Williams v. Ali

• Court: California Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: FEUER, J.
• Docket Number: B333778
• Decision Date: 16 December 2025
• Citation: Williams v. Ali, B333778 (Cal. App. Dec 16, 2025)
• Parties: STUART M. WILLIAMS, Petitioner and Appellant, v. SHAZEENA ALI, Respondent. LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CHILD SUPPORT SERVICES, Defendant and Respondent.

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STUART M. WILLIAMS, Petitioner and Appellant, v. SHAZEENA ALI, Respondent.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CHILD SUPPORT SERVICES, Defendant and Respondent.

B333778

California Court of Appeals, Second District, Seventh Division

December 16, 2025

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

Appeal from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County No. SD030630 William E. Weinberger, Judge. Affirmed.

Stuart M. Willians, in pro. per., for Petitioner and Appellant.

No appearance for Respondent Shazeena Ali.

No appearance for Defendant and Respondent Los Angeles County Department of Child Support Services.

FEUER J.

Stuart Williams appeals from a family court order denying his request for modification of child support, including an equitable credit against his child support arrearages pursuant to Jackson v. Jackson (1975) 51 Cal.App.3d 363 (Jackson).^[1]Williams contends the court erred in considering the responsive declaration filed by his ex-wife Shazeena Ali, because the declaration was not properly served on him. He also contends the evidence compelled a finding his daughter lived exclusively with him for six months, thus relieving him of child support during that period. We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. The Judgment of Dissolution and Final Custody and Support Orders

Williams and Ali were married in 2003, and their daughter, Chloe, was born in December 2004. In March 2012 Williams filed a petition for marital dissolution, and on July 21, 2014 the family court entered a judgment dissolving the marriage (2014 judgment). At all relevant times, Williams lived in Brentwood (Los Angeles), and Ali lived in West Hollywood. Chloe attended high school in Sherman Oaks until her graduation, at age 18, on May 26, 2023.

The 2014 judgment included a custody order for the parents to have joint legal and physical custody of Chloe with equal timeshares. Except for holidays and vacations, each parent had custody on alternating weeks, beginning on Friday afternoons.^[2] The parents shared the right to make decisions regarding Chloe's schooling, extracurricular activities, nonemergency medical and dental treatment, and mental health therapy, and each parent was required to notify the other promptly of any changes in these areas.

The judgment included a child support order providing that Williams would pay Ali $883 per month for Chloe's support until Chloe turned 18, or 19 if she was still in high school. The parents were jointly responsible for Chloe's reasonable and necessary health care expenses not covered by insurance, and a parent who incurred those expenses was entitled to reimbursement pursuant to the procedures in Family Code section 4063.^[3] The judgment also included family law form FL-192 ("Notice of Rights and Responsibilities - Health Care Costs and Reimbursement Procedures"), which specified that a parent seeking reimbursement for health care costs must provide an itemized statement to the other parent "no more than 30 days after those costs were given to you."

B. The February 27, 2022 Incident and Subsequent Family Court Proceedings^[4]

On the morning of Sunday, February 27, 2022, during Ali's custodial week, Ali and then-17-year-old Chloe got into an argument that escalated into a physical altercation, and Ali slapped Chloe on the face. Chloe called Williams and asked him to pick her up from Ali's apartment, which he did. Chloe spent the rest of the week with Williams. Williams contends (but Ali disputes) that Chloe continued to live with him for several months.

On June 22, 2022 the family court^[5] issued, following Ali's filing of an affidavit of facts constituting contempt, an order to show cause for contempt of the 2014 judgment. In her affidavit, Ali averred that Williams failed to make any child support payments after March 2022 and he enrolled Chloe in therapy and an out-of-state summer program without Ali's knowledge or consent. Ali also averred Williams "refused to turn the child over" during Ali's custodial time in the second week of April 2022. After a hearing, on November 3, 2022 the court^[6] dismissed the order to show cause without prejudice after finding Ali's affidavit did not allege contempt with adequate specificity to determine if her claims were time barred.

