Yerkes v. Yerkes

• Decision Date: 30 May 2003
• Citation: 573 Pa. 294,824 A.2d 1169
• Parties: Lydia A. YERKES, Appellee, v. Keith A. YERKES, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

824 A.2d 1169

573 Pa. 294

Lydia A. YERKES, Appellee, v. Keith A. YERKES, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted February 26, 2002.

Decided May 30, 2003.

Keith A. Yerkes, for Keith A. Yerkes, pro se.

Albert J. Meier, for Lydia A. Yerkes.

Before: CAPPY, C.J., and CASTILLE, NIGRO, NEWMAN, SAYLOR, EAKIN and LAMB, JJ.

OPINION OF THE COURT

Justice NIGRO.

The question presented in this case is whether incarceration, standing alone, is a "material and substantial change in circumstances" that provides sufficient grounds for modification or termination of a child support order. We hold that it is not.

Appellant Keith A. Yerkes ("Father") and Appellee Lydia A. Yerkes ("Mother") were married in November 1978 and separated in August 1992. During their marriage, the parties had two children: Amy, born in January 1983, and Richard, born in August 1988. Immediately following the parties' separation, Mother sought child support from Father. The parties eventually reached an agreement for support in November 1992, whereby Father was to pay one hundred dollars per week for the support of Amy and Richard. Later the same month, the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County ordered compliance with the agreement and further directed that it be accomplished by payroll deductions from Father's regular paychecks.

In 1994, Father was arrested for sexually assaulting Amy, who was eleven years old at the time. He was ultimately convicted of aggravated indecent assault and has been incarcerated for that crime since August 1994. Father is currently imprisoned at the State Correctional Institute at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania ("SCI-Huntingdon"), and will be released by August 2004.

In May 1997, Father petitioned the trial court for modification or termination of the November 1992 support order. The parties were directed to meet at a support conference to take place in August 1997, although Father did not appear because of his incarceration. Following the conference, the conference officer recommended that the petition be dismissed on account of Father's conviction for assaulting Amy, who was a beneficiary of the support order. The trial court agreed and dismissed Father's petition later in August 1997.

In September 1997, Father filed exceptions and requested a hearing de novo before the trial court, which was held in May 1999.¹ Mother appeared at the hearing in person and Father appeared, pro se, by telephone from SCI-Huntingdon. Father's sole argument at the hearing was that he was financially unable to pay his child support obligation because of his incarceration. Specifically, he maintained that his wage of forty-one cents per hour at SCI-Huntingdon only yielded a monthly salary of approximately fifty dollars.² He claimed that such a salary made it impossible for him to satisfy his child support obligation, which he alleged was based on his former salary of $241.58 per week. Moreover, Father claimed to have no other assets.

Following the hearing, the trial court dismissed Father's exceptions and ratified the August 1997 order. Father appealed, and the Superior Court affirmed in a memorandum decision. 782 A.2d 1068 (Pa.Super.2001) (table). We granted Father's petition for allowance of appeal, 567 Pa. 764, 790 A.2d 1018 (2001), and now affirm.

The thrust of Father's argument is that his support obligation should be modified or terminated because he is unable to pay due to his imprisonment and the inadequate wage he earns at SCI-Huntingdon. In making this argument, he alleges that there is a conflict among Superior Court decisions regarding the effect of imprisonment on child support obligations. He also contends that the trial court erred in essentially adopting a per se rule barring modification or termination where the victim of the parent's criminal acts is also the beneficiary of the support order. Accordingly, he claims that the trial court should have modified or terminated his support obligation. We disagree.

The principal goal in child support matters is to serve the best interests of the child through provision of reasonable expenses. Oeler by Gross v. Oeler, 527 Pa. 532, 594 A.2d 649, 651 (1991)

; Sutliff v. Sutliff, 515 Pa. 393, 528 A.2d 1318, 1322 (1987) (plurality). The duty of child support, "as every other duty encompassed in the role of parenthood, is the equal responsibility of both mother and father." Conway v. Dana, 456 Pa. 536, 318 A.2d 324, 326 (1974). As this duty is "absolute," Larson v. Diveglia, 549 Pa. 118, 700 A.2d 931, 932 (1997), it must be discharged by the parents "even if it causes them some hardship." Sutliff, 528 A.2d at 1322; see also 23 Pa.C.S. § 4321(2) ("Parents are liable for the support of their children who are unemancipated and 18 years of age or younger." (emphasis added)). That said, reality dictates that the parental obligation of support be guided by the parents' respective capacities and abilities, which depend on the parents' property, income, and earning capacity. Costello v. LeNoir, 462 Pa. 36, 337 A.2d 866, 868 (1975); Conway, 318 A.2d at 326. These capacities and abilities are to be assessed at the time that child support payments are sought. Costello, 337 A.2d at 868; see also Labar v. Labar, 557 Pa. 54, 731 A.2d 1252, 1253 n. 1 (1999) (citing Costello rule).

