Opinion ID: 2585502
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: THRASH v. THRASH

Text: ¶ 8 The majority opinion relies on Thrash v. Thrash, 1991 OK 32, 809 P.2d 665, for the across-the-board proposition that equitable defenses may be invoked against the enforcement of child support judgments. In Thrash, the parties' divorce decree provided that father was to pay $220 per month child support until his gross salary reached $1,500, at which time he was to pay child support in an amount equal to 15% of his gross salary. In 1987, mother filed an application for contempt citation alleging that father was in arrears for child support in the amount of $31,876.80, based upon his income tax returns for the years through 1986. The trial court found father not guilty of indirect civil contempt, but entered judgment against father for the arrearage. On appeal, father argued that since mother made no attempt to enforce the automatic increases in child support based on his gross salary from the time the parties were divorced until 1987, the equitable doctrines of waiver, laches and estoppel barred mother's recovery of the arrearage. We disagreed, saying: No set of facts has been stated for this Court to conclude that the appellant may in this case defeat the claim for the arrearage by interposing equitable defenses. Thrash, 809 P.2d at 668. In reaching this decision, we made a gratuitous comment regarding the availability of equitable defenses. We said: The appellant is correct in concluding that equitable defenses may be invoked to bar the recovery of delinquent child support payments. Id. This comment was certainly not essential to our holding in the case and is mere obiter dicta. ¶ 9 More importantly, Thrash was decided in 1991, and was based on pre 1987 child support arrearages. Thus, it was decided before 43 O.S. § 137(A) transformed an order in equity for the payment of continuing child support into a judgment by operation of law as each installment falls due and remains unpaid, and before the Legislature made child support judgments enforceable until paid in full, with no statute of limitations and no dormancy.