our fourth case of the call of the docket is one zero nine one five one yellow department health care and family services versus margaret was the watty but your how to pronounce th good morning your honour's thank you diane potts on for the attorney general's office on behalf of the department of health care and family services it please the court the issue today is whether the general assembly intended in hundred thirty years ago the general assembly an act of the interests act of eight hundred seventy nine and the original interest provision in that statute provided that judgments are covered before any court shall draw interest at the rate of five percent until satisfied that provision over the last hundred thirty years has remained almost exactly unchanged except for the rate of interest that was charged it was five percent and eight hundred seventy nine it rose up to support in relation to this interest statute in the case of pope versus pope in one nine hundred fifty four it was a divorce case and the father was ordered to pay support to the mother failed to do so and when the mother brought him into court several years later the trial court refused to award interest on those missed payments of child support when this case when that case came to this court  that the interest should be run on each missed periodic payment of support the father said no it shouldn't run until the time that the trial court actually enters a judgment reducing all of those missed payments of support to a money judgment that can be satisfied this court agreed with the mother and reverse the trial court and awarded interest on those missed payments yes a you know the department of health care and family services is the child support agency and we have a database that contains all of the orders for support for the fourteen program not private individuals but everyone in the principal accrued in child support arrearages with about nine hundred million of that owed to the state now as of the date we ran the figures finding out what is still owed out there illinois to answer your question your honor the department has always taken the view that the nine hundred eighty seven amendments to the child support statutes and to the codicil procedure and finding out the election well collection is is it's you're exactly right it's one thing what you know and then it's another sceptic like that but what the department does do is when it gets a the most support in it applies that payment to the current child support that's out if there's anything remaining it goes to on a ridge that's and then at the very at and it goes to later after the polk case this court decided finley versus finley and it really rejected the petitioners argument that mr periodic payments of support actually constituted money judgments for which the interest  would be automatically applicable instead this court recognized that the trial court said is a chancery court and that would have all powers it had at will powers and one of those at world powers would be to award interests as it saw fit but the general assembly in one thousand nine hundred seven changed the whole ball game change the fundamental character of missed payments of child support and turned them into actual judgments that a ruse by operation of law the provision that was added to the illinois marriage and dissolution of marriage act the parentage act in the public aid code provided that in any new or existing support order entered by the court shall be deemed to be a series of judgments against person obligated to pay support there under each such judgment in the amount of each payment or installment of support and each such judgment to be deemed the corresponding payment becomes jus under the support order each judgement shall have the full force effect an attribute of any other judgement of the state including the ability to be enforced the significance of that is that now unpaid missed payments of child support constituted actual judgments which bring that into the express provisions of the interest statute that is  for the last hundred thirty years and that alone would have satisfied applying interest in requiring interest and for missed payments of child support but the general assembly in one thousand seven when even further than that and expressly amended the code of civil procedure section twelve cash one zero nine i'm to provide that every judgment arising by operation of law from a child support order shall bear interest as provided in section two dash thirteen o three commencing thirty days from the effective date of each such judgment the general assembly did not touch section two desk thirteen zero three of the code of civil procedure and it then read as it does now r shall bear interest and shelter i interest you know those provisions are mandatory there are self explanatory and their final in south executing failed to consider and failed to see is that the federal law that was being mandated and let me just back up is part of running the forty program and getting funds from the federal government the states childs for program has to be in compliance with what the feds require and what the fed said that they are acquiring each state to the federal government or to what the what it what's clear from the from the legislative history is that the legislators were very concerned about the loss of the federal funding approximately twenty million dollars at the time that had been coming c section six six six a nine which required every state to have laws that provide that a payment of child support is an actual judgment by operational glom with the full force of facts and attributes of a judgment of the state including the ability to beat them for first illinois as a as i mentioned at the beginning for the last hundred thirty years has said one of the attributes of a judgment is that it draws interest and so to bring illinois law in district compliance with what the feds were demanding the general assembly passed the child support amendment and it pas the amendment to the codicil procedure to specifically say when the interest shall begin on a mr payment of child support there's no nothing in the record  that but because the federal law required the attributes of miss child support payments to be judgments that's the significance of that of that mandate  your honour's the appellate court also you know not only did it fail to look at the plain language of the of the amendments it also misconstrued this course decision in finley it concluded that this court intended to make judgments for just dissolution judgments something different than other money judgments not so it on earth when this court decided family it was looking at a more a mother who was forced to go without support for ten years and him the trial court awarded interest on looseness payments and it was decided a time when these payments did not that didn't get automatic interest like all the other judgments had conflicts with the plain language of the interest tacked which the last hundred thirty years has required interest and judgements are covered in any court your honors as a public policy families that are forced to go without support should not be treated less important than any other judgement hold this court recently has held in the landis case in the holly case the old case and owsley case that the the legislature's use of the word shall means a mandatory requirement we ask that the fifty two thousand that was agreed upon in the trial court recognize the trial court's ruling that there should be no interest calculated on the judgments that accrued before two thousand if you the interest that accrued prior to two thousand and amounts to about ten thousand dollars so what we were asking the trial court to get to give us was a judgment for sixty two thousand dollars but after the trial court made its legal ruling we went through the calculations took out the interest prior to two thousand and that's where we came of course a process that the fifty two thousand dollar number would you agree to that judgment well incorrect legal holding that in fact interest was mandatory prior to two thousand and mrs was a while he's entitled to a judgment that includes the interests that accumulated prior to two thousand and then amounts to about sixty two