Kuyper v. Kuyper

Summary

The Ohio First District Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of Carrie E. Kuyper’s motion to retroactively modify her child-support obligation. The court held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to credit the mother for in-kind support provided during periods when the child did not exercise court-ordered parenting time with the father, particularly because the mother’s conduct caused the situation.

Holdings

1. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by refusing to grant mother a retroactive child-support modification or credit. Mother's in-kind contributions were voluntary because father was ready and able to care for K.K., and the need for mother to provide those contributions resulted from her own conduct in preventing the ordered parenting-time arrangement.
2. The unclean-hands doctrine supported denial of mother's request because her claim for retroactive relief arose from circumstances created by her own contemptuous violation of the parenting-time orders.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by denying mother's request for a retroactive modification or credit against child support based on her having provided all of K.K.'s in-kind support while K.K. did not exercise the ordered parenting time with father.
2. Whether mother's own contemptuous interference with father's court-ordered parenting time barred equitable relief under the doctrine of unclean hands.

Disposition

affirmed