the father, were divorced in 1965.   At that time, the father was ordered to pay child support in the amount of $40 per week.  In 1970, the mother filed an action to obtain the child support but the case was dismissed because the father could not be found.   In 1979, the youngest child graduated high school, at which point the father’s obligation for child support ended.  In February, 2011, the mother filed a petition for child support against the father’s estate, claiming he had never paid any child support and that she was owed over $1,600,000 retroactively.  The father’s estate asked for a summary judgment, that is, that the case be decided without a trial, arguing that the statute of limitations was 10 years, beginning from 1979,  and therefore the mother had no legal claim to the money.  The trial court rejected the mother’s petition.

Petition filed after the statute of limitations ran out

On appeal, the mother argued that due to a change in the law, the statute of limitations should not apply to her request for child support.   The mother’s last opportunity to petition for child support was in 1979.  At that time, Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-110(2) applied, which limited the amount of time a petition could be filed to 10 years.  In 1989, ten years after the last child support payment should have been made, the statute of limitations ran out and the law prohibited the mother from filing a petition.  In 1997, a new law was enacted, Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-5-103(g), which said that there is no statute of limitations on awards for child support.  The mother argued that this second law should be applied retroactively to permit her to file for child support.

The appeals court rejected the mother’s claim, citing various cases to show the importance of the date on which the petition is filed.   In an earlier case, Rodakis,  the defaulting parent claimed he did not have to pay support on the portion of a judgment that was made more than ten years before the petition was filed to enforce the judgment.  In other words, a judgment was given which included back pay of child support, and when the custodial parent filed for the judgment to be enacted, the obligor parent claimed some of the money was owed over ten years prior.  The court rejected the claim that there was a statute of limitations, since the judgment on the entire child support issue had been given within the last ten years.  In Rodakis, however, the judges distinguished this from the case in which the custodial parent did not actually bring “an action to enforce the judgment” for over 14 years.  In that case, the court ruled that the statue of limitations had run out.   Citing other cases, the appeals court held that once a judgment is given, as is the case here, the custodial parent has 10 years in which to petition it’s implementation.

Tennessee Mother loses appeal – new law not applied retroactively

The appeals court held that the new law from 1997, which would have eliminated the statute of limitations, cannot be applied retroactively.   Since the last child support payments were due in 1979, the statute of limitations ran out in 1989.  The father (or his estate), according to the law in force in 1989, were no longer responsible for the child support or arrearages.   In a similar case, San Mateo, the court held that the new rule from 1997 “cannot be applied retroactively so as to resuscitate a claim that had expired under existing law.”  One reason for this prohibition is that the other party relies on the particularly law.   Citing an earlier case, the court held that “the right to rely upon the statute as a defense is

a vested right that cannot be disturbed by subsequent legislation.”  The court handed down a judgment in 1965, child support ended in 1979, and the mother’s claim to child support expired in 1989.   The father, or his estate, relied on this statute  and  no later rule could apply retroactively and deny the right.  The appeal was denied and the case dismissed.

No. E2012-00079-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Nov. 19, 2012).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

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