On July 7, 2022 Williams, representing himself, filed a request for order modifying child custody (2022 RFO). Although the RFO stated on the cover page that Williams was seeking a change in child custody, he checked the boxes on pages 2 and 3 for a change in child custody and child support (to reduce it to zero). In a concurrently filed motion and memorandum, Williams argued that Chloe stopped living with Ali after February 27, and he requested orders for sole physical and legal custody, termination of his child support obligation, and reimbursement for half of Chloe's health-related expenses incurred in 2021 and 2022. Williams filed an amended motion on August 29 in which he requested Jackson credits for the period Chloe was no longer living with Ali.

After additional submissions and a hearing, on February 24, 2023 the family court denied Williams's RFO and motion to modify the existing orders. The court stated it would need to consider then-18-year-old Chloe's custody preference, and by the time the court could hear from Chloe, she would reach (or nearly reach) her graduation and "emancipation." The court did not consider Williams's request for a child support modification because Williams marked only the box for a custody modification on the cover of his FL-300 request form. The court acknowledged that Williams could refile a request for a modification of support.

C. The March 2023 Request for Order

1. Williams's RFO, motion, and evidence

On March 6, 2023 Williams filed a second request for order (2023 RFO) to modify child support. On the same day he filed a motion and supporting memorandum clarifying the relief he requested. Williams stated in his memorandum he was seeking a $5,298 Jackson credit for six months beginning in January 2022 "since Chloe was not living with [Ali] for those six months and [Ali] was contributing nothing to Chloe's expenses."^[7] Williams also sought $5,674 as reimbursement for "50% of Chloe's medical dental and vision expenses in 2022." Williams further requested the family court end his child support obligation "due to the fact that Chloe is self-sufficient since she has a job," or in the alternative, recalculate his guideline child support obligation based on a change in his employment.^[8]

Williams did not submit a separate declaration under penalty of perjury; he instead signed the RFO under penalty of perjury and cited the motion and memorandum as the "facts to support the orders" he requested. (Capitalization omitted.) In his motion Williams asserted that on January 4, 2022, after Ali slapped Chloe, Chloe decided she wanted to live with Williams full-time and visit Ali only on weekends.^[9] Further, Chloe moved in with Williams and lived with him "for the next 4 months," until the end of the school year, "with the exception of one week in February 2022 when she tried to reconcile with her mother to no avail." During their estrangement, Ali did not attend Chloe's performances in the high school musical in March or her dance recitals in April (whereas Williams went to several performances). At the end of the school year, Chloe then lived in Massachusetts for two months "with neither parent" while she attended a summer program at Harvard University; Williams paid all of Chloe's expenses for this program. After returning to California on August 6, "Chloe resumed living with [Ali] 50% of the time."

Williams attached more than a dozen exhibits to his motion, including screenshots of text messages Williams asserted he received from Ali. In a message dated February 27, 2022, Ali acknowledged that Williams was coming to pick up Chloe and complained that Chloe had been "getting totally out of hand," insulting both parents. Ali said that if Chloe continued to disrespect them, Ali would support Chloe "getting a job . . . and living with a roommate and taking a bus." In a text message dated April 13, Ali wrote to Williams: "[Y]ou're behind on child support again. Let me know what your plans are with Chloe. If she's going to be with you full-time and you're not going to be paying child support[,] I am giving up this apartment and she will need to get her belongings." Williams responded, "I will take her full time," adding, "[I]f you agree to giving me full custody we won't have to go to court.... She's almost eighteen anyway." On June 11, Ali wrote, "[Y]ou are 3 months behind with child support," to which Williams responded, "Chloe has not lived with you for those three months." Williams wrote, "I also want reimbursement for the money I spent on Chloe that you contributed nothing to." Williams demanded payment of $1,700 for removal of Chloe's wisdom teeth, $5,000 for her therapy, and $10,000 as Ali's share of "the money I spent on [Chloe's] summer program."

In another exhibit, Williams included a "list of medical dental and vision expenses" from January 2021 to June 2022. (Capitalization omitted.) The list stated the total amounts spent on therapy ($7,425), vision ($818), and wisdom teeth removal ($3,104) (totaling $11,347). A separate exhibit included a billing summary from a family therapist stating Williams was charged $7,425 for 33 psychotherapy sessions between February and December 2021. Invoices from an optometrist indicated that Chloe incurred $642 in out-of-pocket expenses for services in November 2021 and $176 for services on June 14, 2022. Receipts from an oral surgeon and surgery center indicated total payments of $3,104 in connection with the removal of Chloe's wisdom teeth on ...