McNames v. McNames
Decision Date | 06 November 1979 |
Docket Number | Docket No. 77-4431 |
Citation | 93 Mich.App. 477,286 N.W.2d 892 |
Parties | Carol E. McNAMES (Erbe), Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert O. McNAMES, Defendant-Appellant. |
Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Maria P. Alexander, St. Clair Shores, for defendant-appellant.
Carol McNames in pro. per.
Before T. M. BURNS, P. J., and CAVANAGH and MacKENZIE, JJ.
The parties were divorced by a judgment granted by the St. Clair County Circuit Court on July 31, 1964. The divorce judgment granted custody of their six minor children, then aged seven months to ten years, to plaintiff, and ordered defendant to pay child support in the amount of $51 per week "until the eldest child shall have attained the full age of eighteen (18) years * * * ". Thereafter, the child support provision decreed in effect that defendant's weekly payments would decrease by $8.50 for each child who turned eighteen, until the youngest child attained eighteen, "or until the further Order of Court".
In March and May of 1977 plaintiff filed petitions to modify the divorce judgment by increasing child support for the two minor children who had not yet reached eighteen: Tammy, born December 28, 1959, and David Timothy, born November 22, 1963. The later petition also prayed:
"That the Judgment of Divorce be modified in that the child support payments continue until each minor child reaches the age of 18, or graduates from high school, whichever occurs later."
At this same time, defendant also filed a petition seeking credit on his support arrearage to reflect the reduction in income he suffered due to strikes at his place of employment during 1968 and 1972.
All petitions were referred to the Friend of the Court for investigation and recommendations. The Friend of the Court recommended that plaintiff's petition for an increase in the amount of child support be granted and that defendant's petition for credit on the arrearage be denied, but did not discuss whether child support should be continued beyond the children's eighteenth birthdays.
Defendant filed objections to the recommendations of the Friend of the Court, and a hearing was held. After hearing arguments of counsel, the trial court accepted the recommendation that the weekly child support payment be increased from $17 to $50, declined to "get involved in the arrearage at this time", and ordered that child support for the two remaining minor children should continue until they graduated from high school.
In this appeal, defendant claims that the extension of support to high school graduation was error since there were no "exceptional circumstances" warranting it. He further argues that the Age of Majority Act, M.C.L. § 722.51 Et seq.; M.S.A. § 25.244(51) Et seq., negates any obligation to support his children beyond age 18 in view of the fact that the original divorce judgment reserved no right to extend support in the future.
The effect of the Age of Majority Act upon circumstances similar to those here present was discussed by this Court in the case of Price v. Price, 51 Mich.App. 656, 215 N.W.2d 756 (1974). This Court, in Price, supra, at 659-661, 215 N.W.2d at 758-59, concluded:
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