Wills v. Jones
| Decision Date | 01 September 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 23,23 |
| Citation | 667 A.2d 331,340 Md. 480 |
| Parties | Natasha WILLS v. Randy W. JONES. , |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Angela M. Eaves, Assistant Attorney General, (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General; C.J. Messerschmidt, Assistant Attorney General, all on brief) Baltimore, for petitioner.
Hillary Galloway Davis (J. Edward Davis, both on brief) Towson, for respondent.
Argued before MURPHY, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY, CHASANOW, KARWACKI, BELL and RAKER, JJ.
This case requires us to determine whether penal incarceration constitutes a material change of circumstance sufficient to justify the modification of a child support award under Maryland Code (1984, 1991 Repl.Vol., 1994 Supp.) § 12-104 of the Family Law Article, and whether an incarcerated parent should be considered voluntarily impoverished under § 12-204(b) of that Article. We hold that a prisoner's incarceration may constitute a material change of circumstance if the effect on the prisoner's ability to pay child support is sufficiently reduced due to incarceration. Moreover, we conclude that a prisoner is not "voluntarily impoverished" unless he or she committed a crime with the intent of going to prison or otherwise becoming impoverished.
As this Court has repeatedly recognized, one of the most fundamental duties of parenthood "is the obligation of the parent to support the child until the law determines that he is able to care for himself." Carroll County v. Edelmann, 320 Md. 150, 170, 577 A.2d 14 (1990); see Middleton v. Middleton, 329 Md. 627, 631, 620 A.2d 1363 (1993) (). In accordance with this obligation, § 5-203(b)(1) of the Family Law Article provides that parents "are jointly and severally responsible for the child's support, care, nurture, welfare, and education...." Title 12 of that Article gives Maryland courts the authority to award child support to a custodial parent or child support agency. See § 12-101(a). In limited circumstances, the courts also have authority to modify an existing child support award. § 12-104.
The child support guidelines codified at §§ 12-201 to 12-204 of the Family Law Article provide the method of analysis used to determine the amount of child support awarded in each case. Section 12-202(a)(2) makes the use of these guidelines mandatory unless the result would "be unjust or inappropriate in a particular case." When a court departs from the child support guidelines, it must make a written finding stating the amount of support that would have been ordered under the guidelines, how the court's order varies from the guidelines, and how this variance serves the best interests of the child. Id.
In general, the child support guidelines "establish[ ] child support obligations based on estimates of the percentage of income that parents in an intact household typically spend on their children." Voishan v. Palma, 327 Md. 318, 322-23, 609 A.2d 319 (1992). In Voishan, we discussed in detail the process of using the guidelines to fix a parent's support obligation. See id. at 323-24, 609 A.2d 319. For the present case, we reiterate that the obligation is calculated by determining each parent's monthly income, using the table at § 12- 204(e) to determine the parents' combined monthly support obligation, and dividing this obligation between the two parents in proportion to their relative incomes. Id.
Because the parents' income levels determine the amount of support that a child receives, it is imperative to accurately assess the parents' respective incomes. It is equally imperative that parents be prevented from avoiding their support obligations by purposefully reducing their income. Thus, § 12-201(b)(2) provides that a parent's "potential income" may be used to calculate the amount of the support obligation if the parent is "voluntarily impoverished." A parent's potential income is defined as "income attributed to a parent determined by the parent's employment potential and probable earnings level based on, but not limited to, recent work history, occupational qualifications, prevailing job opportunities, and earnings levels in the community." § 12-201(f).
Randy Jones (Jones) and Natasha Wills (Wills) are the parents of Rhondell Durell Jones (Rhondell), born on October 5, 1982. Jones was incarcerated on September 23, 1992, when he began serving a mandatory ten-year sentence. The nature of the crime for which Jones was incarcerated is not disclosed in the record and is not relevant to our decision. At the time of his incarceration, Jones was obligated to pay Wills $50 per week in child support. Following his incarceration, Jones's cash income dropped to twenty dollars per month. Jones appears to have no assets. If Jones's support obligation remains at $50 per week throughout his incarceration, he will be approximately $26,000 in arrears by the time of his release.
On May 20, 1993, Jones filed in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County a motion to "Stay Enforcement of Child Support Obligation." Wills filed an answer opposing Jones's motion, and a hearing was held before a master on September 14, 1993. The master recommended that Jones's motion be denied, finding that his incarceration was "self-induced and voluntary" and therefore did not justify modifying Jones's support obligation. The circuit court (Cawood, J.) disagreed and granted Jones's motion. The court found that Jones had not voluntarily impoverished himself through commission of a crime and his subsequent incarceration.
The Court of Special Appeals affirmed the circuit court's judgement. Wills v. Jones, 102 Md.App. 539, 650 A.2d 736 (1994). In her petition for writ of certiorari, which we granted, Wills argues that Jones's support obligation should not be modified because an incarcerated parent should be considered "voluntarily impoverished" within the meaning of § 12-204 of the Family Law Article.
