Akins v. Mofield

• Decision Date: 04 December 2003
• Docket Number: No. 03-233.,03-233.
• Citation: 355 Ark. 215,132 S.W.3d 760
• Parties: Angela Renee AKINS v. Michael James MOFIELD.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

132 S.W.3d 760

355 Ark. 215

Angela Renee AKINS v. Michael James MOFIELD.

No. 03-233.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

December 4, 2003.

Reid, Burge, Prevallet & Coleman, by: Robert L. Coleman, Blytheville, for appellant.

Stephen M. Trail, Osceola, for appellee.

ANNABELLE CLINTON IMBER, Justice.

This appeal arises out of a paternity and child support case in which the Mississippi County Circuit Court found Appellee Michael Mofield to be the father of Jeremy Slaughter and required Mr. Mofield to pay both retroactive and prospective child support to Appellant Angela Renee Akins. Ms. Akins appeals and argues that the trial court erred because it did not follow the child support guidelines in awarding retroactive child support, and it did not take into account Jeremy's best interests when it deviated from the chart amount in awarding prospective child support. We agree that the trial court abused its discretion in setting the amounts of both awards, and we reverse and remand.

On November 7, 1989, Jeremy Slaughter was born to Angela Renee Slaughter (now Akins). Ms. Akins was a high school junior and Mr. Mofield a sophomore at the same high school when they dated during the spring of 1989, during which time they were sexually intimate. Mr. Mofield's testimony was that he had heard rumors of Ms. Akins' pregnancy and that he might be the father. Concerned about this possibility, he confronted her but she refused to name the father. He asked Ms. Akins to have blood tests performed on the baby once it was born if she thought he was the father, but she declined to put her baby through a blood test. After Ms. Akins left the state to have the baby, he never saw her again and knew nothing about the child until the paternity suit was filed in March of 2000.

Ms. Akins's testimony differed significantly. She testified that when she found out she was pregnant, she informed Mr. Mofield and told him he was the father. Ms. Sharon Smith corroborated Ms. Akins's account, testifying that she and Ms. Akins were friends in high school, and she had witnessed a confrontation in a school hallway where Ms. Akins told Mr. Mofield she was pregnant and he was the father of the baby. According to Ms. Smith, Mr. Mofield responded by saying nothing and walking away.

Ms. Akins also testified that, contrary to Mr. Mofield's claim that he had never seen her again when she left to have the baby, she actually returned and finished her high school education at the same school, where Mr. Mofield was still in attendance. During the school year following Jeremy's birth, she approached Mr. Mofield several times in an effort to convince him to claim the child, but he refused to do so. She detailed an incident in which she showed him a picture of Jeremy and he refused to acknowledge him or to really look at the photograph. She also testified about a conversation in which Mr. Mofield stated that Jeremy's birthdate did not "add up" and he could not possibly be the father because Jeremy would have been born in December, based on the time they had dated. According to Ms. Akins, Jeremy was born several weeks early. She also stated that Mr. Mofield had never asked for blood tests, though she had approached him several times during the school year before she graduated in 1990, in her attempts to ask him to be part of Jeremy's life.

At one point, Ms. Akins had started paperwork with the Child Support Enforcement Unit to force Mr. Mofield to pay child support, but the man to whom she was married at that time threatened divorce if she allowed Mr. Mofield to "interfere" in their family, so she dropped the issue. When her marriage failed, she and Jeremy moved back to her home town and, in 1996, she ran into Mr. Mofield in a Wal-Mart parking lot, where she told him they needed to talk about Jeremy. Mr. Mofield said he knew they needed to talk, but he could not speak with her then because his wife was inside the store. Though he said he would contact her, he never did. Ms. Akins later remarried and she and her husband are raising a young son in addition to Jeremy. Though she was employed through January 2002, she had to leave her job because the shift interfered with her family life.

On March 27, 2000, Ms. Akins filed a paternity action, asking the trial court to award her retroactive child support from the date of Jeremy's birth, prospective child support from the date of the complaint forward, and health benefits for Jeremy. The trial court ordered DNA tests at the request of Ms. Akins, and the test results proved that Mr. Mofield was Jeremy's natural father.

