Court Opinion

ID: 9663362
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:36:01.0683+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:47.539148
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring in part; concurring in result in part).
Believing that this opinion is conceptually oxymoronic, I concur in part and concur in result in part.
I concur with that aspect of the opinion which affirms the child support arrearages of $3,300 which the mother has refused to pay and a reduction thereof at the rate of $150 per month. She has brought her appeal to the highest court of this State with unclean hands, desiring equity. She supplicates the Court to, in effect, reduce child support payments now established at $200 per month (formerly $300 per month and then reduced to $200 per month). I would dismiss her appeal in its entirety were it not for Finding of Fact VI entered by the trial court which states: “That Petitioner John W. Adams, has refused to grant Respondent reasonable visitation of the Parties’ children.” Thus, both parties are in court with unclean hands. For recent expression, on cases in this Court, involving this hoary old doctrine (but still as good as gold), see Müller v. County of Davison, 452 N.W.2d 119 (S.D.1990); Stack v. Stack, 369 N.W.2d 132, 136 (S.D.1985).
To understand my oxymoronic thesis, I would ask the reader to digest my recent concurrence in result in Nelson v. Nelson, 454 N.W.2d 533 (S.D.1990). Said concur*232rence in result cites previous writings of mine, all pertaining to the “mandatory child support guidelines.” Question: When, in the past, the trial judges of this State have been “mandated” like robots or automatons to follow a schedule, how do they exercise a discretion? * Conceptually oxymoronic? Surely.
We cannot expect men and women who sit on the trial bench to use their intelligence and experience by exercising a sound discretion, and then be mentally tied and bound and say to them, in effect: do what the guidelines say. It’s oxymoronic. And that is why I have pointed out in Nelson v. Nelson that the fine print, namely SDCL 25-7-6.10, via a 1989 amendment, changed the ball game by including “(2) Any financial condition of either parent which would make application of the schedule inequitable.”
This case has been a long time brewing. Too long. It started in the summer of 1987 in Kansas. In the fall of 1987 there was some processing in South Dakota but not until the fall of 1988, was there some genuine legal activity. In late fall of 1988, a memorandum opinion was filed. Not until January 24, 1989, were findings of fact and conclusions of law formally entered, obviously, a 1989 amendment was not in effect and the trial judge decided this case under the old “mandatory child support guidelines.” This Court is reversing him because of a (1) stale affidavit which he took into consideration and (2) he did not follow the guideline rubrics. My writings consistently reflect that trial judges should be, and are, imbued with constitutional power to decide cases which includes setting child support in accordance with their good judgment and discretion. Therefore, following that consistent rationale, which I have expounded on in the past, at great length, I would not reverse this trial judge for failure to follow the rubrics emanating from the bureaucrats in Washington, DC. The majority opinion heavily relies on Thompson v. Thompson, 366 N.W.2d 845 (S.D.1985) written for this Court by this writer. Indeed, Thompson is extremely apposite to this case. Thompson was a case of first impression on RURESA. We relied therein on County of Stanislaus v. Ross, 41 N.C. App. 518, 522, 255 S.E.2d 229, 231 (1979) which contains identical language now employed in this opinion. Thompson cited three cases for the proposition that child support payments must be “... based on the circumstances presently before that court.”
This takes me to a final point which is this: In my opinion, this trial court decided the financial circumstances based on a stale affidavit. It was not based upon “circumstances presently before that court.” For that reason, I join in the reversal and for that reason only. As I read the law, particularly SDCL 15-6-43(e), the trial judge can now hear this case on affidavits wholly or partly on oral testimony or depositions. The ball is on his side of the net. Saturnini, 110 N.W.2d at 511. “Where the' facts are complicated or the affidavits so conflicting as to render cross-examination essential, then the desirability of expeditious procedure must give way to a more formal hearing.” Saturnini, 110 N.W.2d at 483. Quoted with approval in Dixon at 511.

 According to Havens v. Henning, 418 N.W.2d 311 (S.D.1988), a circuit judge must exercise his "discretion in setting the child support obligation when the obligor’s net monthly income exceeds $1,500.” Here, under Conclusion of Law IV, the trial judge found the combined income of the mother and her new spouse to be approximately $1,702 per month. Inasmuch as this amount was over $1,500, perhaps the trial judge did not feel obliged to strictly go under the guidelines, per our decision in Havens. One may assume that he thus did not articulate the various criteria .for a deviation. To put it another way, the trial judge might well have acted expressly under the theory of Havens, which is the "abuse of discretion” test when the income exceeds $1,500.