Merritt v. Merritt

Citation73 P.3d 878,2003 OK 68
Decision Date01 July 2003
Docket NumberNo. 95,742.,95,742.
PartiesJane A. MERRITT, Appellee, v. Michael L. MERRITT, Appellant.
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma

Charles Gaunce, Norman, OK, for appellant.

Silas C. Wolf, Jr., Norman, OK, for appellee.

WINCHESTER, J.

¶ 1 The appellant, Michael L. Merritt, filed an application for an indirect contempt citation and a motion to reduce arrearage to judgment. The appellee, Jane A. Merritt, filed a motion to dismiss the contempt citation based on the payment of Social Security benefits to the child of the parties. The Social Security payment made subsequent to the commencement of this action exceeded the amount of the arrearage. After finding that the payment purged the contempt, the trial court granted the appellee's motion to dismiss. The appellant filed a "motion to reconsider," which the trial court denied. The appellant filed an appeal that was subsequently assigned to the Court of Civil Appeals, Division III. That court reversed and remanded. The appellee filed a petition for certiorari, which this Court granted. We vacate the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals and affirm the judgment of the trial court.

FACTS

¶ 2 The record reveals that the parties were granted a divorce on October 16, 1987. The trial court subsequently modified the custody provisions for the son of the parties on April 27, 1989, and on December 28, 1994. On the latter date, the court modified the decree by granting sole custody of the minor child to the appellant (the father). The trial court ordered, pursuant to the Oklahoma Child Support Guidelines, that the appellee (the mother) pay $120.00 per month.

¶ 3 In 1996, the court further modified the custody provisions by terminating the parental rights of the mother. The father asserts that the action to terminate parental rights was the result of the mother's failure to support their child for over a year. The mother's pleadings assert that the 1996 judgment was obtained by default. The father alleges in his application for an indirect contempt citation that the order for the payment of child support remained in full force and effect. The application alleges that the mother failed to make payments beginning in March 1996, and missed all but two months until he filed his application for contempt on January 31, 2000. He claimed that the mother was indebted to him in the amount of $5,400.00 for child support, plus interest on that amount. The father filed his application one day before the parties' son attained majority.

¶ 4 The trial court heard the mother's motion to dismiss on November 1, 2000. The court found that the mother had failed to pay the court-ordered child support as alleged by the father. The court further found that the mother had been legally disabled since May 1997, and that the Social Security Administration made a payment of $13,101.00 directly to the child of the parties on June 2, 2000, and had paid $355.00 per month directly to the child of the parties every month since that time. Those payments represented Social Security benefits payable to the child as a result of the mother's disability. The sums were in excess of the sum claimed as delinquent child support by the father in his application for an indirect contempt citation.

¶ 5 The court made these findings. Equity required the application of the equitable estoppel doctrine to the father's claim for delinquent child support. The mother's disability, and the Social Security benefit payments of a lump sum and monthly payment made in excess of the delinquent child support supported this decision. The mother was not responsible for the payment of the lump sum directly to the adult child of the parties by the Social Security Administration. The journal entry of judgment stated that the father should seek reimbursement of the child support he sought in his motion from his adult son by having a constructive trust imposed on the benefits paid to the adult son to the extent of the unpaid child support while the child was a minor.1 The court granted the motion to dismiss the indirect contempt citation and also dismissed the father's motion to reduce arrearage to judgment.

¶ 6 The Court of Civil Appeals, Division III, cited the 1998 supplement to 43 O.S. § 137, which provides that when an installment of court-ordered child support becomes past due, it becomes a judgment by operation of law. The court concluded that it was inequitable to allow Social Security disability payments on behalf of the mother to the child to extinguish the father's in personam judgment for child support.

I. STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 7 The trial court stated that its judgment was based on equitable considerations. We have recently reaffirmed that child support proceedings are of equitable cognizance. Hedges v. Hedges, 2002 OK 92, ¶ 10, 66 P.3d 364, 370. In Thrash v. Thrash, 1991 OK 32, ¶ 9, 809 P.2d 665, 668, we noted that equitable defenses may be invoked to bar the recovery of delinquent child support payments. Those defenses include the equitable doctrines of waiver, estoppel and laches. Thrash, 1991 OK 32, ¶ 9,809 P.2d at 668. When reviewing the decision of the trial court in an equity proceeding, this Court has long held that the judgment will not be disturbed unless the trial court abused its discretion or unless the court's finding was clearly contrary to the weight of the evidence. Creech v. Creech, 1956 OK 10, ¶ 9, 292 P.2d 376, 378; Tschauner v. Tschauner, 1952 OK 230, ¶¶ 22, 25, 245 P.2d 448, 451.

