Court Opinion

ID: 9761988
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:05:15.405861+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:28.879605
License: Public Domain

OPINION
COOPER, Justice.
William Hodge Blackburn has appealed from a decree of the Chancery Court of Madison County sustaining appellee’s motion for summary judgment and holding appellant liable for payment of support for his daughter, Betsy Ware Blackburn, until she reaches twenty-one years of age. Appellant insists he was relieved from the obligation of making child support payments when his daughter reached the age of eighteen.
Appellee, Virginia Ware Blackburn, obtained a divorce from appellant by decree entered on August 15, 1961. In the final decree, the chancellor expressly approved and incorporated by reference a property settlement and child support agreement, including a supplement thereto, which had been entered into by the parties in June, 1961, in contemplation of the divorce. The agreement provided, in pertinent part, that the appellant would pay to the appellee five hundred dollars each month for the “support, maintenance and education of the children during the first two years after entry of the divorce decree,” and
“14. Beginning after two years after the entry of the decree of divorce, the Husband [appellant] will pay to the Wife [appellee] an amount equal to thirty (30%) percent of his net income . for the support, maintenance and education of the three children of the parties until the eldest of said three children reaches the age of twenty-one (21) at which time said payments shall be reduced to twenty (20%) percent of net income. Said payments shall continue at twenty percent of net income until the second child of the parties reaches age twenty-one (21) at which time the payments shall be reduced to ten (10%) percent of net income, and shall continue at this rate until the youngest child of the parties reaches age twenty-one (21), at which time said support payments shall cease.”
The agreement also contained a specific provision for the payment of college tuition and education expense, in pertinent part as follows*.
*465“15. In addition to the support payments set out in the above two items the Husband agrees to pay the college tuition of each of the three children of the parties, at any of the following State Universities: University of Tennessee, University of Alabama, or Auburn University. Each child under this provision shall be provided with four years of college education. Included in this provision is the Husband’s obligation to pay the expenses of room and board for each child, in addition to any regular tuition charge made by the University . . . . In the event that any one of said children does not attend college, or having entered upon a college program, but does not complete four years of same, then the obligation of the Husband will be reduced proportionately, the obligation of the Husband in this instance being only toward the college education of said children.”
At the time the agreement was executed by the parties, their minor children were Karen Ann Blackburn, age fifteen years, William Stanley Blackburn, age nine years, and Betsy Ware Blackburn, age six years.
On May 11, 1971, Section 3 of Chapter 162, 1971 Public Acts of Tennessee, now codified as T.C.A. 1-313, became effective and provided that: “Any person 18 years of age or older shall have the same rights, duties and responsibilities as a person 21 years of age or older.”
On June 16, 1973, the youngest child of the parties, Betsy Ware Blackburn, became eighteen years of age. Appellant then ceased making child support payments to appellee for the benefit of Betsy. (Appellant concedes he is bound to pay his daughter’s college tuition and expense as set out in the agreement and the decree of the Chancery Court.)
Appellee filed the present action, with the result that the chancellor sustained ap-pellee’s motion for summary judgment and ordered appellant to continue to make child support payments to appellee until Betsy Ware Blackburn reaches the age of twenty-one years. This appeal resulted.
A husband and wife contemplating divorce oftentimes enter into a property settlement agreement, which also provides for periodic payment of a specified amount for the support of their minor children. The agreement on child support payments is not binding on the trial court, but is evidence to which the court will look in determining the amount of child support needed and to be paid by the husband or, in a few instances, by the wife. If the trial judge accepts the agreement of the parties as the proper amount of support for the minor children and incorporates it in the decree of divorce, the agreement becomes merged into the decree and loses its contractual nature. Whitt v. Whitt, 490 S.W.2d 159 (Tenn.1973); Penland v. Penland, §21 S.W.2d 222 (Tenn.1975); Morrissey v. Morrissey, 214 Tenn. 112, 377 S.W.2d 944 (1964); Osborne v. Osborne, 29 Tenn.App. 463, 197 S.W.2d 234 (1946). “The reason for stripping the agreement of the parties of its contractual nature is the continuing statutory power of the Court to modify its terms when changed circumstances justify.” Penland v. Penland, supra, 521 S.W.2d at 224. If the child support provision of the contract did not merge into the decree and lose its contractual nature, any subsequent modification of child support payments by the trial court would be violative of the constitutional prohibition against the impairment of contractual obligations. Article 1, Section 20 of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee. Cf. Whitt v. Whitt, supra.
An agreement between a husband and wife on matters outside the scope of the legal duty of child support during minority, or alimony in futuro over which the court also has continuing statutory power to modify, retains its contractual nature, although included in the decree of the court, and is enforceable in the same manner as other contracts. See Penland v. Pen-land, supra, wherein the contractual *466tion of the father to pay “all future education expenses beyond high school level,” was enforced. See also Jones v. Jones, 503 S.W.2d 924 (Tenn.App.197B), where the court enforced an agreement calling for the father to support a child beyond the period imposed upon him by law.
The agreement sought to be enforced in the instant case is the provision for periodic payments of child support, wherein the appellant agreed to support his children until they reached the age of twenty-one. Being within the scope of appellant’s legal duty to support his minor children at the time the agreement was executed, the agreement lost its contractual nature when it was approved by the trial judge and was incorporated in the decree. Prom that point forward, it was the decree of the trial court and could be enforced only so long as the appellant had a legal duty to support his minor children. The authority of the chancellor to order appellant to make child support payments is statutory and generally exists only during minority. T.C.A. Sections 36-820 and 36-828; Whitt v. Whitt, supra; Penland v. Penland, supra. As is pointed out in Whitt v. Whitt, supra,
“The authority of the court to order ap-pellee [husband] to make payments in support of his children was by virtue of statutes, to-wit; T.C.A. § 36-820 and § 36-828. These statutes retain the matter within the jurisdiction of the court for any future changes as to child support and the rights of both appellant and ap-pellee as governed by these statutes. Under these statutes the authority of the Court to order appellee to make payments for support of his children (it not being alleged either child was mentally or physically incapacitated) was for that period when appellee was required by law to support his children, which is during their minority. By virtue of Chapter 162, Public Acts of 1971, for better or worse, a child is no longer a minor when he reaches the age of eighteen.” (emphasis supplied)
Betsy Ware Blackburn has reached the age of eighteen. Appellant is no longer required by law to support her. Weinstein v. Heimberg, 490 S.W.2d 692 (Tenn.App.1972). Consequently, the courts are without authority to order appellant to make periodic payments of child support. The decree of the chancellor providing for such payments accordingly is reversed, and the petition of appellee is dismissed. Costs are adjudged against appellee, Virginia Ware Blackburn and her surety.
FONES, C. J., and HARBISON, J., concur.
HENRY and BROCK, JJ., dissent.