State of Tennessee Must Reimburse Dad Over Collection of Child Support
Tennessee law case summary on child support overpayment in divorce and family law from the Court of Appeals.
State of Tennessee ex rel. Suzanna R. Phillips (Bobbitt) v. Anthony Phillips – Tennessee post-divorce child support
The mother and father were divorced in 1999, and the father was ordered to pay child support in the amount of $117 per week. Eventually, in 2002, the support obligation was suspended, but the court ordered that $175 per month be garnished from the father’s Social Security check to satisfy the arrearage which had developed in the past years.
In 2012, the father filed a petition to modify his child support obligation. The trial court agreed, and noted that there had actually been an overpayment of $1521. It ordered that this amount be refunded by the State of Tennessee Child Support Services, which had been collecting it. By the time of the final judgment, this amount of overpayment had increased to $1989. The Court ordered refund of this amount, and also assessed costs against the State of Tennessee.
The State of Tennessee appealed, and argued that the trial court had committed error, since the State was immune from judgment under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. The State argued that since the judgment was “designed to reach the state’s treasury for satisfaction of the payment”, that it was barred by sovereign immunity.
The Court of Appeals disagreed. The father’s petition to modify his child support obligation was not an attempt to reach into the State treasury. Instead, he was only attempting to recover his property from the State’s possession. The Court of Appeals noted that there were Constitutional problems with the State’s argument, since the father had been deprived of his property without Due Process in violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and Article I, section 8, of the Tennessee Constitution. There had been no legal process in the overpayment. It had been done as the result of the State’s mistake, and not done in accordance with law. Therefore, he was entitled to have his property returned to him.
The trial court had authorized the State to recover the refunded funds from the mother. However, since no party had requested this action, the Court of Appeals held it to be improper. Therefore, it affirmed the judgment of the trial court in requiring the State of Tennessee to make a refund, but modified the judgment to remove the provision regarding collecting from the mother. The Court of Appeals also assessed the costs of appeal against the State of Tennessee.
No. No. E2012-01957-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 30, 2013).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
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