Opinion ID: 1774555
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: whether the custodial parent who received full child support during the time she had custody of the child is entitled to an arrearage even though the child was emancipated at the time she left home three years prior.

Text: Julius also asserts that Shirley is not entitled to an arrearage of child support, since Ursula left the home three years earlier, and was not relying on Shirley for support. Julius asserts that repayment of such an arrearage would unjustly enrich Shirley, since she did not support Ursula during that period of time. Varner discusses the principles surrounding judicial forgiveness of child support payments. Id. at 434 (Miss. 1991). Varner concerned a case where this Court approved an extra-judicial agreement reducing child support, with proof that the husband paid child support to those children. Varner, 588 So.2d at 436. Here, in contrast, there is no information demonstrating that Julius was paying child support to Ursula for the period from 1989, when she allegedly left Shirley's household, to 1992, when Shirley filed her motion for contempt. Second, this Court noted in Varner that parents have seven years to collect past due child support, and that such awards are made to the custodial parent who has a fiduciary duty to hold for the use of the child. Id. at 432, citing Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-43 (1972). This Court has held that a parent's receipt of child support when the child is self-sufficient was unjust enrichment. Manning v. Tanner, 594 So.2d 1164, 1168 (Miss. 1992). However, the Manning Court reversed a court-ordered overpayment of child support. Manning, 594 So.2d at 1168. In contrast, Julius reduced payments on his own. A unilateral reduction in child support by the paying spouse is a violation of our law. As a result, Julius lacks clean hands under our equity law, which precludes Julius' raising issues of equity himself. See Brennan v. Brennan, 605 So.2d 749, 752-53 (Miss. 1992). No judicial finding exists that Ursula was indeed emancipated in 1989. Julius testified that he acted on the advice of his attorney to stop support for Ursula. Ursula did reach majority on July 12, 1990. This event occurred seventeen months after she allegedly left Shirley's household. Ursula's majority occurred twenty months before Shirley filed her motion for contempt. As a result, this Court concludes that the chancellor implicitly found that Ursula was not emancipated through his award. Where a chancellor fails to make a written determination, this Court presumes all factual findings were made in the appellee's favor. Love, 611 So.2d at 207. However, even after noting Ursula's majority, where a court awards a level of child support for multiple children, one child's leaving does not automatically reduce the level of child support. Manning, 594 So.2d at 1168. The chancellor was well within his authority to set a new level of child support which was higher than one-half of the prior child support. However, absent a contract between the parties for post-majority obligations, or similar exigent circumstances, a child's reaching the age of 21 years is sufficient to automatically terminate support without court order. In summary, this case required a judicial decree determining emancipation of Ursula, if any, prior to her majority. This Court currently requires such a decree in modification of child support payments. To do otherwise in equity, for this case alone, would lead to instability in the law. However, this Court does note our reaffirmance of not allowing any unjust enrichment going to the mother, as opposed to Ursula herself. This Court remands this case to the chancellor for a determination of the date of Ursula's emancipation. The Court can then determine an appropriate award of delinquent child support based on its finding with entry of an appropriate order for arrearage based on those facts. The award of $280 child support for the remaining child after Ursula's emancipation is affirmed. JUDGMENT IS AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED AND REMANDED IN PART. HAWKINS, C.J., and SULLIVAN, PITTMAN, BANKS and JAMES L. ROBERTS, Jr., JJ., concur. DAN M. LEE, P.J., specially concurs with separate written opinion joined in part by SMITH, J. McRAE, J., dissents with separate written opinion joined by DAN M. LEE, P.J., and SMITH, J.