Tennseee Dad Gets Credit for Child Support Paid Directly to Mom
Tennessee child support case law summary on child support collection from the Court of Appeals.
In re Jacob H. – Tennessee child support collection
Drena D. and James C. were the parents of Jacob H., who was born in 1994. Beginning in 1995, the Juvenile Court of Davidson County, Tennessee, ordered the father to pay child support in the amount of $130 per month. This was later increased to $55 per week, and the father was directed to give the money to the court clerk. He was told that payments made directly to the mother “will be considered a gift.” At some point, the mother requested to get the money directly, and the father complied, although the payments were sometimes sporadic and not always in the correct amount.
In 2012, the mother requested a judgment for the arrearage. Most of the payments had been made by the father’s new wife or by his mother, and the trial court gave the father credit for these amounts. The payments made added up to over $23,000, but the total amount due had been over $40,000. Therefore, the trial court entered judgment for $17,000, but denied prejudgment interest. It also granted partial attorney fees of $1,500.
Both parties then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. The mother first argued that the father should not have received credit for amounts sent directly to her, since the original court order called for payments to be made through the court. Even though the father had not complied with the order perfectly, the appeals court noted that the case came under the equitable considerations exception, and it discussed at length an earlier case where that exception had been applied. It noted that, like in the earlier case, this was a case where the mother was directing the father where to send the payments. It held that not applying the payments would unjustly enrich the mother and lead to an inequitable result. It also found that it was without merit the mother’s argument that the father shouldn’t be credited for checks from the account of his wife or mother.
The father argued that he should have been given credit for a $4,000 money order. But there was some dispute as to whether this money order had been intended to pay the child support, and the father failed to come up with evidence as to how the funds had been applied. The father was even given additional time to come up with this evidence, but failed to do so. The appeals court therefore concluded that the evidence didn’t preponderate against the lower court’s finding, and upheld it.
The appeals court did grant the mother’s appeal as to prejudgment interest. It held that the lower court had no discretion when it came to awarding interest, and remanded the case for that reason. The mother was less successful when it came to increasing her attorney’s fee award. The appeals court held that the lower court had acted properly in awarding only a portion of her fees.
No. M2013-01027-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. Oct. 28, 2014).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
For more information, see Tennessee Child Support Laws. See also Miles Mason’s book available on Amazon.com 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.
