Opinion ID: 2542248
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Ivy's Inability to Pay Her Child Support Precluded Holding Her In Contempt For Failing to Do So.

Text: As discussed above, under the General Assembly's current approach to child support, in certain circumstances support may be ordered and may accrue against an obligor parent even if that parent does not presently have the ability to pay. The $60 minimum support amount, for example, may need to be apportioned, in whole or in part, to a parent with no means to pay it. As this case demonstrates, the General Assembly's inclusion of SSI benefits in the income that may be looked to for support can also result in an award against an impecunious parent. The accrual of a support obligation, therefore, does not depend, at least not entirely, on the obligor parent's ability to pay. The obligor's ability to pay, however, does determine the extent to which support can be collected. Where there is no ability to pay, it is not contumacious to fail to do so. Here, the family court found Ivy in contempt for having failed to pay the support previously ordered. We agree with the Court of Appeals that that finding was in error. A trial court, of course, has broad authority to enforce its orders, and contempt proceedings are part of that authority. Lewis v. Lewis, 875 S.W.2d 862 (Ky.1993). KRS 403.240, moreover, provides that a party's noncompliance with a support or custody decree shall constitute contempt of court, and shall be addressed as such. We review the trial court's exercise of its contempt powers for abuse of discretion, Lewis, 875 S.W.2d at 864, but we apply the clear error standard to the underlying findings of fact. Blakeman v. Schneider, 864 S.W.2d 903 (Ky.1993). Contempt sanctions are classified as either criminal or civil depending on whether they are meant to punish the contemner's noncompliance with the court's order and to vindicate the court's authority and dignity, or are meant to benefit an adverse party either by coercing compliance with the order or by compensating for losses the noncompliance occasioned. Gormley v. Judicial Conduct Commission, 332 S.W.3d 717, 725-26 (Ky. 2010). Since this proceeding was meant to coerce Ivy's compliance with her child-support obligation and not to punish her, it was civil in nature. In a civil contempt proceeding, the initial burden is on the party seeking sanctions to show by clear and convincing evidence that the alleged contemnor has violated a valid court order. See, e.g., Roper v. Roper, 242 Ky. 658, 47 S.W.2d 517 (1932). If the party is seeking compensation, it must also prove the amount. Once the moving party makes out a prima facie case, a presumption of contempt arises, and the burden of production shifts to the alleged contemnor to show, clearly and convincingly, that he or she was unable to comply with the court's order or was, for some other reason, justified in not complying. Clay v. Winn, 434 S.W.2d 650 (Ky. 1968). This burden is a heavy one and is not satisfied by mere assertions of inability. Dalton v. Dalton, 367 S.W.2d 840 (Ky. 1963). The alleged contemnor must offer evidence tending to show clearly that he or she made all reasonable efforts to comply. Id. If the alleged contemnor makes a sufficient showing, then the presumption of contempt dissolves and the trial court must make its determination from the totality of the evidence, with the ultimate burden of persuasion on the movant. There was no dispute here concerning the Cabinet's prima facie case. Ivy contested neither the validity of the family court's child-support order nor the amount of her arrears. The burden was hers, therefore, to show that she had been unable to comply. In many cases, perhaps, a showing sufficient to permit a finding that the alleged contemnor was unable to comply will essentially compel such a finding. Here, however, while Ivy's proof that she was and had been disabled and needy by Social Security Administration standards permitted a finding of inability, we agree with the Cabinet that the receipt of SSI benefits, standing alone, does not compel such a finding. Several courts have held or observed that the receipt of SSI benefits does not preclude the enforcement of a child support obligation where there is evidence that the obligor retains or has regained the ability to earn income from which child support could be paid. Larizza v. Larizza, 286 Ga. 461, 689 S.E.2d 306 (2010); Burns v. Edwards, 367 N.J.Super. 29, 842 A.2d 186 (2004); Hurd v. Hurd, 303 A.D.2d 928, 757 N.Y.S.2d 170 (2003); Lee v. Lee, 859 So.2d 408 (Miss.App.2003). At least two courts, moreover, have held that SSI benefits themselves may support a finding that the recipient has the ability to pay child support, provided that the evidence clearly establishes that payment of the support would not deprive the recipient of the means to live. Whitmore v. Kenney, 426 Pa.Super. 233, 626 A.2d 1180 (1993) (disabled mother admitted at hearing that she could afford from her SSI award $80 per month for child support); Ex parte Griggs, 435 So.2d 103 (Ala.Civ. App.1983) (although SSI benefits not exempt, where payment of child support would have left the SSI recipient with only $160 per month on which to live, it was an abuse of discretion to hold him in contempt for failing to pay). The family court is not free, of course, simply to disregard the Social Security Administration's determinations that an SSI recipient is disabled and needs the full amount of his or her award for subsistence. If earning capacity is to be attributed to the recipient, or if child support is to be demanded from the SSI benefit itself, there must be evidence clearly establishing the recipient's ability to work or the recipient's ability to afford the support payment. We agree with the Court of Appeals that there was no such evidence here. With respect to her SSI benefit itself, Ivy's evidence was that, apparently from the outset of the support order, the benefit had barely afforded her shelter. The $25 to $50 left to her each month, even with food stamps, was a meager provision for clothing and personal