Absent Reference, Modification Superceded Original Agreement

Tennessee child support modification case summary.

Michael P. Abraham v. Carolynn Abraham

The mother and father in this Rutherford County, Tennessee, case were the parents of two children when they divorced in 2004.  Under the agreed parenting plan, the father was to pay a certain portion of his bonus into a college investment account for the children.  Those funds were to be used for post-secondary expenses unless agreed in writing.

In 2011, the father filed to modify the plan, and it was modified after mediation.  The new plan made no mention of the college accounts.  In 2017, the mother went back to court.  Her allegations included that the father had not been contributing bonuses.  She also alleged that he had withdrawn $20,000 from the account.

The trial court agreed that the father was obligated to repay the $20,000 that he had withdrawn.  But the court also concluded that the father was under no obligation to continue contributions after the 2011 modification.    After some post-trial motions, the mother then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

With respect to the college fund, the trial court held that the 2004 agreement was a contract, and that in the 2011 agreement, the requirement to pay into the college fund ended.  The court noted that the 2011 agreement did not reference the 2004 agreement in any way.  Therefore, the court held that the parties’ intent was to supersede the earlier agreement.

The Court of Appeals agreed with this conclusion.  In fact, the appeals court noted that the college fund was referenced in the 2011 agreement, and called for the mother to make contributions.  The silence of the father’s contribution was taken to mean that there was no such obligation.

The court also reviewed the amount of the father’s contributions, and agreed with the lower court’s disposition of those issues.

The appeals court also reviewed the modified child support calculations and agreed that the lower court had set the amount properly.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling in all respects.

No. M2019-00381-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 27,  2020).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Support Modification in Tennessee | How to Modify Child Support and Child Support Collection & Enforcement in Tennessee.

See also 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 available on Amazon.com.