After a hearing on all the issues, the trial court found that Mr. Mofield was Jeremy's father and awarded custody of Jeremy to Ms. Akins with visitation for Mr. Mofield. Retroactive child support was awarded in the amount of $10.00 per month from Jeremy's birthdate until the complaint was filed in March 2000, $35.00 per week from March 27, 2000, to March 27, 2002, and $30.00 per week from March 27, 2002, until the hearing date in August 2002.¹ Prospective child support was awarded in the amount of $30.00 per week, which was less than half the $79.00 per week award as set forth in the child-support guidelines. The trial court then abated this amount by $15.00 per week for each week beyond the second week of Jeremy's summer visitation with his father.

The court found Mr. Mofield and his wife were spending more on monthly expenses than their combined income. This deficit spending and the fact that the Mofields have two dependent children were the reasons the trial court gave as justification for deviating from the chart amount when awarding prospective child support for Jeremy. Additionally, Mr. Mofield was to continue to cover Jeremy on his wife's medical insurance as long as it was available.

We review chancery cases de novo, but will only reverse if the trial court's findings are clearly erroneous or clearly against the preponderance of the evidence. Ford v. Ford, 347 Ark. 485, 65 S.W.3d 432 (2002). A finding is clearly erroneous when the reviewing court, on the entire evidence, is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Id. We give due deference to the trial court's superior position to determine the credibility of the witnesses and the weight to be given their testimony. Id. In a child-support determination, the amount of child support lies within the sound discretion of the trial court. Id. As a rule, when the amount of child support is at issue, we will not reverse the trial court absent an abuse of discretion. Id., McWhorter v. McWhorter, 346 Ark. 475, 58 S.W.3d 840 (2001). However, a trial court's conclusions of law are given no deference on appeal. Ford v. Ford, supra. The trial court is required to reference to the child-support chart, and the amount specified in the chart is presumed to be reasonable. Ford v. Ford, supra; Smith v. Smith, 337 Ark. 583, 990 S.W.2d 550 (1999). However, the presumption that the chart is correct may be overcome if the trial court provides specific written findings that the chart amount is unjust or inappropriate. Ford v. Ford, supra; Smith v. Smith, supra.

Retroactive Child Support

The Arkansas Child Support Guidelines set child support at an amount determined by the weekly or monthly take-home pay of the noncustodial parent. See In re: Administrative Order Number 10: Arkansas Child Support Guidelines, 331 Ark. 581 (1998). Administrative Order Number 10 includes the following language in Section I:

It is a rebuttable presumption that the amount of child support calculated pursuant to the most recent revision of the Family Support Chart is the amount of child support to be awarded in any judicial proceeding for divorce, separation, paternity, or child support. The court may grant less or more support if the evidence shows that the needs of the dependents require a different level of support.

All orders granting or modifying child support (including agreed orders) shall contain the court's determination of the payor's income, recite the amount of support required under the guidelines, and recite whether the court deviated from the Family Support Chart. If the order varies from the guidelines, it shall include a justification of why the order varies as may be permitted under Section V hereinafter. It shall be sufficient in a particular case to rebut the presumption that the amount of child support calculated pursuant to the Family Support chart is correct, if the court enters in the case a specific written finding within the Order that the amount so calculated, after consideration of all relevant factors, including the best interests of the child, is unjust or inappropriate.

Administrative Order Number 10—Child Support Guidelines (2003).

In awarding retroactive child support for Jeremy, the trial court made no reference to the child-support guidelines in either its letter opinion of August 12, 2002, or its judgment filed on November 22, 2002. Instead, in making its retroactive child-support award, the trial court's letter opinion cited to Arkansas Code Annotated § 9-10-111(a) (Repl.2002), which is part of the Paternity chapter, Chapter 10, of Title 9 of the Arkansas Code Annotated. The Paternity Chapter, § 9-10-101, et seq. provides in pertinent part:

9-10-109. Child support following finding of paternity.

(a)(1) Subsequent to the execution of an acknowledgment of paternity by the father and mother of a child pursuant to § 20-18-408 or § 20-18-409, or a similar acknowledgment executed during the child's minority, or subsequent to a finding by the court that the putative father in a paternity action is the father of the child, the court shall follow the same guidelines, procedures, and requirements as set forth in the laws of this state applicable to child support orders and judgments entered by the chancery court as if it were a case involving a child born of a marriage in awarding custody, visitation, setting amounts of...