Tiffany v. Tiffany, 0003-84

• Decision Date: 06 August 1985
• Docket Number: No. 0003-84,0003-84
• Citation: 1 Va.App. 11,332 S.E.2d 796
• Parties: Marjorie M. TIFFANY (Yoars) v. Currell Hunton TIFFANY. Record
• Court: Virginia Court of Appeals

Page 796

332 S.E.2d 796

1 Va.App. 11

Marjorie M. TIFFANY (Yoars) v. Currell Hunton TIFFANY.

Record No. 0003-84.

Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Argued March 13, 1985.

Decided Aug. 6, 1985.

Thomas V. Monahan, Leesburg (Hall, Monahan, Engle, Mahan & Mitchell, Leesburg, on brief), for appellant.

Burke F. McCahill, Leesburg (Hanes, Sevila, Saunders & McCahill, Leesburg, on brief), for appellee.

Present: BAKER, C.J., and BENTON and KEENAN, JJ. ¹

BENTON, Judge.

The appellant, Marjorie M. Tiffany, now Marjorie M. Tiffany Yoars (Yoars), sought an order to show cause why the appellee, Currell Hunton Tiffany (Tiffany), should not be held in contempt for failing to pay the college education support for their older son, Hunton Shackleford Tiffany (Shack), which Yoars alleges is due in accordance with a property settlement agreement. The trial judge dismissed the rule to show cause, holding that the agreement lacked sufficient definiteness to warrant a finding of contempt. Upon the motion of both parties, the trial court proceeded to interpret the property settlement agreement after hearing evidence. The court determined that Tiffany had acted within his rights under the property settlement agreement when he terminated support payments for Shack upon Shack's eighteenth birthday and when he refused to contribute to Shack's college expenses.

The issues on appeal are: (1) whether the property settlement agreement requires the parties to agree mutually on the choice of a college for a child in order for Tiffany's support obligation to arise; and (2) whether the trial court was correct in finding that the child support payments were properly terminated pursuant to the property settlement agreement when Shack attained the age of eighteen.

Tiffany and Yoars were divorced in 1980 by decree of the Circuit Court of Fauquier County which confirmed, ratified, approved and incorporated by reference the property settlement agreement entered into by the parties. Yoars was given custody of the two sons born of the marriage. The property settlement agreement contains the following provisions:

10. Child Support. The Husband agrees to pay unto the Wife as and for his contribution towards the support and maintenance of the infant children of the parties hereto the sum of Eight Hundred Dollars ($800.00) per month to be adjusted as hereinafter set forth until such time as each of the children obtain the age of eighteen (18) years, die, marry, enter the Armed Forces of the United States of America, are no longer in the care and custody of the Wife, or otherwise become emancipated, whichever event first occurs, and upon the happening of any such event to one child, the amount of child support paid to the Wife shall be reduced to sixty percent (60%) of the amount paid unto the Wife in the month immediately preceding the happening of the said event, and upon the happening of any such event to the other child, the support payments shall forever cease, except as hereinafter set forth.

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14. College Education Expenses. The Husband agrees that it is his desire to make some contribution to the support of the children after they have finished their high school education and while they are in college on a full-time basis, and he further wishes to make a substantial contribution to their college education with the specific understanding that the Wife covenants and agrees that this is a contractual right and she shall not have the right to seek any increase in the payments under this paragraph. The Husband agrees that the payments hereinbefore set forth in Paragraphs numbered 10 and 11 shall continue until each of the said children has completed four (4) years of college. The Husband shall only have such obligation hereunder to each of the said children so long as the said child enters college within a reasonable period of time after the child should have completed his high school graduation and only so long as the child continued college on a full-time basis. The Husband shall have no obligation hereunder after a child attains the age of twenty-three (23) years. Provided further, however, that as an express condition of the Husband's obligation, the Husband shall be entitled to participate in the decision making process as to the college to be attended by the said children.

Upon the happening of any one of the following events, the amount of payments by the Husband to the Wife shall be reduced to an amount equal to fifty percent (50%) of the amount paid by the Husband to the Wife in the month immediately preceding the happening of the said event: Obtaining the age of twenty-three (23) years, completing college education, dying, marrying, or no longer being enrolled in and attending a school mutually acceptable to the Husband and Wife on a full-time basis.

