Summary
The First District Court of Appeal of Florida reviewed a final judgment concerning paternity, time-sharing, child support, and retroactive child support. The court reversed the child-support awards because the trial court failed to find that the father had the present ability to pay, and construed the extracurricular-activity cost provision as applying only to activities agreed upon by the parties. The court also reversed a post-judgment contempt order because it failed to recite facts supporting the finding that the father had the present ability to pay.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the child-support and retroactive-child-support awards could stand without a finding that Father had the present ability to pay.
- Whether the provision requiring Father to pay 60% of extracurricular-activity costs should be limited to activities agreed upon by the parties pursuant to shared parental responsibility.
- Whether the post-judgment contempt order complied with the requirement to find that Father had the present ability to pay and to recite the facts supporting that finding.
Holdings
- A child-support or retroactive-child-support award must be reversed when the trial court fails to make the required finding that the obligated parent has the present ability to pay.
- A provision requiring Father to pay 60% of the child's extracurricular-activity costs applies only to extracurricular activities agreed upon by the parties pursuant to shared parental responsibility.
- A contempt order for failure to pay child support must find that the alleged contemnor had the present ability to pay and must recite the facts supporting that finding, including the sources from which the contemnor could have obtained the funds.
Key quotations
“We reverse the final judgment as to the trial court’s awards of child support and retroactive child support due to its failure to make the required finding that the Father has the ability to pay the ordered support.” (at 1)
“We agree and construe the provision as applying only to those extracurricular activities that the parties agree upon pursuant to shared parental responsibility.” (at 1)
“If the order grants the motion, it must contain findings that the contemnor had the present ability to pay support and willfully failed to do so, and it must contain a recital of the facts on which the findings are based.” (at 2)
Factual background
The trial court entered a judgment requiring Father to pay child support, retroactive child support, and 60% of the child's extracurricular-activity costs. The judgment did not include the required finding that Father had the present ability to pay the ordered support, and the extracurricular provision could have required him to pay for activities Mother unilaterally selected. After entry of the judgment, the trial court found Father in willful contempt for failing to pay child support, but the contempt order did not recite the facts supporting a finding of his present ability to pay.
Procedural history
The Circuit Court for Santa Rosa County entered a Final Judgment on Paternity, Time-sharing, and Child Support and later entered an Order on Motion for Contempt and Income Withholding Order for Support. The First District granted Father's motion for review of the post-judgment order, affirmed the final judgment in part, reversed the child-support, retroactive-child-support, extracurricular-activity, and contempt-related rulings in part, and remanded for further proceedings.
Remand instructions
Remand for further proceedings consistent with the opinion, including reconsideration of the child-support and retroactive-child-support awards with the required ability-to-pay findings, construction of the extracurricular-activity provision to cover only activities agreed upon pursuant to shared parental responsibility, and reconsideration of the contempt order with the required present-ability-to-pay findings and factual recital.