Layfield v. Roberts

• Decision Date: 10 May 1991
• Citation: 599 So.2d 1169
• Parties: Lowdy Clifton LAYFIELD v. Betty Floyd Layfield ROBERTS. 2900022.
• Court: Alabama Court of Civil Appeals

Page 1169

599 So.2d 1169

Lowdy Clifton LAYFIELD v. Betty Floyd Layfield ROBERTS.

2900022.

Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama.

May 10, 1991.

Rehearing Denied June 14, 1991.

Certiorari Quashed June 19, 1992

Alabama Supreme Court 1901523.

C. Wayne Morris, Huntsville, for appellant.

Nancy S. Gaines of Smith, Gaines, Gaines & Sabatini, Huntsville, for appellee.

THIGPEN, Judge.

This is a post-divorce proceeding involving ordered payment of post-minority support.

The mother filed a petition for contempt and a petition for modification concerning the child support obligation of the father for the benefit of the parties' younger son. The son is over the age of nineteen, has a learning disability, and is enrolled in college at the University of North Alabama. The father answered and counterclaimed, requesting to be relieved of paying post-minority support. After receiving evidence ore tenus, the trial court entered an order increasing the support obligation from $400 per month to $550 per month, and awarding the mother $3,000 for an attorney's fee. The father appeals.

It appears that the issues raised by the father in this appeal are as follows: (1) Did the trial court abuse its discretion by increasing the amount of child support? (2) Did the trial court abuse its discretion in refusing to terminate, or at least set a time limit on the father's obligation to pay support for his son's college expenses? (3) Did the trial court abuse its discretion in finding the father in contempt? and (4) Did the trial court abuse its discretion in awarding the mother an amount for an attorney's fee?

At the outset, we note that when a trial court's judgment follows the presentation of evidence ore tenus, a presumption of correctness automatically attaches and that judgment will be affirmed when it is supported by competent evidence, unless shown to be palpably wrong. Blankenship v. Blankenship, 534 So.2d 320 (Ala.Civ.App.1988). Further, the issue concerning child support and its subsequent modification is committed to the discretion of the trial court and the judgment will not be reversed absent a showing that the trial court has abused its discretion, or that its determination is plainly and palpably wrong. Brannon v. Brannon, 477 So.2d 445 (Ala.Civ.App.1985).

Our supreme court has determined that when a marriage is terminated by divorce, the trial court has jurisdiction to require the parents to provide post-minority support for a college education. Ex parte Bayliss, 550 So.2d 986 (Ala.1989). In that case, the supreme court increased the equity powers of Alabama courts to provide that the duty of parents to support and educate their children extends beyond the age of majority. That case enlarged the rule previously established in the case of Ex parte Brewington, 445 So.2d 294 (Ala.1983), which expanded the equity power of the trial court to include the power to require parental support of a child beyond its majority if the child is so mentally or physically disabled as to be unable to support himself. See, Thrasher v. Wilburn, 574 So.2d 839 (Ala.Civ.App.1990).

The power to require the parents to provide post-minority support for a college education is not totally unbridled. The supreme court set out certain factors for the trial court's consideration and directed the trial court to consider "all relevant factors that shall appear reasonable and necessary, including primarily the financial resources of the parents and the child and the child's commitment to, and aptitude for, the requested education." Bayliss, 550 So.2d at 987. Additionally, Bayliss, supra, permits the trial court to consider the standard of living that the child would have enjoyed if the marriage had remained intact and "the child's relationship with his parents and responsiveness to parental advice and guidance." Bayliss, 550 So.2d at 987. This court expressed in Thrasher, supra, that the fact that a parent and child have a strained relationship does not preclude the child from having the opportunity to obtain a college education.

In the instant case, the financial resources of the parents are not at issue and we will not address that issue. We concern ourselves here with other factors, i.e., the child's commitment to pursuing a degree, the child's aptitude, the child's financial resources, the child's relationship with his parents and his responsiveness to parental advice and guidance, etc. Bayliss, supra.

Our review of the record reveals pertinent facts and evidence that were before the trial court. The parties divorced in 1984 and, at that time, the mother received custody of the two children and the father was ordered to pay child support. An agreement between the parties concerning the child support was made a part of the divorce decree. In that child support provision, the father acknowledged the child's learning disability and agreed to continue to support the child "even though the child may have attained majority" until the child became fully self-supporting, or until the child no longer resided with the mother, whichever occurred first. The older child obtained a college degree with the assistance of the father and is not a factor in this case.

Numerous modifications have been considered by the trial court since the original divorce decree was entered. At the time this modification was before the trial court, the younger son was 23 years old and the father was ordered to provide post-minority support for this son. Although this son has a learning disability, he is attending college. There are differing opinions regarding his potential for success in pursuing a college degree.

In 1988, the decree was modified to require the father to make monthly child support payments directly to the son's checking account rather than to the mother, and there were certain restrictions placed on the son's use of the account. The father and son disagreed over the son's management of the account when the son began writing numerous checks to "cash" on successive days when school was not in session. Ultimately, when the son wrote a large check to transfer the entire balance to an account where his father could not supervise his account management, the father did not make the payments for two months and the mother filed the petition that began this latest court action.

The father testified that he withheld the payments from the son for two months in an effort to discipline the son "for chewing his father out." The father testified that it was his understanding that the payment to the son's account was a business agreement with his son to "go to college, get passing grades, send [the father] the statements, and [the father] will pay his expenses." The father testified that he withheld two checks to deal with what he considered to be the son's defiance towards him and the son's abuse of the account, as well as an attempt to get his son to comply with the accountability terms of the 1988 modification. The father testified that the son had told the father that he had other money and did not need the father's money. The father testified that withholding the checks was an effort to discipline the son and was not done to intentionally violate a court order. It is undisputed that the father has the ability and desires to pay support for this son if needed. When the mother filed her petition asking that the father be held in contempt for failing to pay the support, the father immediately paid the two months he had withheld from the son before this case came to trial.

There was testimony from the older son and the father that they had worked together to manage that son's finances during college and that such arrangement was mutually beneficial. Both testified that this was the same type arrangement that the father was attempting to have with the younger son. They also testified that the younger son would not come to the father for assistance in managing his college finances as the older son had, and that the younger son would lose his temper when attempting to discuss his accounting. The record reflects that the relationship between the younger son and the father deteriorated rapidly during the time the father made the payments directly to the son and the son was charged with the responsibility of managing an account. Further, the father testified that the son said his mother told him he did not have to report to his father.

The record reveals that the son graduated from high school via the special education program. He is currently living in an apartment in Florence and attending college classes working towards a degree in social work. His learning disability, in part, thwarts his ability to properly sequence and record things on paper. Special arrangements are made for him to have recordings or the class notes of other students to aid him in studying. Special testing arrangements are also made for him. The son and others testified that the son has those special arrangements and others, which often involve his instructors. The son maintains passing grades in his coursework apparently due to some type of special arrangement that allows him to audit courses when he experiences difficulty in them, rather than allow him to risk failing them.

There was testimony that the son had been attending college classes for over three years and has achieved only sophomore status. The son's monthly living expenses were itemized and admitted along with the son's testimony regarding the accurateness of those expenses. However, the son also testified that his grandmother and mother give him money and pay for some of the items for him, such as car repair bills and health insurance, which were on his itemized expense list. The mother testified that she sends her son money each month and that his grandmother sends him about $200 per month. She also testified that the son has a car, some shares of stock, that his name is on a certificate of deposit valued at approximately $5700, and...