Braddy v. Braddy
| Decision Date | 30 November 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. ED 94194.,ED 94194. |
| Citation | 326 S.W.3d 567 |
| Parties | Ronald Lynn BRADDY, Petitioner/Respondent, v. Lauralee BRADDY n/k/a Lauralee Schnaare, Respondent/Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Steven A. Waterkotte, Stanley D. Schnaare, Anthony R. Dorsett, Hillsboro, MO, for Appellant.
David R. Orzel, Farmington, MO, for Respondent.
OPINION
Lauralee Braddy, n/k/a Lauralee Schnaare (Mother), ex-wife of Ronald Lynn Braddy (Father), appeals from the Judgment terminating child support for the parties' three children. On appeal, Mother argues the trial court erred in finding that: (1) no jurisdiction existed to modify the dissolution judgment because she did not file a motion to extend child support prior to J.L.B. and J.L.B (Twins) turning 22; (2) the Twins were emancipated by operation of law; (3) she failed to prove the Twins' insolvency under the statute; and (4) Father does not owe a minimum of $13,000 for the children's uninsured medical expenses. We reverse and remand.
Mother and Father were married on April 28, 1979, and divorced on May 25, 1990. Three children were born of the marriage: R.L.B., born August 8, 1982, and, the Twins, born August 7, 1984. TheJudgment of Dissolution awarded custody of the children to Mother. Father was ordered to pay child support in the sum of $175 every two weeks as support in gross for the three children, with no reduction until the last child was emancipated. Father was also ordered to pay fifty percent of all uncovered medical expenses, and to obtain insurance when available from his employer and when not available through employment, to pay sixty percent of the medical expenses "until said children become emancipated by law." The Judgment of Dissolution made no finding that the Twins were disabled or incapacitated.
On May 11, 2005, Father filed a pro se affidavit for termination of child support alleging his oldest child was emancipated by completing school, and the Twins were previously emancipated by operation of law when they graduated from high school after their eighteenth birthday. At the time of this filing, the Twins were twenty years old.
On May 26, 2005, counsel for Mother filed an entry and request for additional time to file an answer. Subsequently, on July 5, 2005, Mother filed an Answer to Affidavit for Termination of Child Support, a Countermotion to Petitioner's Affidavit for Termination of Child Support, and a Motion for Determination of Amount Due and Owing. Mother also filed amendments to her Countermotion to Petitioner's Affidavit for Termination of Child Support and her Motion for Determination of Amount Due and Owing.
In Mother's Answer to Affidavit for Termination of Child Support, she asserted that the Twins are incapacitated and incapable of earning substantial income to provide for themselves. Furthermore, Mother moved the court to (1) conduct a hearing for the determination as to the Twins' capacity; (2) deny Father's request for termination of child support; and (3) order Father to provide reasonable child support for the duration of the lives of the Twins. In her Countermotion to Petitioner's Affidavit for Termination of Child Support, Mother moved the trial court for a modification of child support and asserting that "[the Twins] are unmarried, insolvent, and physically and irreversibly mentally incapacitated from becoming self-supporting." Mother further requested that the trial court order Father to continue paying child support for the Twins because of their incapacity; that Father be required to repay past health insurance premiums for the children; that Father be ordered to provide health insurance for the Twins; that Father be required to repay fifty percent of the past uninsured medical, and dental, and orthodontia costs for the children, among other relief.
Finally, in Mother's Motion for Determination of Amount Due and Owing, she requested the trial court to order Father to pay various medical and dental expenses, insurance premiums, and educational expenses incurred.
On July 29, 2005, in response to Mother's three motions, Father filed several pleadings including a Motion to Dismiss Mother's Answer, Countermotion, and Motion to Determine Amount Due, Answer to Motion to Determine Amount Due and Owing, Response to Answer to Affidavit for Termination of Child Support, and Answer to Countermotion.
