Sparks v. Trantham
| Decision Date | 30 July 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 17279,17279 |
| Citation | 814 S.W.2d 621 |
| Parties | Allen Merle SPARKS, Petitioner-Respondent, v. Kathy TRANTHAM (formerly Kathy Sparks), Respondent-Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Janet Garrett, Springfield, for respondent-appellant.
J. Christopher Allen, O'Neil & Allen, Lebanon, for petitioner-respondent.
The father, Allen Merle Sparks, brought this action for a judicial determination of his child support payment history, the amount of interest he owed, and whether he was still obligated to make child support payments to the mother, Kathy Trantham, pursuant to a May 4, 1970, divorce decree. The mother appeals from the trial court's judgment that limited the father's child support arrearage to the period September 1, 1982, through August 4, 1987, and declared the parties' child to be emancipated.
There are three issues presented, the first concerns the sufficiency of the evidence; the second and third are questions of law.
1. Whether there was substantial evidence at trial to support the court's determination that the parties' child was emancipated as of August 1987.
2. Whether the August 31, 1982, amendment to § 516.350 operates retroactively to the period prior to August 31, 1982.
3. Whether certain child support payments made by the father were "duly entered upon the record" pursuant to § 516.350 thereby reviving the judgment?
The evidence supports the trial court's judgment that the parties' child was emancipated as of August 1987; we affirm that portion of the judgment. Because we have determined that the 1982 amendment to § 516.350 operates retroactively to the period prior to August 31, 1982, we reverse and remand for additional proceedings. We conclude the father's child support payments made during 1979, 1980, and 1981 were not "duly entered upon the record." Therefore, those payments do not revive the judgment, and recovery of unpaid child support payments due before September 1, 1979 (ten years prior to the filing of this action), are barred by § 516.350.
The father and the mother were divorced on May 4, 1970. By the dissolution decree, the custody of their daughter Shannon was placed with the mother, and the father was ordered to pay monthly child support of $100. The father admits he has not fully complied with the child support order; the dispute centers on the amount now due.
In May 1987, Shannon graduated from high school. In August 1987, a month before her 18th birthday and following an argument with her mother, Shannon moved from her mother's rural Marshfield home. The mother apparently agreed to Shannon's departure and helped her move her furniture to an apartment in Springfield. By the time of trial, Shannon had lived in three apartments in Springfield; she had never returned to her mother's home to live.
Shannon enrolled at Southwest Missouri State University for the fall semester 1987. From then until the February 1990 hearing, she was a full-time student every fall and spring semester but one. At the time of the hearing, she was enrolled and was classified as a junior.
Upon her arrival in Springfield, Shannon obtained temporary employment at Kraft where she earned $8.20 an hour. When that job ended in November 1987, she was not employed until June of 1988 at which time she went to work at Michael's where she earned about $4 an hour and worked an average of 20 hours a week. She worked at Michael's for one year and then went to work for Residence Inn where she was employed until February 15, 1990, five days before the hearing. She earned $4 an hour at Residence Inn and worked 32 to 35 hours a week until January 1990 when her weekly hours were reduced to less than 20.
Shannon kept the money she earned, using it to pay her "living expenses" which she described as "rent, utility bills, phone bills, entertainment, food, all the bills that you have when you live out on your own."
Shannon said she considered herself self-supporting although she acknowledged she had received money from her mother and her grandparents, "from my grandparents mainly." She said her mother had given her food, "a lot of laundry detergent," had paid for her health and automobile insurance, and had provided her with furniture and bed linens. Her maternal grandparents and her mother's husband's parents bought her a new car and helped her with living expenses and educational expenses. Shannon also received some financial assistance from her paternal grandparents. The mother admitted that Shannon "uses her earnings however she wishes, and she does use that for her support" but, she added, Shannon earned less than $4,000 in 1989.
Shannon also received financial help from her father for educational expenses, clothing, rent, and entertainment. Much of the father's financial assistance came during the period November 1987 through June 1988 when Shannon was unemployed. There had been little contact between the father and Shannon while she was growing up but, in Shannon's words, they became "close friends" after she graduated from high school and moved to Springfield.
