Opinion ID: 1461936
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: withdrawal of the motion to modify

Text: [¶ 8] Longo claims that the court abused its discretion in allowing Goodwin to voluntarily withdraw her motion for modification. He argues that the withdrawal forecloses him from seeking retroactive modification of the child support amount back to the date that Goodwin filed her motion to modify. The record, however, fails to disclose any occasion on which Longo moved for a modification of the child support amount. [¶ 9] Longo made a judicial admission, in his response to Goodwin's motion to modify, that the parties agreed upon a child support modification to $363 per month. Even in his request to schedule Goodwin's motion for a hearing, in which he stated that he would request that any child support modification be retroactive to the date of the filing of Goodwin's motion, he did not ask that the child support amount be modified. Although the November 1998 case management order states that child support is an issue remaining in dispute, it is unclear why the issue was in dispute given Longo's judicial admission only six weeks earlier. [¶ 10] The record does not reveal any prejudice to Longo from the court's refusal to set aside its approval of Goodwin's withdrawal of her motion. Longo argues that the court's approval of Goodwin's withdrawal denies him the opportunity to request that any child support modification be retroactive to the date of Goodwin's motion. He refers to 19-A M.R.S.A. § 2009(2) (1998) which reads: Child support orders may be modified retroactively but only from the date that notice of a petition for modification has been served upon the opposing party, pursuant to the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure. Apparently Longo views the statute as allowing a party upon whom a motion for child support modification is served to ask that any modification be retroactive. The statute, however, only allows the moving party to ask for retroactivity. [¶ 11] The policy behind the statute is to require that the party who may be adversely affected by a change in the child support amount be put on notice that the amount may change and that the change may be retroactive to the date of notice. See Wood v. Wood, 407 A.2d 282, 288 (Me.1979). Longo has not placed himself within the purview of section 2009(2) because he did not put Goodwin on notice that he was asking for a modification and asking that the modification be made retroactive. The record contains no indication whatsoever of the modification or amount that Longo may be contemplating. [4] Longo has failed to demonstrate an abuse of discretion by the court in allowing Goodwin to withdraw her motion to modify and in denying his motion to set aside the withdrawal.