Opinion ID: 2637540
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Father's Agreement-based Defense

Text: ¶ 13 Father argues that Mother waived her right to collect past-due and unpaid child support because of an oral agreement she made with him shortly after the divorce petition was filed but before the decree's entry. By its terms she is said to have agreed to accept fifty percent less than the amount reflected in the decree. According to his testimony Mother thought the amount to be decreed as child-support obligation was excessive. She allegedly agreed that if he would assume responsibility for all the bills and not ask for the return of any items she took out of the house she would accept as full satisfaction the reduced amount of child support. [28] This agreement was not incorporated in the decree. ¶ 14 Father also testified that after his post-decree bankruptcy, [29] Mother informed him that the mortgage company and a finance company sought a judgment against her. According to Father, she then agreed to accept a lesser amount of child support in return for his keeping her whereabouts unknown to process servers. He testified that arrearages began accruing in August of 1989 and that he stopped paying child support in 1995 [30] because his second child had reached the age of majority. Father claimed that Mother never pressed him for payment of any arrearages until she brought contempt proceedings in June of 2000, when the youngest child was 21 years old and the oldest 27. He argues Mother's silence and her inaction for such a long time show that she acquiesced in receiving lesser sums of support as well as evince that there was some understanding between the parties. ¶ 15 Mother disputes the existence of an oral agreement. She claims she neither agreed to reduced child support nor acquiesced (by silence or inaction) in accepting a lesser amount. According to Mother, she would occasionally contact Father about the reduced payments, but after her youngest son, EMH, reached the age of 19, she no longer tried to contact him about child support. She testified that several years before EMH's 19th birthday, she approached two lawyers about collecting the unpaid child support. Faced with financial difficulties as well as problems between Father and her oldest son, Mother chose not to then commence enforcement proceedings.