Court Opinion

ID: 9687701
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:42:42.200554+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:30.150357
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring in result).
Although I concur with the result of this opinion, the facts and language of this opinion deserve an elaboration.
First, this Court could rely upon Hahne v. Hahne, 444 N.W.2d 360 (S.D.1989), for the reason that the monthly child support, while the father was in the South Dakota State Penitentiary, was not established in the instant proceeding. In essence, an issue, namely child support, was “an existing fact;” in the holding of Hahne, it was an “existing fact which was either known or should have been known and litigated.” Hahne at 363. The majority opinion states: “The existence of this child support order forecloses the operation of the automatic child support statute.” I wholeheartedly agree that the child support statute could not retroactively rescind the previous court order on support (which imposed no child support at all) and now impose a liability for support.
Secondly, it is to the mother’s credit that for 1⅛ years she supported this child and never obtained public assistance; it should be noted, also, that for these 7½ years, she did not ask the trial court to establish child support. By her own affidavit dated September 16, 1988, approximately 6V2 months after the father was released from the State Penitentiary, she expressed that she did not want to press child support obligations because she hoped that the father would stay out of “my new family’s lives.”
Third, the father has sought to renew father-son ties with his son, a fact which she also mentions in her affidavit. Apparently, since his release from prison, he has attempted to, and accomplished, paying support for this child.
Fourth, there is language in this opinion which I believe should be addressed concerning the operation of the automatic child support statute. The Honorable Merton B. Tice, Jr., on October 20, 1989, entered his order, which contained imposition of child support pursuant to SDCL § 25-7-7 and which at that time provided that child support could be established by a “court or administrative agency.” However, the “Mini-Judges” have been abolished in the State of South Dakota. I coined this noun to apply to hearings officers established by the Department of Social Services who were unlawfully and ostensibly setting themselves up as judges. I decried their usage and power in my concurrence in result in Bruning v. Jeffries, 422 N.W.2d 579 (S.D.1988) upon the grounds that no administrative agency could set child support because it was a violation, inter alia, of the doctrine of separation of powers. In 1989, the South Dakota State Legislature repealed SDCL § 25-7-7 and replaced it with SDCL § 25-7-6.1 which firmly fixed the power to establish child support "... by a court.” The words “administrative agency” were deleted. So ended the problem on the conflict regarding separation of powers.
Therefore, the present language of this opinion which entails two sentences and one full paragraph on establishing child support by a court or administrative agency is not in keeping with the present law of this state. The Legislature has a recent enactment and the recent enactment is controlling. “When determining legislative intent, we must assume that the legislature in enacting a provision has in mind previously enacted statutes relating to the same subject matter.” In re Estate of Smith, 401 N.W.2d 736, 740 (S.D.1987). Most specifically, I take exception to this language: “... the statute is effective only when there has been no judicial or administrative determination of a parent’s child support obligation. The purpose of this statute is to provide support without the necessity of, *641or before commencement of, legal or administrative action.” Only the judicial branch in this state can set child support.
It is now 1990, as I write, and in a few days will be 1991. To render a decision, with obiter dicta, tacitly, if not expressly, approving of child support being established by an administrative agency, flies in the face of statutory language to the absolute contrary.