On May 22, 2008, Mother filed a Petition for Appointment of Guardian and Conservator with respect to the Twins. On June 21, 2009, the trial court deemed the Twins to be partially incapacitated and totally disabled as defined in Section 475.010, RSMo 2000,1 and therefore, legally disabledas provided by Section 475.078.2. The trial court appointed Mother as guardian and conservator of the Twins.2
On October 30, 2009, shortly before the start of the trial in this case, 3 the trial court asked whether there were preliminary matters that needed to be addressed, at which point Mother's counsel informed the court that Mother was proceeding with her amended motions that were filed. The trial court and both parties asserted that it was their understanding that Mother was proceeding on her amended motions.
At trial, Mother testified that, upon graduation from high school, the Twins entered a vocational rehabilitation program to help them find employment, help them fill out applications, and provide them on-the-job training until they learned the job. Mother further testified that the Twins worked at fast food restaurants, worked less than forty hours per week, earned minimum wage, and never handled money as part of their job duties. Mother testified that the Twins started receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security benefits in 2004, and the SSI and Social Security benefits vary from month to month due to offsets from their job earnings. Mother stated that she typically did not allow the Twins to carry more than $20 in their wallets because they had difficulty managing money. During cross-examination, Mother stated that her income was approximately $475 per week, and the total amount of expenses for the three children 4 in her custody, including the Twins, was $1,290 per month. Mother admitted, without objection, voluminous books containing certified school records for the Twins that carefully detailed their mental capacities and deficiencies.
Mother's current husband and stepfather of the Twins also testified on Mother's behalf. He testified that he married Mother on March 20, 1992, and took an active role in raising the Twins. He further testified that he was able to observe the Twins' delayed cognitive and educational progress on a daily basis and corroborated Mother's testimony as to their virtual inability to handle money. He stated that, "[i]n a competitive industrial environment where they had to maintain a situation of attention to duty and where they were given multiple tasks, it would be completely impossible for them to [perform forty-hour work weeks]."
Father, who was the only witness to testify on his behalf, testified that, while he agreed the Twins were mentally incapacitated "[to] a level," he did not believe they were incapable of earning a living. Father did not object to the introduction of the Twins' school records into evidence.
After hearing all the evidence, the trial court issued its Judgment finding that the Twins were emancipated and that Mother had failed to establish insolvency of the Twins. This appeal follows.
Our review of a trial court's judgment on a motion to terminate child support is limited to determining whether the judgment is supported by substantial evidence, is against the weight of the evidence, or it erroneously declares or applies the law. Burke v. Hutto, 243 S.W.3d 431, 433 (Mo.App. E.D.2007). We must view the evidence in a light most favorable tothe judgment, giving deference to the trial court's credibility determinations. Id. No deference is owed, however, to questions of law, which we review de novo. Id.
In her first point, Mother argues the trial court erred in finding that she did not file a motion to extend child support prior to the Twins' turning 22,5 and thus had no "jurisdiction" to modify the judgment. We find the trial court had authority to modify the judgment. Webb ex rel. J.C.W. v. Wyciskalla, 275 S.W.3d 249 (Mo. banc 2009).
Father's position that Mother did not file a timely motion to modify is incorrect. On July 5, 2005, Mother filed several motions, including an Answer to Affidavit for Termination of Child Support, Countermotion to Petitioner's Affidavit for Termination of Child Support, and Motion for Determination of Amount Due and Owing. At the time Mother filed her responsive pleadings, the Twins were twenty years of age. Therefore, the responsive pleadings were filed timely. Section 452.340.4.
Moreover, Father is incorrect in arguing and the trial court erred in finding that the numerous motions filed by Mother on July 5, 2005, were not or could not be considered a motion to modify under Section 452.340.11(4). Mother's first paragraph of her timely-filed Countermotion to Petitioner's Affidavit for Termination of Child Support with Amended Prayer states that she "moves for a Modification of Child Support." A plain reading of Section 452.340.11(4) would designate this Countermotion as a motion to modify.6
Section 452.340.11(4) does not require the responsive pleadings to Father's pro se affidavit for termination of child support be an officially titled "Motion to Modify." Section 452.340.11(4) only requires that the denial be a sworn statement or affidavit. Mother's Counter Motion requesting the Modification of Child Support was a sworn affidavit that was notarized, therefore meeting the sworn statement or affidavit requirements of a motion to modify under Section 452.340.11(4). Point I is granted.
We address Mother's second...
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