Home-schooling TN Mom Held Voluntarily Unemployed
Tennessee child support law case law summary on voluntary unemployment from the Court of Appeals.
Carl Scott Blankenship v. Amy Lynn Cox – Tennessee voluntary unemployment for child support
Amy Cox and Carl Blankenship were divorced in 2000, and the mother was granted custody of the four children. They returned to court many times as various conflicts arose regarding the children and child support. The father was an anesthesiologist, and the mother had an advanced degree in secondary education. She did not work outside the home during most of the marriage. The father’s child support obligation was originally set at $3,551, and increased to $4,618 in 2002, and then changed to $4,230 in 2004.
The father lost his job in 2010 and was unemployed for six months. In 2011, he filed a petition to modify his child support. He alleged that his income had decreased and that the support should be modified for that reason. During that proceeding, the father asked the court to impute income to the mother on the grounds that she was voluntarily unemployed. After a hearing in 2012, the trial court reduced the obligation to $2,149 per month. The court decided various issues, including the mother’s status. It concluded that the mother was voluntarily unemployed, and imputed income of $2,475 per month. Both parties appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, raising various issues. Among these was the trial court’s determination that the mother was unemployed.
On this issue, the mother first argued that the issue was not properly before the court, since the father had not raised it in his original petition, and was allowed to orally amend his pleadings. The appeals court held that the mother was on notice of this issue, and there was no error in the procedure.
The mother then argued that she was unable to work because she was home-schooling the children, and that she would need to be available to one of the children due to recent emotional issues.
The trial court had held that there was no reason why the mother couldn’t be employed outside the home. The children would be starting high school soon, and the parents had planned for them to attend high school rather than be home schooled after the primary grades. Even though the mother might need to be available some during the day, there was no reason why she could not be employed.
The Court of Appeals carefully reviewed this evidence, and concluded that the trial court’s determination should be affirmed.
No. M2013-00807-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 17, 2014).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
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