Opinion ID: 2637540
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The Statutory Scheme in Force at the Time of the 1988 Divorce Decree

Text: ¶ 18 The legislature recognized in 1987 that an agreement-based reduction (or relinquishment) of past-due and owing child-support installments is effective in law. According to the terms of 12 O.S.Supp. 1987 § 1277 ( renumbered 43 O.S. O.S.Supp. 1989 § 112 ), [33] the obligor-obligee parents by mutual agreement may relinquish the payment of all or a portion of the past due amount. Mutual agreement within the meaning of the statute must address and be confined to that part of the child-support obligation which had accrued at the time of the agreement. [34] The statute clearly transformed the pre-existing equitable defense of contract-based reduction (or relinquishment) of decreed child support into a legal defense and limited its effectiveness to the then-matured unpaid installments that were reduced (or relinquished) by mutual agreement. While the obligor-obligee parents can modify past-due and unpaid installments by agreement, future support is subject only to prospective modification by the court. [35] In sum, the outer reach of the parties' mutual agreement is the reduction (or relinquishment) of matured installments, while the outer limit of statutory power confines the court's authority to reducing (or modifying) unmatured installments.