Shannon testified her mother exercised no control over her after she moved to Springfield, stating "I was free to do what I wanted." She did testify about one occasion on which she obtained her mother's permission to travel to France.
When the mother was asked if she still exercised any parental control over Shannon, she answered: When asked about other ways she exercised parental control, the mother related occasions when Shannon had asked for and received help rather than instances in which she had exercised control.
In April 1989, the mother initiated proceedings to garnish the father's wages in an effort to collect delinquent child support for the previous ten years. In September 1989, the father brought the present action, and the mother subsequently sought a second garnishment, this time to collect child support arrearages dating back to the date of the dissolution.
Following the hearing, the trial court found that Shannon was emancipated as of August 1987. The court decreed that the father's "obligation to pay child support for the period of May 4, 1970, through August 31, 1982, is presumed paid due to the running of the ten year statute of limitations" and determined that the child support arrearage was $447.78 and the accrued interest was $3,601.39.
The mother appeals from that judgment.
In her first point on appeal, the mother contends the trial court's emancipation determination resulted from a misapplication of the law and was against the weight of the evidence. Where the issue is the emancipation of a child, the scope of appellate review is governed by the familiar precepts of Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30 (Mo. banc 1976). See In re Marriage of Hughes, 773 S.W.2d 897, 898 (Mo.App.1989). Thus we must affirm the judgment of the trial court unless there is no substantial evidence to support it or it is against the weight of the evidence or it erroneously declares or applies the law. Murphy, 536 S.W.2d at 32. The phrase "weight of the evidence" means its weight in probative value, not the quantity or amount of evidence. The weight of the evidence is not determined by mathematics; it depends on its effect in inducing belief. Johnson v. Gregg, 807 S.W.2d 680, 685 (Mo.App.1991). The trial court, functioning as a fact-finder, resolves conflicts in the evidence and can draw all reasonable inferences from the evidence presented to it and can base its ultimate findings upon such reasonable inferences. Hughes, 773 S.W.2d at 898.
"Unless otherwise agreed in writing or expressly provided in the decree, provisions for the support of a child are terminated by emancipation of the child." Section 452.370.4, RSMo cum. supp. 1990. The purpose of this statutory provision is to "make it absolute" that, unless there are contrary provisions in the dissolution decree or the separation agreement, the child support obligation ends upon the child's emancipation and does not automatically continue during the child's minority. Bushell v. Schepp, 613 S.W.2d 689, 691 (Mo.App.1981).
The appellate courts of this state have defined emancipation as the " 'freeing of a child for all the period of its minority from the care, custody, control, and service of its parents; the relinquishment of parental control, conferring on the child the right to its own earnings and terminating the parent's legal obligation to support it.' " Hughes, 773 S.W.2d at 899, quoting the predecessor to 67A C.J.S. Parent and Child § 5 at 174-75 (1978) and citing Black v. Cole, 626 S.W.2d 397, 398 (Mo.App.1981) and In re Marriage of Heddy, 535 S.W.2d 276, 279 (Mo.App.1976). Emancipation is never presumed and the burden is upon the party asserting it. Heddy, 535 S.W.2d at 279. Emancipation can be accomplished by either expressed or implied consent of the custodial parent. Vinson v. Vinson, 628 S.W.2d 376, 377 (Mo.App.1982).
Case law pronouncements concerning emancipation were incorporated into the version of § 452.340 enacted by the General Assembly in 1988. 1 Mo.Family Law, § 14.19 (MoBar 4th ed. 1988). Pertinent portions of § 452.340 are set out marginally. 1
The arguments under this point focus on the application of § 452.340.3(4) to the evidence developed at the hearing. The mother argues that the trial court's conclusion that Shannon is emancipated is against the weight of the evidence. The mother contends the evidence showed that Shannon "was not self-supporting, but dependent on her parents and grandparents for support" and that "she was not able to supply all her needs without help from the parents and grandparents and step-grandparents." Without discussing the evidence, the mother also asserts there was no...
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