To give effect to the requirement of reasonable financial support, the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure provide a comprehensive set of guidelines for the appropriate amount of child support to be contributed by each parent. See generally Pa.R.C.P. No.1910.16-1 to 1910.16-7. In each child support matter, the support contribution indicated by the guidelines is entitled to a strong presumption of correctness. See 23 Pa.C.S. § 4322(b); Pa. R.C.P. No.1910.16-1(d); Ball v. Minnick, 538 Pa. 441, 648 A.2d 1192, 1196 (1994); see also Mascaro v. Mascaro, 569 Pa. 255, 803 A.2d 1186, 1189-91 (2002)

(reciting rules containing presumption). Once a support order is in effect, "[a] petition for modification ... may be filed at any time and shall be granted if the requesting party demonstrates a substantial change in circumstances." 23 Pa.C.S. § 4352(a); see also Pa.R.C.P. No.1910.19 (stating standard for modification). Accordingly, it is the petitioning parent's burden to "specifically aver the material and substantial change in circumstances upon which the petition is based." Pa.R.C.P. No. 1910.19(a); see also Colonna v. Colonna, 788 A.2d 430, 438 (Pa.Super.2001) (en banc) (stating that burden is on moving party), appeal granted, 569 Pa. 678, 800 A.2d 930 (2002). A finding of either a "material and substantial change in circumstances" or no such change is reviewed on appeal for an abuse of discretion. Bowser v. Blom, 569 Pa. 609, 807 A.2d 830, 834 (2002); Larson, 700 A.2d at 932. "An abuse of discretion occurs where there is an error in judgment, a manifestly unreasonable decision, or a misapplication of law." Larson, 700 A.2d at 932; see also Bowser, 807 A.2d at 834 (defining "abuse of discretion" standard).

This Court has never directly addressed whether incarceration, standing alone, is a "material and substantial change in circumstances" that provides sufficient grounds for modification or termination of a child support order. A review of cases from other jurisdictions, however, reveals a wealth of case law that can be loosely categorized into three groups, each of which represents a different approach to assessing the effect of incarceration on support obligations. See In re Marriage of Thurmond, 265 Kan. 715, 962 P.2d 1064, 1068-72 (1998)

(identifying approaches and collecting cases); Halliwell v. Halliwell, 326 N.J.Super. 442, 741 A.2d 638, 644-45 (App.Div.1999) (same); see also Frank J. Wozniak, Annotation, Loss of Income Due to Incarceration as Affecting Child Support Obligation, 27 A.L.R. 5th 540 (1995) (collecting and discussing cases). The first approach, dubbed the "no justification" rule, generally deems criminal incarceration as insufficient to justify elimination or reduction of an open obligation to pay child support.³

See Thurmond,

962 P.2d at 1068-70; Halliwell, 741 A.2d at 644. The second approach, known as the "complete justification" rule, generally deems incarceration for criminal conduct as sufficient to justify elimination or reduction of an existing child support obligation.⁴

See Thurmond,

962 P.2d at 1070-71; Halliwell, 741 A.2d at 644-45. Finally, the third approach is the "one factor" rule, which generally requires the trial court to simply consider the fact of criminal incarceration along with other factors in determining whether to eliminate or reduce an open obligation to pay child support.⁵

See

Thurmond,

962 P.2d at 1071-72; Halliwell, 741 A.2d at 645.

The fundamental disagreement between those courts applying a "no justification" rule and those adopting one of the other two rules hinges on whether relief should ever be granted to incarcerated parents. It appears that each court's ultimate conclusion on this issue is driven by three underlying considerations: (1) whether allowing relief to an incarcerated parent serves the best interests of the child, (2) whether relief is in accord with fairness principles, and (3) whether it is appropriate to treat incarceration in the same manner as voluntary unemployment.

With regard to the first consideration, i.e., whether relief serves the best interests of the child, courts invoking the "no justification" rule often maintain that it is in the best interests of the child for the support order to remain intact because of the possibility of future reimbursement. E.g., Reid, 944 S.W.2d at 562

; see also Nelson, 587 So.2d at 178 (reasoning that obligor's support obligation can be satisfied after release from prison). Moreover, some courts that have adopted this rule emphasize that a downward modification does not benefit the child whose best interests are at stake, but instead benefits only the obligor. E.g., Richardson, 681 N.E.2d at 508; B...