Tennessee Mom Not Entitled To Childcare Expenses Disproportionate to Her Income
Tennessee child support case summary.
In Re Grace N. – Tennessee child support income determination
The mother and father in this Tennessee parentage case met online in 2009, while the father was living in France. In 2009, he returned to Nashville to live near the mother. The mother and father lived together for a while, but the father moved out within a month. They later reconciled, but did not live together. Their child, Grace, was born in January 2010.
The father brought a petition in Davidson County Juvenile Court to establish parentage, and the mother filed a claim to set child support and parenting time. The daughter was born about a month prematurely, and as a result was susceptible to infection and had low weight. The court granted the father temporary parenting time of about three hours per week in the nursery of the mother’s house. The court also ordered the father to pay $1,331 per month in child support. Another temporary order was agreed to, under which the father received somewhat more parenting time.
The final hearing was held in 2013, at which the father requested equal parenting time. The magistrate found that the request was not reasonable, and not in the child’s best interests. The court also found that the father owed retroactive child support in the amount of $925 per month, as well as over $5,000 in medical and prenatal expenses. The father requested rehearing, and received 85 days per year of parenting time.
On the subject of child support, the juvenile court found that the father’s testimony was not credible, and added over $20,000 to his income to represent the value of bartered services. His child support was set at $1,218 per month, with a finding that he owed over $13,000 in retroactive child support, as well as over $6,000 in medical bills. After credit for garnished payments, the total judgment against him was set at over $12,000. He then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals and raised a number of issues.
The appeals court first looked at the issue of parenting time, where the father won a partial victory. The appeals court found that the guidelines called for the father to receive at least 80 days, and sent the case back for a redetermination that would result in at least that much parenting time.
On the issue of child support, the father made three arguments on appeal. First, he argued that the mother was voluntarily underemployed, and also questioned whether she had actually incurred some of the work-related child care expenses she claimed. He also argued that the lower court erred in imputing income to him.
The mother was a licensed attorney, but had a monthly gross income of only $2,165. She spent much of the day serving as general contractor for the construction of her husband’s new home. She had two housekeepers, and had sent the child to private school without applying for financial aid. Prior to the child’s birth, she had been making over $90,000 per year.
Based upon this evidence, the appeals court held that the lower court had erred in not even considering the issue of voluntary underemployment. It stated that on remand, the father should raise these issues.
In this case, the trial judge had expressed her own views on the relative costs of nannies versus daycare, and the appeals court held that it was improper to do so. And the appeals court also agreed with the father that the mother’s daycare expenses were disproportionate to her earnings, and held that the lower court should have given the matter greater consideration.
The court also agreed with the father that the value of bartered services, to the extent that they were relevant, were not properly considered by the trial court. Therefore, it sent the case back on this issue as well.
For these reasons, the Court of Appeals remanded the case for further proceedings in the Juvenile Court.
No. M2014-00803-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 14, 2015).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
To learn more, see Child Support Laws in Tennessee.
