Opinion ID: 15658
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Inability to Pay

Text: The CSRA does not define the term “willfully.” However, the statute’s legislative history provides some indication of what Congress meant by the term. See Ashland Chem. Inc. v. Barco Inc., 123 F.3d 261, 266 (5th Cir. 1997) (“Where a statute is silent or ambiguous as to an issue, we next look to the legislative history for guidance as to the intent of the legislators.”). The report of the House Committee on the Judiciary addressing the CSRA explains the statute’s scienter requirement as follows: The operative language establishing the requisite intent under [the CSRA] is “willfully fails to pay.” This language has been borrowed from the tax statutes that make willful failure to collect or pay taxes a Federal crime, 26 U.S.C. §§ 7202, 7203. Thus, the willful failure standard of [the CSRA] should be interpreted in the same manner that Federal courts have 5 interpreted these felony tax provisions. In order to establish willfulness under those provisions[,] the government must establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that at the time payment was due the taxpayer possessed sufficient funds to enable him to meet his obligation or that the lack of sufficient funds on such date was created by (or was the result of) a voluntary and intentional act without justification in view of all of the financial circumstances of the taxpayer. U.S. v. Poll, 521 F.2d 329, 333 (9th C[i]r. 1975). The willfulness element in the tax felony statutes requires proof of an intentional violation of a known legal duty, and thus describes a specific intent crime. U.S. v. Birkenstock, 823 F.2d 1026, 1028 (7th Cir. 1987). The word “willfully” under the tax felony statutes imports a bad purpose or evil motive. U.S. v. Bishop, 412 U.S. 346, 361 (1973). The Committee intends that the willful failure standard of [the CSRA] be given similar effect as the willful failure standard contained in these tax felony provisions. H.R. REP. NO. 102-771, at 6 (1992), available in 1992 WL 187429; United States v. Williams, 121 F.3d 615, 621 (11th Cir. 1997) (“In light of the Committee Report, and the similarity between the CSRA and the tax statutes that criminalize willful failure to pay money, we conclude it is proper to rely on cases construing the intent element in those tax statutes when construing the CSRA’s willfulness standard.”), cert. denied, 118 S. Ct. 1398 (1998). Mathes contends that the evidence adduced at his trial is insufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that either (1) he possessed sufficient funds during the period alleged in the indictment to pay his past due support obligation in its 6 entirety or (2) his possession of insufficient funds was the result of actions on his part specifically intended to render him unable to pay his support obligation. However, Mathes admitted at trial that, during the period alleged in the indictment, he could have paid some amount toward his support obligation. During direct examination by defense counsel, Mathes testified as follows: Q: Mr. Mathes, do you have the ability to pay over $20,000 and support your current family? A: No way. Q: Do you have the ability to pay anything in excess over what it takes to support your current family? A: Some. Q: How much? A: I really don’t know. There is some money left over from the bills that I pay, the earnings that I make, and then I pay the bills. Yes, there is some money left over, but not $500 a month. Way under that. We conclude that Mathes’s acknowledgment that he could have paid some amount toward his past due support obligation precludes his financial condition from serving as a bar to criminal liability. Mathes’s interpretation of the CSRA as requiring proof beyond a reasonable doubt that, during the period alleged in the indictment, the defendant had the ability to pay the entire amount of past due child support owed possesses no basis in the language of the statute. The CSRA defines “support obligation” to include “any amount . . . determined under a court 7 order . . . to be due from a person for the support and maintenance of a child . . . that has remained unpaid for a period longer than one year.” 18 U.S.C. § 228 (emphasis added). Mathes’s legal obligation to pay Mayers approximately $20,000 in child support arrearages necessarily encompassed an obligation to pay any lesser-included amount that Mathes was capable of paying. Thus, while Mathes may not have willfully failed to pay the full amount of child support arrearages that he owed, he could have willfully failed to pay the lesser amount that he was capable of paying; that lesser amount fits the CSRA’s definition of support obligation, which includes any amount due pursuant to court order that has remained unpaid for longer than a year. Were we to conclude otherwise, child support obligors would be able to insulate themselves from criminal liability by simply failing to make child support payments until the total amount past due is an amount that they are incapable of paying in one lump sum. Construing the CSRA so that it creates such a perverse incentive for extended nonpayment would surely flout Congress’s purpose for enacting the statute: to remedy “the growing problem of interstate enforcement of child support by punishing certain persons who intentionally fail to pay their child support obligations.” H.R. REP. NO. 102-771, at 4 (1992). We therefore conclude that Mathes’s financial condition did not preclude the district court from finding beyond a reasonable doubt that he willfully failed to pay a past due support obligation. 8