care items, and came nowhere near enabling her to afford her $106 support obligation. Ivy, it is true, was obliged to make every reasonable effort to comply with the order of support, but apparently she did make sporadic payments, and on this record it cannot be said that she should have done more. In particular, her housing expense was not shown to have been so out of line as to be deemed a breach of her obligation. [5] Ivy's SSI income, therefore, was not shown to give Ivy the ability to comply with the support order, and to that extent the family court abused its discretion by deeming her failure to pay contemptuous. The family court's contempt finding, however, was not based so much on Ivy's failure to eke out a support payment from her SSI benefit. The court found, rather, that Ivy is able-bodied and capable of providing support, and thus apparently meant to impute to her, during the period prior to the hearing, the capacity to earn enough to pay at least some of the support she owed. [6] The court made no findings in support of this conclusion, as it should have done, and indeed made no reference to any evidence at all. Because the court failed to make findings of fact, our review is essentially for abuse of discretion. The Cabinet insists that the family court's ruling should be upheld because at other hearings in this matter Ivy admitted that she could drive a car and could mow the lawn, and because the court had had many opportunities to observe Ivy in the courtroom and in that way could assess her abilities. We agree with the Court of Appeals, however, that these facts, even if properly considered by the family court, are not sufficient to impute income to Ivy in the face of the Social Security Administration's determination that she is mentally disabled, disabled in a way and to a degree that renders her not only incapable of meaningful employment, in the Administration's view, but incapable as well of managing her SSI benefits. While the family court's courtroom observations are not meaningless, they cannot be the sole basis for the court's assessment of Ivy's mental condition, an assessment requiring specialized training. Moreover, the court itself found Ivy's mental impairment serious enough to affect her fitness as a custodian of her child. Ivy's apparent good physical health, furthermore, and her ability to drive are not directly enough related to employment to alone support the family court's ruling. For a court to impute earning capacity to an SSI recipient, whether post hoc, in the contempt context, or prospectively in the assessment of a support award, in addition to the usual evidence of job skills, job history, and job availability, if any, there must be evidence that addresses the recipient's disability. For example, there may be evidence that the disability has abated, that work exists which could accommodate it, or that despite a disability the recipient has in fact held a job. See Hurd v. Hurd, 757 N.Y.S.2d at 170 (upholding imputation of income to SSI recipient where doctor's report and recipient's own testimony made clear that the recipient's medical condition did not foreclose non-strenuous employment). Absent some such evidence, which, of course, should be reflected in the court's express findings, the family court is not free simply to disregard the SSA's determination. Here there was no such evidence, and so the family court abused its discretion by deeming Ivy's failure to earn support monies contemptuous. Having found a party in contempt, the court's next task is to fashion a remedy. Where, as here, the contempt proceeding is civil, the sanction may serve either to coerce the contemnor to comply with a court order, to compensate a party for losses caused by the contempt, or both. United States v. United Mine Workers of America, 330 U.S. 258, 67 S.Ct. 677, 91 L.Ed. 884 (1947). Coercive sanctions, such as daily fines or incarceration, are punishments imposed until the contempt is purged by compliance with an order. For the punishment to retain its civil character, the contemnor must, at the time the sanction is imposed, have the ability to purge the contempt by compliance and either avert the punishment or at any time bring it to an end. Shillitani v. United States, 384 U.S. 364, 86 S.Ct. 1531, 16 L.Ed.2d 622 (1966); Lewis v. Lewis, 875 S.W.2d at 862. The contemnor bears the burden of proving his or her inability to meet the purge condition, but in imposing that burden the court should be mindful of the contemnor's overriding interest in not being required to perform an impossible act. Lewis, 875 S.W.2d at 864. The court has broad discretion to fashion compensatory remedies, but they must be based on evidence of actual loss. United Mine Workers. Here, in addition to modifying the amount of Ivy's support obligation, the family court found Ivy in contempt for having violated the support order, sentenced her to serve thirty days in the McCracken County jail, but stayed execution of that sentence on condition that Ivy pay her monthly child support obligation of $60.00, as it becomes due, plus pay her arrears as follows: pay $5.00 per month until the arrears are paid in full. Had the court properly found Ivy in contempt, it could, as a compensatory remedy, have ordered her to make payments toward her arrears in an amount she could afford. The court also could have ordered her imprisonment for past non-compliance. Lewis, 875 S.W.2d at 864. The court's attempt to fashion a coercive remedy, however, by threatening Ivy with fixture incarceration for future violations of her support order, did not provide her with a true opportunity for purging, and thus was invalid. [7] As noted above, the purge condition of a coercive order must be something presently within the contemnor's ability to perform. Ivy had no present ability to perform future obligations. By itself, moreover, a future failure to pay would not, in and of itself, the court's order notwithstanding, justify Ivy's incarceration. That future conduct was not, and could not be, the subject of the pending contempt motion because it had yet to occur. If Ivy did fail