It is unclear from the record precisely what relief the circuit court granted by its order "staying enforcement" of Jones's child support obligation. Wills contends that the circuit court terminated Jones's obligation to support his child, while Jones contends that the circuit court merely suspended his support obligation under its authority to modify child support awards during the time he was in prison.
The confusion arises, at least in part, from the label under which Jones originally filed his petition. By its terms, Jones's original motion asked the circuit court to stay enforcement of the obligation during his stay in prison, and made no request to modify the amount of that obligation. Because Jones originally filed his petition pro se, however, the lower courts did not strictly hold him to the language of his original petition. As the Court of Special Appeals noted, "[a]though [Jones's] motion was for a stay of enforcement of his child support obligation, it is clear from the record that what he really sought (and what [Wills] and the trial judge understood he was requesting) was a cessation or suspension of the support obligation itself while he was incarcerated." Wills, supra, 102 Md.App. at 552, 650 A.2d 736.
If, as Wills contends, the circuit court's order was intended to terminate Jones's obligation to pay child support, its authority to do so cannot arise from § 12-104(a). Although it is conceivable that a child support award could be modified to $0 per month if a parent's income were low enough or equitable considerations demanded it, the obligation to pay child support would remain. Because the obligation remains, a child support award of $0 can be increased when future circumstances may justify an increase or automatically increased when Jones is released on work release or released from prison. Section 12-104(a), however, contains no provision allowing a court to entirely terminate a parent's obligation.
For the purposes of this case, we will assume that the intermediate appellate court was correct in characterizing the circuit court's order as a modification of child support under § 12-104(a). Because we decline to create a per se rule freeing incarcerated parents with no assets from their child support obligations, we will remand the matter to the circuit court to determine whether Jones is entitled to a modification of child support under § 12-104(a). If so, the circuit court must determine the level of Jones's child support obligation by applying the child support guidelines, or provide an explanation for departing from those guidelines as required by § 12-202(a)(2)(iv).
While we agree with the Court of Special Appeals that incarceration alone does not constitute "voluntary impoverishment," we undertake to clarify the role of voluntary impoverishment in the context of a motion to modify a child support award under § 12-104(a) of the Family Law Article. That section provides that "[t]he court may modify a child support award subsequent to the filing of a motion for modification and upon a showing of a material change of circumstance." Applying this section, the Court of Special Appeals determined that "[w]ith regard to petitions for child support modification, 'voluntary impoverishment' does not constitute a material change of circumstances." Wills v. Jones, supra, 102 Md.App at 548, 650 A.2d 736. In our view, however, the question of whether a material change of circumstance has occurred is distinct from the issue of whether a parent is voluntarily impoverished.
Before a court can consider the level of support to which a child is entitled under the guidelines, it must determine that it has authority to grant the requested motion. Section 12-104 provides the Maryland courts with authority to modify a child support award only when (1) there has been a change of circumstance and (2) the change is material. See § 12-104(a). These limitations upon the courts' authority to modify child support awards tend to inhibit the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Department of Economic and Employment Development v. Taylor
...Program, supra, 275 Md. 69, 338 A.2d 237 which, as we have noted, construed the predecessor to L.E. § 8-1001(a)(1), and Wills v. Jones, 340 Md. 480, 667 A.2d 331 (1995), which used Allen to construe the term "voluntarily impoverished" in Maryland's child support law, Md.Code Ann., Fam.Law §......
-
U.S. v. Golino
...650 A.2d 736, 742 (1994) (suspension of payment of child support during period of obligor's incarceration warranted), vacated, 340 Md. 480, 667 A.2d 331 (1995); Voecks v. Voecks, 171 Wis.2d 184, 491 N.W.2d 107, (1992) (same); N.Y.Dom.Rel.Law § 240 (McKinney 1996 Supp.) (substantial change i......
-
Drummond v. State to Use of Drummond
...in circumstances. We explained the limitation on the trial court's authority to modify a child support award in Wills v. Jones, 340 Md. 480, 488-89, 667 A.2d 331, 334-35 (1995): Before a court can consider the level of support to which a child is entitled under the guidelines, it must deter......
-
Westray v. State
...The Court did so again in Nalls v. State, 437 Md. 674, 689, 89 A.3d 1126 (2014). As to “voluntary,” citing Wills v. Jones, 340 Md. 480, 495, 667 A.2d 331 (1995), the Nalls Court stated that a voluntary action is “an exercise of ‘unconstrained will’ and is ‘intentional.’ ” Nalls, 437 Md. at ......
-
Unintended Consequences: A Critical Review of Child Support Enforcement.
...fourteen states categorized incarcerated parents as "voluntarily unemployed" for purposes of child support arrears (e.g., Wills v. Jones, 340 Md. 480, 667 A.2d 331 Compounding the problem, incarcerated parents may remain unaware that child support obligations continue to accrue during deten......