Meuschke v. Jones, No. WD #62966 (MO 5/25/2004)

• Decision Date: 25 May 2004
• Docket Number: No. WD #62966,WD #62966
• Citation: Meuschke v. Jones, No. WD #62966 (MO 5/25/2004) (Mo. 2004)
• Parties: TRACY J. MEUSCHKE, Appellant v. CINDY ANN JONES, Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

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TRACY J. MEUSCHKE, Appellant v. CINDY ANN JONES, Respondent.

No. WD #62966

Court of Appeals of Missouri, Western District.

May 25, 2004

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Benton County, Missouri, The Honorable Daniel M. Knust, Judge.

Laurie S. Ward, Esq., Sedalia, MO, for Appellant.

Michael X. Edgett, Esq., Clinton, MO, for Respondent.

Before Lowenstein, P.J., Smith and Howard, JJ.

HAROLD L. LOWENSTEIN, Judge.

In November 2002, Tracy J. Meuschke ("Father") sought a declaration that his daughter, Amy Jo Meuschke, who turned eighteen in April 2001 became emancipated effective in late January 2002, because she was only taking eight credit hours of college classes. Father sought reimbursement for child support payments he made after January 2002. Amy's mother ("Mother") moved to increase Father's child support obligation. The trial court declared that Amy was unemancipated and granted Mother's motion. On appeal, Father contends that the trial court misapplied the law in Section 452.340.5¹ concluding that there were manifest circumstances beyond Amy's control preventing her from taking the required credit hours. The judgment is reversed.

I. FACTS

Father was ordered to pay $341 a month in child support to his daughter, Amy Jo Meuschke, after the marriage was dissolved. Payments were to continue after Amy Jo's eighteenth birthday, provided Amy pursued a post-secondary education in compliance with Section 452.340.5.² Father was also ordered to pay Amy's health insurance, which cost $78 per month. The decree did not explicitly award the dependency income tax exemption for Amy to either party, but in January 2002 Father agreed, in a joint agreement, that Mother could claim the exemption. That exemption saved Mother $753 for the 2001 tax year.

Amy graduated from high school in May 2001 and then enrolled, before October 2001, at Central Missouri State University ("CMSU") for the fall 2001 semester. CMSU charges $140 a credit hour — i.e., $1,680 for twelve hours and $1,260 for nine hours. Amy received a Pell grant of $925 and a scholarship. She completed twelve credit hours in the Fall 2001 semester.

In the Spring 2002 semester, which began in January, Amy enrolled for eleven hours at CMSU. Sometime in January, she dropped a three credit-hour course because she had not taken a prerequisite for the class. (She was financially able to take eleven hours.) She was unaware of the prerequisite when she enrolled. She could not enroll in another course, because there were then no openings. Had she taken the course, she would not have received credit. However, CMSU did not order that Amy drop the class or suggest that she do so.

During both semesters, Amy worked at least fifteen hours a week as a nanny for a local couple, making $75 a week. In May 2002, around two months after dropping to eight credit hours, Amy lost this job through no fault of her own. (The mother of the child she was caring for was a schoolteacher who had summers off.) Amy sought a new job but was unable to find a steady job in Warrensburg, where CMSU is located.

In the summer 2002 semester, Amy took two credits hours at CMSU and worked off-and-on as a baby sitter. In the fall 2002 semester, for which she had qualified for $4,000 in loans and a Pell grant of indeterminate amount, Amy didn't take any classes at CMSU. She attempted to use her financial aid to take classes elsewhere, by filing an application with CMSU's Office of Student Financial Assistance. She claimed in the application that a "[f]amily situation will require me to be out of the Warrensburg area off and on for the next 6 months. Therefore a university that offers online and 8 wk [sic] classes is more suitable at this time." She also stated that she would not be taking classes at CMSU from August 19, 2002, till December 2002, that is, during the fall 2002 semester. The Office told her — incorrectly, it turned out — that she couldn't use her financial aid solely for distance learning, online, or weekend classes. (In December 2002, the Director of the Office sent Amy a letter that said that Amy could have used her financial aid package to take these classes, though the package "would normally [be] for a total amount less than that received if the student was enrolled for regular on-campus coursework.")

Amy attempted to take classes at Park University, but was unable to do so. She took no classes during the fall 2002 semester. For three days of every week, she lived with her fiancé in Springfield, where she had a part-time job — the only job she could find — that paid $5.30 an hour. The rest of the week she lived with Mother in Warrensburg.