II. EQUITABLE JURISDICTION

¶ 8 The trial court based its decision on principles of equity. In 1987, the legislature enacted a new law, codified in the Oklahoma Statutes as § 1291 of Title 12, now 43 O.S. 2001, § 137. Section 137(A) provides that "Any payment or installment of child support ordered pursuant to any order, judgment, or decree of the district court or administrative order of the Department of Human Services is, on and after the date it becomes past due, a judgment by operation of law." Except for the rearranging of some commas, the sentence is identical to that which was originally enacted. The Court of Civil Appeals has construed this statute as eliminating equitable defenses to excuse noncompliance with a support order. Aguero v. Aguero, 1999 OK CIV APP 38, ¶ 10, 976 P.2d 1088, 1090. Cowan v. Cowan, 2001 OK CIV APP 14, ¶ 10, 19 P.3d 322, 325-326, relied on Aguero to reach the same result.

¶ 9 In his Response of Michael L. Merritt to Motion to Dismiss Contempt Citation, the appellant argues that he has a series of judgments for unpaid child support as a result of the appellee's failure to make her required child support payments. Appellant cites 43 O.S.2001, § 137, which uses the term "judgment by operation of law." The term "judgment by operation of law" appears to be incorporated into Oklahoma's statutes as a result of a requirement by Congress.2

¶ 10 A money judgment is discharged by actual payment in full to a person authorized to receive it. Hart v. Jett Enterprises, Inc., 1985 OK 24, ¶ 6, 744 P.2d 561, 562. Due process requires that an obligor be allowed a hearing for any legally-cognizable defense to an assertion of arrearage. The Supreme Court of Alaska recognized this in State v. Maxwell, 6 P.3d 733 (Alaska 2000). That court observed that an alleged obligor be allowed an opportunity for a fair and impartial hearing before finalizing and implementing a continuing child support order that would become a series of enforceable judgments. Maxwell, 6 P.3d at 737.

¶ 11 North Dakota likewise recognized this right to a hearing in Ruscheinsky v. Ulrich, 2000 ND 133, ¶ 10, 612 N.W.2d 283, 286. There the court noted that simply because obligor's arrearages constituted judgments by operation of law did not necessarily mean that North Dakota's Social Services could collect on the judgments. Pursuant to North Dakota statutes, the claims were subject to a statute of limitations or cancellation by N.D.C.C. § 28-20-35.

¶ 12 Like support alimony, child support becomes vested at the time each payment becomes due. Nantz v. Nantz, 1988 OK 9, ¶ 10, 749 P.2d 1137, 1140. "[A]n action which seeks to recover unpaid installments for child support is an action for a debt created by law and evidenced of record, and is maintainable in the court which directed payment, or any other court of competent jurisdiction...." Turk v. Coryell, 1966 OK 194, ¶ 10, 419 P.2d 555, 558. ¶ 13 Even though the arrearages are judgments by operation of law, they are nevertheless subject to equitable defenses. We have already stated that Oklahoma recognizes equitable defenses. Hedges, 2002 OK 92, ¶ 10,66 P.3d at 370. "[T]he equitable jurisdiction of a district court is not dependent upon specific statutory authorization." Marley v. Cannon, 1980 OK 147, ¶ 8, 618 P.2d 401, 404. "The purpose of a court sitting in equity is to promote and achieve justice with some degree of flexibility." Garrett v. Arrowhead Improvement Ass'n, 826 P.2d 850, 855 (Colo.1992). Therefore, the trial court's exercise of equitable jurisdiction requires an inquiry into the particular circumstances of the case. Garrett, 826 P.2d at 855. There is a legal maxim that equity must follow the law; it will not allow legal limitations to be abridged unless there are equitable considerations of a compelling nature. Hedges, 2002 OK 92, ¶ 8,66 P.3d 364, 370. Equity will follow both the letter and the spirit of the law.

¶ 14 Pursuant to the standard of review, we must examine the record to determine if the trial court abused its discretion or if its findings were clearly contrary to the weight of evidence. In concluding that equitable estoppel applied, the trial court specifically considered the mother's disability, the fact that Social Security paid an amount in excess of the arrearage, and that the mother was not responsible for Social Security's decision to pay the adult son.

¶ 15 Equitable estoppel is employed to prevent one party from taking a legal position...

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