Piska v. Nebraska Dept. of Social Services

Decision Date06 June 1997
Docket NumberNo. S-95-679,S-95-679
Citation567 N.W.2d 544,252 Neb. 589
PartiesVerna L. PISKA, Appellant, v. NEBRASKA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES, Appellee.
CourtNebraska Supreme Court

Syllabus by the Court

1. Administrative Law: Final Orders: Appeal and Error. A final order rendered by a district court in a judicial review pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act may be reversed, vacated, or modified by an appellate court for errors appearing on the record.

2. Administrative Law: Final Orders: Appeal and Error. When reviewing an order of a district court under the Administrative Procedure Act for errors appearing on the record, the inquiry is whether the decision conforms to the law, is supported by competent evidence, and is neither arbitrary, capricious, nor unreasonable.

3. Statutes: Appeal and Error. Statutory interpretation is a matter of law in connection with which an appellate court has an obligation to reach an independent, correct conclusion irrespective of the determination made by the court below.

4. Statutes: Legislature: Intent. In construing a statute, a court must determine and give effect to the purpose and intent of the Legislature as ascertained from the entire language of the statute considered in its plain, ordinary, and popular sense.

Robert A. Ide, of Aten, Noble & Ide, Holdrege, for Appellant.

Don Stenberg, Attorney General, and Royce N. Harper, Lincoln, for Appellee.

WHITE, C.J., CAPORALE, WRIGHT, CONNOLLY, and GERRARD, JJ., ENSZ, District Judge, and BLUE, District Judge, Retired.

GERRARD, Justice.

On August 2, 1994, the then Nebraska Department of Social Services found that Verna L. Piska was indebted to the department in the amount of $3,000 for child support which she had received during a period of time in which her minor daughter Jo Lee was in foster care in the custody of the department. The district court affirmed the findings and order of the department. This appeal followed. Because we find that there was no showing that application was made for aid to dependent children payments as required by Neb.Rev.Stat. § 43-512.07 (Cum.Supp.1992), we now affirm in part, and in part reverse, the judgment of the district court.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On December 15, 1982, the district court entered an order dissolving the marriage of Piska and her husband, Joseph D. Piska. By agreement of the parties, Piska retained custody of Jo Lee and a second minor child and the husband retained custody of their third minor child. The husband was ordered to pay Piska $500 per month as child support and property settlement.

In May 1991, the department began making foster care payments on behalf of Jo Lee. The State filed a motion for support in the county court for Phelps County. On July 3, the county court, sitting as a juvenile court, ordered Piska to pay $100 per month toward the support of Jo Lee, with the first payment to be due on August 1. On November 18, 1992, the county court found that Jo Lee was no longer a ward of the department and ordered support suspended as of November 1, 1992. Piska has satisfied this obligation.

The department made foster care payments on behalf of Jo Lee of approximately $18,311.89, including payments made in August, October, and December 1991 and in January through November 1992. The department's records show that Piska received $500 child support payments in the months of August, September, and November 1991 and in January through May 1992. The department intercepted the $500 monthly child support payments from Phelps County from June through November 1992. The department credited back to Piska the $500 payment that was erroneously intercepted in November 1992 when Jo Lee was no longer in the custody of the department. The department claims that Piska is obligated to pay to the department the amount of child support she received during the period that Jo Lee was in foster care.

On March 29, 1994, the department notified Piska that she owed the department $3,500 in child support. Piska appealed this determination, and a hearing was held before a department hearing officer on June 21. Piska claimed that she had never applied for aid to dependent children or any other support and had never made an assignment of her child support benefits to the department. She asserted that to her knowledge there had not been a hearing regarding modification of support, modification of the payee of the support, assignment of her support rights, or any other kind of intervention.

In its August 2, 1994, findings and order, the department found that there had been an assignment by operation of law of the child support payments pursuant to § 43-512.07. Because the department found that the revised statute did not go into effect until September 1991, it found that Piska did not owe the $500 paid to her in August 1991. Accordingly, the department found that Piska was obligated to pay the sum of $3,000 to the department. The department also found that Piska had not timely raised the issue of the assignment of payments which were intercepted from June through November 1992.

Piska appealed the decision of the department to the district court. The district court affirmed the findings and order of the department, and this appeal followed. We removed the matter to this court under our authority to regulate the dockets of the Nebraska Court of Appeals and this court.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

A final order rendered by a district court in a judicial review pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act may be reversed, vacated, or modified by an appellate court for errors appearing on the record. Kolesnick v. Omaha Pub. Sch. Dist., 251 Neb. 575, 558 N.W.2d 807 (1997). When reviewing an order of a district court under the Administrative Procedure Act for errors appearing on the record, the inquiry is whether the decision conforms to the law, is supported by competent evidence, and is neither arbitrary, capricious, nor unreasonable. Rainbolt v. State, 250 Neb. 567, 550 N.W.2d 341 (1996).

Statutory interpretation is a matter of law in connection with which an appellate court has an obligation to reach an independent, correct conclusion irrespective of the determination made by the court below. County of Seward v. Andelt, 251 Neb. 713, 559 N.W.2d 465 (1997).

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

Summarized and restated, Piska assigns that the district court erred in (1) finding that the record contained sufficient facts to support the finding of the department that a valid assignment was made, (2) affirming the decision of the department that she is not claiming the $3,000 intercepted by the department, (3) failing to find that the department's actions deprived her of property without due process, and (4) failing to find that the department was collaterally estopped from pursuing the collection of further funds.

ANALYSIS

It was the department's position in district court that § 43-512.07 provides for the assignment by operation of law of Piska's child support payments to the department for the period that Jo Lee was in foster care. The version of § 43-512.07 that was in place at the time of the events in the instant case provided, in relevant part, as follows:

(1) The application for and acceptance of an aid to dependent children payment by a parent, another relative, or a custodian shall constitute an assignment by operation of law to the Department of Social Services of any right to spousal or medical support when ordered by the court and to child support whether or not ordered by the court which the recipient may have in his or her own behalf or on behalf of any other person for whom the applicant receives such assistance, including any accrued arrearages as of the time of the assignment. The department shall be entitled to retain such support up to the amount of aid to dependent children paid to the recipient. For purposes of this section, the right to receive current and past-due child support shall belong to the child and the assignment shall be effective as to any such support even if the payee of aid to dependent children is not the same as the payee of court-ordered support.

SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE

Piska first contends that the evidence was insufficient to support the decision of the department that a valid assignment was made. She asserts that there is insufficient evidence in the record to demonstrate that the department made "aid to dependent children payments" on behalf of Jo Lee. Section 43-512.07 refers to "application for and acceptance of an aid to dependent children payment" as triggering an assignment by operation of law. (Emphasis supplied.) Piska maintains...

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