Tenn. Mom Gets Day in Court After First Agreeing to No Child Support

Tennessee child support law case law summary on correct procedure from the Court of Appeals.

Amanda Marie Sykes v. Joshua Neal Sykes  – Tennessee divorce child support procedure

The mother and father were married in 2000 and had two children.  The mother filed for divorce in 2010, when the children were 9 and 5 years old.  They agreed to a marital dissolution agreement and permanent parenting plan, and the trial court approved it.  The parenting plan provided that both parents would have equal parenting time, and that neither would pay child support.

In September 2011, the State of Tennessee and the mother filed a petition to modify this agreement to provide for the father to pay child support, including retroactive child support.  The trial court denied this motion, and also awarded the father his attorney fees.  The mother appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The Court of Appeals first noted that the original judgment constituted a deviation from the Tennessee child support guidelines, but that the trial court did not make any written findings as to the reasons for this deviation, and that the Tennessee Code mandates that the guidelines be applied.  The court noted that this was true even in a case where the parents had an agreement to the contrary.

Decisions to set aside a final judgment are reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard.  Therefore, the judgment can be reversed only if the trial court applied the wrong legal standard.   The Court of Appeals held that in this case, because the child support regulations had not been followed at the time of the original judgment, the trial court should have reopened the judgment for this reason.  Therefore, it reversed the trial court’s findings, and remanded the case for the trial court to make the relevant determination.  The Court of Appeals also reversed the award of attorney fees to the father.

Justice Cottrell dissented from the opinion of the Court.  She argued that retroactive child support would not be appropriate in this case.  She also took the position that there should be a significant variation in this case, due to the equal parenting time.  She did agree, however, that the case was appropriate for remand, since she believed it was permissible for the court to reopen the case after the final judgment.

M2012-01146-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Aug. 28, 2013).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

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