Opinion ID: 852600
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Calculation of Kenneth's Arrearage

Text: The trial court wrongly applied a retroactive modification to reduce Kenneth's support obligation. Although the March 1991 through November 1993 time-frame spans approximately 139 weeks, the trial court obligated Kenneth for only seventy-one weeks. As one might well imagine, when the trial court heard testimony from Kenneth, Kathy, and the children about the children's living arrangements from 1991 through 1993, everyone's memories were dimmed by the passage of more than twelve years. (Appellant's App. at 13, 14.) It is clear, however, that each of the children visited Kenneth for extended periods of time, but at least one child remained in Kathy's care at all times during the 1991 through 1993 timeframe. Although Kenneth proportionally reduced his support payments, he continued to make payments for at least one child through November 10, 1993, suggesting that at least one child remained in Kathy's care. [7] The trial court held that Kenneth should be given credit for any time that any unemancipated child spent living with him. As a result, the court faced the nearly impossible task of determining, in 2005, each child's living arrangements between 1991 and 1993. The court's reduction from 139 weeks to 71 weeks, though unexplained, apparently represented an attempt to credit Kenneth for the time that any child spent in his care. The uncertainty and unpredictability of such judicial determinations, however, are among the reasons for prohibiting retroactive modification. See Nill, 686 N.E.2d at 118-19. The Court of Appeals affirmed this calculation, saying that an implied contract existed between Kenneth and Kathy. Whited, 844 N.E.2d at 551-53. Case law to the contrary is legion. See, e.g., Connell v. Welty, 725 N.E.2d 502, 505 (Ind.Ct.App. 2000) (A parent desiring a reduction of the undivided support order as the children become emancipated must petition the court to modify its original order.); Schrock, 658 N.E.2d at 616 (When a parent is ordered to pay a specified sum of undivided support for more than one child, the parent must pay that amount until the support payments are modified by court order or all of the children are emancipated or reach the age of 21 years.); Jackson, 682 N.E.2d at 552 (applying change of custody exception where all children permanently changed custody). It is clear from Kenneth's payment history that at all times between 1991 and 1993 at least one child dependent on Kenneth's support remained in Kathy's care. Accordingly, Kenneth was not permitted to reduce his payments under the order in gross.
The trial court applied a second retroactive modification, in the form of a maximum parenting time credit, to the November 10, 1993 through March 9, 1995 timeframe, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The courts held that the parenting time credit reduced Kenneth's support obligation from $173 per week to $93 per week. The parenting time credit in the Child Support Guidelines is available for purposes of calculating what support order a court should set. Ind. Child Support Guideline 3(G), 6. It is not an exception to the non-conforming payments rule. Still, we conclude that Kenneth had no child support obligation during the 1993 through 1995 timeframe. Kenneth made his last child support payment on November 10, 1993, the day that his youngest son, Joshua, permanently moved back to Indiana. By this time, Kenneth and Kathy agreed that the two older children, Faith and Benjamin, were emancipated and neither remained in Kathy's care. (Appellant's Br. at 26.) Even though Kenneth was subject to an order in gross, once Joshua moved back to Indiana on November 10, 1993, no child remained in Kathy's care. Therefore, the change of custody exception terminated Kenneth's support obligation in its entirety. Nill, 686 N.E.2d at 118.
Thus, Kenneth owed all amounts directed by the 1991 order in gross until November 10, 1993, and nothing thereafter.