Opinion ID: 1632443
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Credit on the Arrearage Judgments

Text: Mrs. Cochran next contends that the trial court misconstrued paragraph 8(d) of the settlement agreement by erroneously concluding that the $500 child-care provision terminated in September 2004, the month after S.S. began first grade, and she argued that the trial court lacked the power to void the arrearage judgments of 2002 and 2003. Because we agree that the trial court was without jurisdiction to void the arrearage judgments, we do not decide whether it correctly identified the terminus ad quem of the child-care provision. It is well settled that child support payments become final judgments on the day they are due and may be collected as any other judgment is collected; and that payments that mature or become due before the filing of a petition to modify are not modifiable. See State ex rel. Howard v. Howard, 671 So.2d 83 (Ala.Civ.App.1995); Cunningham v. Cunningham, 641 So.2d 807 (Ala.Civ. App.1994); Glenn v. Glenn, 626 So.2d 638 (Ala.Civ.App.1993); Frasemer v. Frasemer, 578 So.2d 1346 (Ala.Civ.App. 1991); Barnes v. State ex rel. State of Virginia, 558 So.2d 948 (Ala.Civ.App. 1990); Endress v. Jones, 534 So.2d 307 (Ala.Civ.App.1988). Furthermore, it is well settled that a trial court has no power to forgive an accrued arrearage. See, State ex rel. McDaniel v. Miller, 659 So.2d 640 (Ala.Civ.App.1995); Hardy v. Hardy, 600 So.2d 1013 (Ala.Civ. App.1992), cert. denied, Ex parte Hardy, 600 So.2d 1016 (Ala.1992). Although the trial court has the discretion to give the obligated parent credit for money and gifts given to the child or for amounts expended while the child lived with the obligated parent or a third party, it may not discharge child support payments once they have matured and come due under the divorce judgment.  Ex parte State ex rel. Lamon, 702 So.2d 449, 450-51 (Ala.1997) (emphasis added). See also McIlwain v. Atchison, 571 So.2d 1181, 1182 (Ala.Civ.App.1990) (distinguishing Keller v. Keller, 370 So.2d 306 (Ala.Civ. App.1979), and holding that the trial court... lacked the authority to allow the father credit against a [1986] arrearage judgment for sums paid by the father to support and maintain the child for periods of time [from 1986 to 1989] when the child did not reside with the mother). Thus, to the extent that the modification order deemed the arrearage judgments fully satisfied and void, the order is reversed. [4]