Opinion ID: 746461
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether a Court Arrearage Order is Required

Text: 39 Black stresses that a child support order is a fluid obligation, which he cannot shirk until the obligation has been fixed in a definite amount by a subsequent arrearage order. He argues that in order for the CSRA to kick in, a state court must have entered an arrearage order memorializing his failure to pay child support and the exact amount of support which he owes. That is, one cannot be in arrearage until one is determined to be in arrears. Davis echoes Black's argument and adds that unless a final judgment, or at least a formal court order, is entered against the noncustodial parent, it is impossible to satisfy the CSRA's jurisdictional element, requiring that a delinquent support obligation be greater than $5,000 or be unpaid for longer than one year. Davis further contends that, at the very least, the information entered against him did not allege a cognizable offense under the CSRA because no arrearage order was entered in his case. 40 The CSRA provides that [p]ast due child support refers to any amount--(A) determined under a court order or an order of an administrative process pursuant to the law of a State to be due from a person for the support and maintenance of a child or of a child and the parent with whom the child is living; and (B) that has remained unpaid for a period of one year, or is greater than $5,000.... 18 U.S.C. § 228(d)(1) (emphasis added). It is the emphasized language above which gives both fathers pause; however, their concerns are undue. As far as we can tell, this argument has been raised in only one other case, United States v. Collins, 921 F.Supp. 1028, 1031 (W.D.N.Y.1996), which thoroughly evaluated the issue. Like the defendant in Collins, Black and Davis ask that we read determined under to mean determined by a court order or an order of an administrative process. See Collins, 921 F.Supp. at 1031. These are not the words Congress chose to use. See id.; see also K Mart Corp. v. Cartier, Inc., 486 U.S. 281, 291, 108 S.Ct. 1811, 1817-18, 100 L.Ed.2d 313 (1988) (In ascertaining the plain meaning of [a] statute, the court must look to the particular statutory language at issue, as well as the language and design of the statute as a whole.). 41 Congress could have explicitly required that there be a specific arrearage order entered by a state court or agency which establishes the exact amount owed by the wayward parent. Congress instead required that there be a state court order which creates the underlying obligation due by the nonpaying parent. As the court in Collins explained: 42 It is the trier of fact which must make the required determination whether, based upon the proven court order or agency ruling creating the support obligation, the past due support obligation is within the provisions of the Act, i.e. any amount unpaid for more than one year, or $5,000. Collins' interpretation, if accepted, would create an additional obstacle to compliance, contrary to the manifest purposes of the Act. 43 Collins, 921 F.Supp. at 1030-31. We agree. The CSRA does not envision a formal state order or agency ruling of arrearage as a prerequisite to the exercise of federal jurisdiction. 44 We are also persuaded by the district court's take on Black's argument: 45 For every order, the possibility exists that a court may later alter or vacate it, whether because of changed circumstances, or even because the order was wrong when it issued. As a basic principle, however, this possibility of later change does not relieve the person subject to the order from the responsibility of following it until a court actually does change it. This principle supports the conclusion that if an Indiana court ordered Black to pay child support and he willfully failed to do so for the time or in the amount specified in the Act, he violated the Act regardless of whether he might have been able to get the support order changed. No second order should be required to somehow shore up the first. 46 (internal citation omitted) (emphasis added). Here, there were court orders in both cases which established both fathers' underlying obligations to pay child support. We are satisfied that this is all the language and the purpose of the CSRA require for there to be past due child support. 3 47 Should we not buy the whole arrearage argument, Davis offers an alternative argument that the information filed against him failed to allege a cognizable offense under the CSRA: Both of his children were emancipated at the time the information was filed. This does not matter. The information need only be a plain, concise and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged and need not contain ... a formal conclusion or any other matter not necessary to such statement. F ED.R.CRIM.P. 7(c)(1). The information, however, has to satisfy the requirements of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. To this end, an information is sufficient if it contains the elements of the charged offense and fairly informs the defendant of the charge against which he must defend and enables the defendant to plead an acquittal or conviction in bar of future prosecution for the same offense. Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 117, 94 S.Ct. 2887, 2907-08, 41 L.Ed.2d 590 (1974). 48 Here, the information alleged that Davis violated 18 U.S.C. § 228 because he is a resident of Texas who, from on or about October 25, 1992 to about October 13, 1995, willfully failed to pay a past due support obligation of approximately $100,000 with respect to two children who live in another state, Indiana. The information tracks the language of the CSRA and fills in the particular facts of Davis' case as to each element of the CSRA. We therefore find that the information complies with the dictates of criminal procedure and due process. The sufficiency of the information is determined by looking at the language it employs, separate and apart from the facts proved at trial. We agree with the Government that Davis has blurred considerations regarding the sufficiency of the information with those regarding sufficiency of the evidence. We also reiterate an earlier point that a past due amount of support in excess of $5,000 had accumulated well before either of Davis' sons was eligible for emancipation.