As early as September of 1983, the beginning of Shack's last year of high school, the college selection process began. Although Tiffany contends that he encountered difficulties in obtaining information from Yoars and Shack, the record shows that all three parties did communicate regarding the selection of a college. Yoars, then living in Connecticut, communicated by letter and telephone with Tiffany, who lived in Fauquier County, Virginia. She apprised him of a list of twelve colleges being considered and asked for his suggestions. Tiffany discussed the selection of a college with Yoars on other occasions and with Shack in two face-to-face conversations. During the course of this selection process, Tiffany clearly expressed his preferences regarding Shack's college education. Specifically, Tiffany made known his desire that Shack attend a college in the South (preferably within 150 miles of Warrenton, Virginia) with an honor code and a predominantly Protestant student body.

On October 19, 1983, Shack attained the age of eighteen years. Shortly thereafter Tiffany reduced the amount of child support to sixty percent of the amount paid to Yoars in the month immediately preceding Shack's eighteenth birthday.

Tiffany took Shack to visit three colleges in November, 1983. Shack did not apply to Roanoke College, Hampden-Sydney College, or Randolph Macon College as suggested by Tiffany. He did, however, apply to James Madison University, one of the schools which he visited with Tiffany, but he was not accepted.

In April of 1984, Shack was admitted to the University of Hartford, where he enrolled in the Fall of the same year. Tiffany objected to his son's decision to attend the University of Hartford and refused to pay college education support. As a result of this refusal, Yoars instituted the present litigation.

The testimony and evidence received by the trial court primarily concern the interpretation by the parties of Paragraph 14, the actions taken by Tiffany, Yoars and Shack to select a college, the extent and nature of communications among the parties, and the reasons for Tiffany's refusal to pay college education support for Shack.

The question, and the crux of this case, is whether Tiffany's promise, under Paragraph 14 of the property settlement agreement, to provide support for his children's college education is conditioned upon his approval of the college initially selected. We believe it is not.

Property settlement agreements are contracts; therefore, we must apply the same rules of interpretation applicable to contracts generally. See generally Wells v. Weston, 229 Va. 72, 326 S.E.2d 672 (1985); Paul v. Paul, 214 Va. 651, 203 S.E.2d 123 (1974); White v. Graham, 72 N.C.App. 436, 325 S.E.2d 497 (1985); Krickhan v. Krickhan, 34 N.C.App. 363, 238 S.E.2d 184 (1977). We state at the outset our belief that the property settlement agreement is unambiguous; thus, its meaning and effect are questions of law to be determined by the court. On review we are not bound by the trial court's construction of the contract provisions here in issue. Wilson v. Holyfield, 227 Va. 184, 187, 313 S.E.2d 396, 398 (1984).

In construing contracts, ordinary words are to be given their ordinary meaning. The Supreme Court of Virginia restated the applicable principles in Berry v. Klinger, 225 Va. 201, 208, 300 S.E.2d 792, 796 (1983):

We adhere to the "plain meaning" rule in Virginia: "[W]here an agreement is complete on its face, is plain and unambiguous in its terms, the court is not at liberty to search for its meaning beyond the instrument itself.... This is so because the writing is the repository of the final agreement of the parties." (Citations omitted).

The court must give effect to all of the language of a contract if its parts can be read together without conflict. Where possible, meaning must be given to every clause. The contract must be read as a single document. Its meaning is to be gathered from all its associated parts assembled as the unitary expression of the agreement of the parties. However inartfully it may have been drawn, the court cannot make a new contract for the parties, but must construe its language as written. (Citation omitted).

The intention of Tiffany to provide college education expenses for his sons is firmly and unequivocally stated in Section 14 and bears emphasis:

The Husband agrees that it is his desire to make some contribution to the support of the children after they have finished their high school education and while they are in college on a full-time basis, and he further wishes to make a substantial contribution to their college education.... ²

As his contribution to the college education of each son, Tiffany promises "that the payments...