to pay, she would be entitled to notice, a new hearing, and a finding that at that future point in time she had the ability to comply. See, e.g., Tucker v. Tucker, 10 Ohio App.3d 251, 461 N.E.2d 1337 (1983). Even were it valid, therefore, the court's order would amount to little more than a reaffirmation of the support order. Against this conclusion, the Cabinet seeks to establish the propriety of the family court's order in this case, in part, by reference to a Payment Ledger allegedly reflecting Ivy's success in meeting her child support payments after the entry of the order under review. The Cabinet argues that this Payment Ledger, which is not in the record on appeal, proves the family court was correct in its determination that Ivy had the ability to pay. Accordingly, the Cabinet requests this Court to take judicial notice of the Payment Ledger pursuant to Kentucky Rule of Evidence (KRE) 201. While judicial notice may be taken at any stage of the proceedings, KRE 201(f), it is to be used cautiously by appellate courts. Doe v. Golden & Walters, PLLC, 173 S.W.3d 260, 264-65 (Ky.App.2005). Judicial notice is not appropriate in this instance because the Payment Ledger relates to facts occurring after the contempt hearing and entry of the family court's order. As explained above, a trial court must determine whether contempt sanctions are justified on the evidence before it and then make findings supporting its ruling, a ruling which will be reviewed for an abuse of discretion. Assessing the propriety of that order based on subsequent events is simply not the function, or even prerogative, of an appellate court. Consequently, we decline to take the requested judicial notice. We further note that making child support payments after a family court's contempt order does not necessarily establish an ability to meet those support payments for the time frame at issue in the contempt hearing. In this case, while it is not inconceivable that Ivy obtained a part-time job or received a higher SSI payment, it seems much more likely that obtaining the public housing for which she had been waiting or receiving assistance from her husband in paying the couple's rent and utility bills would explain her newfound compliance with her support obligation. It is also possible that family members who had custody of Ivy's other children stepped up to assist her in some way. In short, even if it were proper to take judicial notice of the Payment Ledger, the facts reflected do not necessarily have any bearing on Ivy's ability to pay for the period at issue in the contempt hearing. Finally, we acknowledge the family court and the Cabinet's frustration with a parent who has chosen to have children despite her very limited ability and, it might seem, her very limited willingness to provide for them. It is a frustration shared by welfare agencies and family courts in every state. Although we agree with the Court of Appeals that in this case the family court's contempt finding was not adequately supported by evidence countering Ivy's proof of disability, and though we disapprove of the family court's attempt to make a future violation of the support order the trigger for contempt sanctions, our rulings are not meant to discourage creative approaches to the problem of non-support. Addressing that problem in a case similar to this one, the Court of Appeals of Maryland has observed that, while punitive sanctions may ultimately be warranted, civil contempt proceedings are not meant to punish, but, in this context at least, to bring about some degree of rehabilitation which may take many forms: If the court desires to proceed with the civil contempt but, due to the defendant's current inability to meet any meaningful purge, is precluded from imposing a sanction of incarceration, it should explore the reasons why the defendant is impecunious and attempt to deal with that situation. Usually, as here, the problem is lack of steady employment, which may, in turn, be occasioned by a variety of circumstances: mere indolence or willful defiance (voluntary impoverishment), physical, mental, or emotional disability, lack of general or specialized education, lack of a diploma, degree, certificate, or license of some kind that the defendant, with some reasonable effort and time, may be capable of obtaining, or a disabling addiction. If unemployment is the problem, the court, upon determining the cause, may... enter reasonable and specific directives to deal with it. The court may order the defendant to pursue employment opportunities in a specific manner. It may order the defendant to pursue necessary education or a diploma, degree, certificate, or license that may be necessary or helpful in making the defendant eligible for meaningful employment. It may direct the defendant to seek a form of treatment for health or addiction problems that has a reasonable chance of dealing with the problem sufficiently to qualify the defendant for meaningful employment. In all instances, the directives must be specific and they must be reasonable. The programs must be available and affordable to the defendant, and they must be relevant to the objective. The court may order the defendant to report periodically, and it may monitor compliance. It may modify the requirements as circumstances warrant. If it appears that the defendant is willfully not complying with the directives, the court may cause criminal contempt proceeding to be filed, aimed at punishing defiance of the directives. If, as a result of that defiance, the underlying support order remains in arrears, the State's Attorney, if so inclined, may pursue a criminal action. Arrington v. Department of Human Resources, 402 Md. 79, 935 A.2d 432, 448-49 (2007). The trial court is not obliged to pursue such measures, of course, and any such measure must follow a valid finding of contempt, but we agree with the Maryland Court's observation that, even in cases where the contemnor's circumstances are so impoverished as to preclude the present collection of support arrears, the trial court is not without options in fashioning a meaningful contempt order.