Amy bought a used car for $6,700 soon before the start of the fall 2002 semester. Her down payment was $400, one hundred of which represented net profits from the sale of her old car. Her car payments and auto-insurance premiums remained the same, around $120 per month. During the fall 2002 semester, Amy went on a vacation to Myrtle Beach with her boyfriend, Mother, and Mother's boyfriend. Amy reimbursed Mother for the cost of her (Amy's) ticket, $266. Mother paid for Amy's other vacation-related expenses.

In November 2002, Father moved to have Amy declared emancipated, on the grounds that she was not enrolled in college. That month, Mother bought a $168,000 home in Lee's Summit. The house was purchased solely with loans. Mother's portion of the mortgage payment was the same as her former rent, $500.00 a month.

After learning of Father's motion, Amy registered to take eleven credit hours during the spring 2003 semester at CMSU. During this semester, she received student loans and a Pell grant, and worked part-time as a nanny, earning $100 a week. Father did not receive a copy of Amy's transcript or any enrollment forms until December 2002, when he received a copy of her transcript. December 2002 was (as of the date of this appeal) the only month in which Father did not make his child support payment.

Mother filed a motion in opposition claiming that Amy "was unable to attend [CMS in the fall 2002 semester] because she could not get a loan and [Father] would not assist her with her school expenses"; that Amy's nonattendance at CMSU during the Fall 2002 semester was temporary; and that manifest circumstances beyond Amy's control prevented her from being continuously enrolled in college classes. Mother also moved the court to increase Father's child support payment because Father's presumed child support payment, according to the applicable law, exceeded his current child support payment by twenty percent.³ Mother said nothing about Amy's failure to complete nine credit hours during the Spring 2002 semester.

Father contended that Amy did not complete twelve credit hours in the Spring 2002 semester, that she did not take any classes in the fall 2002 semester, and that she did not give him the proof-of-enrollment and — completion forms mandated by Section 452.340. Father denied the existence of an over-twenty-percent difference between his actual and the presumed child-support obligation, and counter-claimed for reimbursement of the child support payments he made after January 2002.

The trial court denied Father's motion to have Amy declared emancipated and end his support obligation and granted Mother's motion to increase Father's child support obligation from $ 341 to $427 per month. The court made no specific finding that manifest circumstances prevented Amy from completing nine credit hours during either the spring or fall 2002 semesters. Mother was allowed to retain the income tax exemption for Amy.

II. ANALYSIS

Father has raised two interrelated points on appeal. First, he contends that the trial erred in denying his motion to declare Amy emancipated, because Amy did not complete nine credit hours in the spring 2002 semester, she did not complete any courses in the fall 2002 semester, and no manifest circumstances beyond Amy's control prevented her from attending college. His second point asserts he is entitled to be reimbursed for all the post-emancipation payments, that is, the payments made after January 2002, the month in which Amy dropped to below nine credit hours. The denial of a motion to declare a child emancipated and to terminate child support must be affirmed unless it is against the weight of the evidence or it either misconstrues or misapplies the law. Kerr v. Kerr, 100 S.W.3d 912, 914 (Mo. App. 2003).

A. WAS AMY EMANCIPATED AFTER JANUARY 2002?

In general, a parent's obligation to make child support payments terminates when the child turns eighteen. § 452.340.3. An exception to this general rule is contained in Section 452.340.5, which states:

If when a child reaches age eighteen, the child is enrolled in and attending a secondary school program of instruction, the parental support obligation shall continue, if the child continues to attend and progresses toward completion of said program, until the child completes such program or reaches age twenty-one, whichever first occurs. If the child is enrolled in an institution of vocational or higher education not later than October first following graduation from a secondary school or completion of a graduation equivalence degree program and so long as the child enrolls for and completes at least twelve hours of credit each semester, not including the summer semester, at an institution of vocational or higher education and achieves grades sufficient to reenroll at such institution, the parental support obligation shall continue until the child completes his or her education, or until the child reaches the age of twenty-two, whichever first occurs.

Eligibility for continued child support is contingent on the child submitting at the beginning of each semester . . . a transcript or similar official document provided by the institution of vocational or higher education which includes the courses the child is enrolled in and has completed for each term, the grades and...