TN Dad’s Child Support Case Remanded Second Time to Consider Variables

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

In re: Jaiden C.W. and Caiden J.W. – Tennessee child support calculation

The mother and father were the unmarried parents of two children, both of whom were born in 2006.  During their relationship, the father provided to the mother $400 per month in child support, but the relationship ended in 2007.  At that time, the father stopped paying child support.  The father than filed a petition to establish paternity and to designate a primary residential parent.  In response, the mother petitioned for child support.  The trial court set temporary child support at $329 per week.  This amount was based, in part, upon income imputed to the mother.  The mother appealed that portion of the order to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, but the Court of Appeals declined to overturn the order.  The trial court held a hearing and issued its final order.  It entered a judgment in favor of the mother for over $21,000 in past child support.

The father appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, which reversed, since the trial court had failed to take into consideration the fact that the father had been unemployed for much of the time prior to trial.  On remand, the trial court calculated the amount of past child support as $8,278.  The trial court took the position that the earlier Court of Appeals opinion allowed it to revisit only the father’s income, and not any other factors.  Therefore, it made only a very focused modification of its prior order.

The father brought a second appeal to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  The Court of Appeals first noted that the only issue was whether the trial court had misinterpreted the earlier appellate opinion.  Under the “law of the case” doctrine, an earlier appellate opinion is binding on the issues decided.

However, the Court of Appeals held that law of the case doctrine did not require the trial court to act as narrowly as it had done.  In the earlier appeal, only one issue was addressed, namely, the father’s income.  The earlier opinion did not address any other variables.  Therefore, those other variables had not been decided, either by the trial court or the Court of Appeals, and could still be litigated if necessary.  The Court of Appeals called the trial court’s interpretation of the earlier opinion very “myopic.”

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals remanded the case for a second time, and made clear that the opinion did not limit the trial court’s discretion to deal with the other variables that were necessary to completely decide the case.

M2012-01188-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 11, 2013).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

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