Lyons v. McInvale

• Decision Date: 02 May 2007
• Docket Number: No. CA 06-1146.,CA 06-1146.
• Citation: Lyons v. McInvale, 256 S.W.3d 512, 98 Ark.App. 433 (Ark. App. 2007)
• Court: Arkansas Court of Appeals
• Parties: Gerald Wayne LYONS, Appellant, v. Teresa Lyons McINVALE, Appellee.

256 S.W.3d 512

98 Ark.App. 433

Gerald Wayne LYONS, Appellant, v. Teresa Lyons McINVALE, Appellee.

No. CA 06-1146.

Court of Appeals of Arkansas.

May 2, 2007.

Shackleford, Phillips, Wineland & Ratcliff, P.A., by: Brian H. Ratcliff, El Dorado, for appellant.

Mary Thomason, El Dorado, for appellee.

DAVID M. GLOVER, Judge.

The parties in this case were divorced on December 5, 1994. Appellant, Gerald Lyons, was awarded custody of the parties' older daughter, Kimberly, and appellee, Teresa [Lyons] McInvale, was awarded custody of the parties' younger daughter, Sarah. No child support was ordered to be paid by either party so long as custody of the girls was divided between the parties. The trial court also ordered that all of the marital property be divided equally. If the parties were unable to arrive at an agreement, the trial court reserved jurisdiction to determine what was marital property and to order a sale or any other appropriate division of the marital property. The trial court further ordered that the parties should attempt to work out their marital debts but if they could not do so, it would determine each party's responsibility with regard to the marital debt.

Intermediate Orders

On January 27, 1995, a hearing was held on various outstanding issues, including the issues of division of marital property and marital debt, and the trial court specifically ordered that each party was responsible for one-half of the Discover and VISA balances. The trial court further ordered that the balance on the MBNA Gold card was to be divided equally except that Gerald was to be responsible for the charges for a satellite decoder ($1,246.62), the Adams Mail charges ($94.98), and the pay-off to Western Auto for a washer and dryer ($792.22) that Gerald had in his possession.

In September 1996, an order was entered changing custody of Kimberly from Gerald to Teresa and ordering Gerald to pay $122 per week in child support for both girls. This order also spelled out specific visitation for Gerald.

In a letter opinion dated February 11, 1997, the trial court recited that in an order entered January 9, 1997, it found that Gerald's child-support obligation was to be reduced to $61 per week if Kimberly continued to refuse to visit Gerald, and that the February 11 hearing was held to consider Teresa's motion to reconsider that order. The trial court denied the motion to reconsider, stating that Gerald contended that it was Kimberly's fault that she did not visit him, and Teresa and Kimberly contended that it was Gerald's fault that visitation did not occur. The trial court found, however, that the fault was attributable to both parties. The trial court held that so long as the present attitudes prevailed, visitation seemed to be an impossibility, and that child support would remain at $61 per week so long as there was no visitation. An order reflecting the trial court's findings was filed of record on February 27, 1997.

In a May 29, 1998 second letter opinion, the trial court granted Gerald judgment in the amount of $978.56 against Teresa for credit-card charges she had failed to pay. The trial court also found that if Sarah refused to visit Gerald, his child-support obligation would cease; however, the trial court also increased Gerald's child-support obligation for Sarah from $61 to $92 per week. An order to this effect was filed of record on June 16, 1998.

Petition to Show Cause/Counterclaim

On May 21, 2004, Gerald filed a petition to show cause, asserting that Teresa had failed to pay her portion of the MBNA Gold card; that he had paid off the entire balance on April 28, 2004; and that Teresa should be required to appear and show cause why she had failed to comply with the trial court's order. Gerald sought judgment against Teresa for one-half the amount he had paid less the charges for the satellite decoder, Adams Mail charges, and the washer and dryer. Teresa answered Gerald's petition and counterclaimed for judgment on unpaid child support. Gerald responded to the counterclaim, stating that he was not required to pay child support so long as he had no visitation with his children; that Teresa had failed to provide him with visitation; and that he therefore was not in arrears on child support.

Testimony

At the hearing, Gerald testified that the December 21, 1994 MBNA statement indicated that there was a $4,980.32 balance on the credit card. He said that after he deducted the charges for which the trial court held him solely responsible, the balance on the credit card was $2,846.50, and Teresa's one-half was $1,413. Gerald said that he paid MBNA $4,000 on April 27, 2004, to satisfy the credit-card obligation, and that he had to pay interest on the credit card. Gerald argued that he was entitled to $3,501 in interest, which he calculated from November 1995 to when he paid the card off in May 2004. On cross-examination, Gerald testified that other than the $4,000 payment in April 2004, he did not have proof of any other payments he made from December 1994 to April 2004. Although he admitted that he had made additional charges on the MBNA card between 1994 and 2004, he did not have any documentation of those charges or of the amount of interest charged by MBNA. Gerald also admitted that those later charges would have been included in the $4,000 payment he made in April 2004.

Gerald testified that he had problems receiving his visitation, and that his child support had been modified to $61 per week because Kimberly would not visit him. Gerald said that he requested and received specific visitation in September 1996, but he later began having visitation problems with Sarah, and he asked the trial court to terminate his child support if she would not agree to visit him. He said that after an order was entered to this effect in 1998, he continued to have visitation problems with Sarah. He said that he did not get to exercise any extended period of visitation and that he only saw Sarah on a few occasions before she graduated from high school.

On cross-examination, Gerald said that at the time the order was entered in 1998, Sarah was thirteen, and he denied allegations that he had never made contact with her for visitation. Gerald said that he "called and called" to exercise visitation, but that he was told that Sarah would not be coming because she had something else to do. Gerald said that he did not have contact with Sarah on a regular basis from the time she was sixteen until she turned eighteen. He agreed that he had paid no child support during that time, and he said that he believed that he was following the trial court's order because he did not have any visitation. He also admitted that he did not notify Teresa in writing of the summer visitation dates he desired, and he did not attempt to pick Sarah up for Christmas vacation or Father's Day visitation.

Sarah Lyons, who was twenty-one at the time of this hearing, testified that following the hearing in 1998, at which time she was thirteen, she was not told that Gerald's child-support payments were contingent upon her visiting her father. She said that she was not visiting him at that time because she did not understand why he did not want to see Kimberly as well. She said that if her father had tried to exercise visitation that she would have agreed to resume it without her sister after the hearing, but that he did not call her after the 1998 hearing until she turned sixteen in 2001. Sarah said that in 2001, her father called her and Kimberly and said that he wanted to see both of them, and that they went to see him. Sarah said that she began to see her father again after that meeting, although she did not go every other weekend because she was working and was involved in band and theater and also had homework. She said that she spent the night at her father's house "a couple of times" but not very often, and she did go with him to see his new in-laws. Sarah said that she also did not see her mother much on weekends and after school because of her activities.

On cross-examination, Sarah admitted that she did not go see her father every other weekend and that she never had extended summer visitation. However, Sarah said that Gerald did not call her about visiting every other weekend or extended summer visitation.

Teresa...