Brooks v. Fields

134 So. 3d 786, 2013 WL 5614327, 2013 Miss. App. LEXIS 693
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedOctober 15, 2013
DocketNo. 2012-CA-00629-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 134 So. 3d 786 (Brooks v. Fields) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brooks v. Fields, 134 So. 3d 786, 2013 WL 5614327, 2013 Miss. App. LEXIS 693 (Mich. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

GRIFFIS, P.J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. In this child-support-modification case, Ronald Brooks appeals the judgment that ordered him to pay a lump sum of $15,000 for the purchase of a vehicle for his minor child’s transportation to college and to pay Janice Field’s attorney’s fees. Finding error, we reverse and render the chancellor’s judgment.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. Brooks and Fields are the biological parents of Canary DashSherrel Brooks, born September 4, 1993. Fields filed a complaint to establish paternity. Thereafter, the parties entered into an agreed order of filiation and support, where Brooks was to pay Fields $175 per month in child support and $1,500 in back child support. Brooks and Fields would each be responsible for one-half of Canary’s healthcare expenses.

¶ 3. Thereafter, Fields filed a complaint for modification of child support. Fields alleged that Brooks was wilfully and continuously in contempt of court and not in compliance with the agreed order by not timely paying child support and one-half of the health-care expenses of Canary. To support the modification, Fields claimed that Canary had increased educational expenses due to extracurricular activities and her future college expenses. At an initial hearing, at which Brooks was not present, the chancellor ordered Brooks to purchase an automobile for Canary at a cost not to exceed $7,500, pay $400 a month in child support, provide health coverage to Canary, and pay seventy-five percent of her college expenses.

¶ 4. Brooks filed a motion to set aside the judgment due to a lack of service of process. After a hearing, the chancellor granted the motion. While this motion was pending, Brooks and Fields entered into an agreed order where Brooks voluntarily agreed to increase his child-support obligation to $375 per month. This resolved the contempt claim. Brooks abided by this order.

¶ 5. After the entry of the agreed order, the parties conducted discovery. Both Brooks and Fields submitted Rule 8.05 financial statements.1 Brooks’s statement [789]*789reflected that he was an unemployed, disabled veteran living with his mother. Brooks listed a monthly income of $2,773. Brooks reported that his total monthly expenses were $1,878, and that he had purchased two vehicles for cash at a total value of $9,900. Brooks was debt free, and he and Fields stipulated that his monthly income was to increase once he began receiving a Social Security disability award. Brooks’s financial statement, however, did not list any amount of assets or cash on hand.

¶ 6. According to Fields’s financial statement, she was employed by North Mississippi Medical Center. Her net monthly income was $1,488.50. Fields had total monthly expenses of $2,450.

¶ 7. Canary received approximately $936 per month from her father’s Veteran’s Administration benefits and $678 per month from the Social Security Administration.

¶ 8. The parties submitted stipulations of facts and issues as well as proposed conclusions of law to the chancellor. Thereafter, the chancellor ordered Brooks to pay Fields a lump sum of $15,000, within ninety days, to purchase a vehicle as an educational expense for Canary for the purpose of her transportation to and from college. The chancellor cited Brooks’s recent receipt of a lump-sum payment of $25,000 from the Veteran’s Administration for benefits and his monthly income, which after his monthly expenses would leave him with $900 in disposable income. The chancellor also ruled that the balance of the purchase price for an automobile would be paid by Fields or from Canary’s monthly benefit payments. The chancellor further ruled that Fields would be responsible for all insurance costs, as well as the maintenance and upkeep of the vehicle. In addition, the chancellor ruled that Brooks and Fields would each be responsible for one-half of Canary’s other educational expenses not paid for by scholarships or grants. The chancellor found that Fields had incurred $3,500 in reasonable attorney’s fees and ordered Brooks to reimburse Fields one-half of this total amount at $1,750. The chancellor, however, concluded that Fields was not entitled to a retroactive increase in child support before the signed agreed order.

¶ 9. Brooks subsequently filed a motion to reconsider and amend the judgment, which was denied by the chancery court. Brooks timely filed a notice of appeal.

ANALYSIS

1. Whether the chancellor erred in ordering Brooks to pay a $15,000 lump sum for the purchase of a vehicle.

¶ 10. Brooks argues that it was error for the chancellor to order that Brooks pay the $15,000 lump sum for the purchase of a vehicle for Canary as an educational expense. He argues that the chancellor’s decision to award the payment is not supported by any evidence of Brooks’s ability to pay and fails to consider the statutory child-support guidelines or the monthly Veteran’s Administration benefits Canary already receives.

¶ 11. In domestic-relations cases, this Court -will not disturb a chancellor’s judgment when it is supported by substantial credible evidence unless the chancellor abused his or her discretion, was manifestly wrong or clearly erroneous, or applied an erroneous legal standard. Rolison v. Rolison, 105 So.3d 1136, 1137 (¶ 4) (Miss.Ct.App.2012) (citation omitted). “If the chancellor’s findings are supported by substantial evidence, then we will affirm.” Id. (citation omitted). Questions of law, however, are reviewed de novo. Price v. Price, 22 So.3d 331, 332 (¶ 8) (Miss.Ct.App.2009) (citation omitted).

[790]*790¶ 12. Mississippi law provides that parents can be required to pay reasonable expenses associated with a child’s college education, where the child shows an aptitude for college. Pass v. Pass, 238 Miss. 449, 455, 118 So.2d 769, 771 (1960). This Court has held that automobile expenses may be awarded as part of college expenses. Striebeck v. Striebeck, 911 So.2d 628, 637-38 (¶¶ 36, 41) (Miss.Ct.App.2005). Specifically, the supreme court has upheld a chancellor’s order for a parent to purchase a vehicle as part of a minor child’s educational expenses, and held that “[t]hough an automobile is not an expense which every parent can provide his/her child, it is not an abuse of a chancellor’s discretion to require a parent to purchase a vehicle where warranted by the circumstances in a particular case.” Chesney v. Chesney, 910 So.2d 1057, 1065 (¶25) (Miss.2005).

¶ 13. The supreme court has also held that it is the responsibility of parents, not the child, to provide funds for education, even if the child has an independent source of funds. Saliba v. Saliba, 753 So.2d 1095, 1099 (¶ 13) (Miss.2000). Payments for college-education expenses, however, do not qualify toward statutory child support, nor will they render child support otherwise within the statutory guidelines to exceed the guideline amount, because “they do not diminish the child’s need for food, clothingU and shelter.” Cossey v. Cossey, 22 So.3d 353, 358 (¶ 20) (Miss.Ct. App.2009) (citations omitted).

¶ 14. Mississippi law, however, limits the parental requirement for payment of educational expenses. The supreme court has determined that a child, if the father is financially able, is entitled to attend college in accord with her family standards. Wray v. Langston, 380 So.2d 1262, 1264 (Miss.1980) (emphasis added). Mississippi Code Annotated section 93-11-65(2) (Supp.

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Bluebook (online)
134 So. 3d 786, 2013 WL 5614327, 2013 Miss. App. LEXIS 693, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brooks-v-fields-missctapp-2013.