Bunge v. Zachman

578 N.W.2d 387, 1998 Minn. App. LEXIS 525, 1998 WL 233754
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedMay 12, 1998
DocketC5-97-2058
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 578 N.W.2d 387 (Bunge v. Zachman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bunge v. Zachman, 578 N.W.2d 387, 1998 Minn. App. LEXIS 525, 1998 WL 233754 (Mich. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

OPINION

SHUMAKER, Judge.

Appellant Renee Lynn Bunge brought a paternity and child support action against respondent Jeffrey J. Zachman. Bunge sought (1) reimbursement of wages she lost during and after the pregnancy, and (2) above-guidelines child support. The district court adjudicated Zachman the father, awarded guidelines child support, and denied Bunge’s claim for lost wages. Bunge seeks review of the lost wages and child support decisions.

FACTS

Bunge and Zachman were never married. Their child was born in September 1995, several months premature. Before the child’s birth, Bunge spent approximately three weeks in the hospital on bed-rest restrictions. After he was born, he was hospitalized for approximately four months. During those months, Bunge voluntarily spent four to ten hours each day visiting the child in the hospital. Zachman visited the child in the evenings, after work.

Bunge earns a living by operating her own landscaping business. She was unable to operate it during the three weeks she was on bed-rest and did not operate it for the four months she was visiting the child in the hospital. She claims that under Minn.Stat. § 257.66, subd. 3 (1996), Zachman should reimburse her income losses during those three weeks and four months. Prior to litigation, the parties reached an equitable agreement to split uninsured medical expenses of approximately $5,372, accordingly, medical expenses are not included in Bunge’s claim for lost wages. The district court refused to grant Bunge lost wages.

Bunge also sought an upward deviation from the child support guidelines, claiming that the child is medically fragile and that she had to hire a nanny to take care of him at a cost of $817 per month. The district court, in awarding guidelines support, held that Bunge failed to prove that the child’s needs were extraordinary. Bunge now appeals.

*389 ISSUES

1. Did the district court err when it failed to include wages appellant lost before and after the birth of the parties’ child?

2. Did the trial court err when it failed to award above guideline child support?

ANALYSIS

I.

The statute in question in this case is part of the Uniform Parentage Act (UPA),' adopted by Minnesota in 1980. 9B Uniform Laws Annotated § 15 (1987). 1 The interpretation of the UPA is a question of law which this court reviews de novo. In re Welfare of C.M.G., 516 N.W.2d 555, 558 (Minn.App. 1994). We interpret and construe laws that are uniform with those of other states to effect their general purpose and to make uniform the laws of those states that enact them. Minn.Stat. § 645.22 (1996).

The Minnesota paternity statute reads:

The [paternity] judgment or order may direct the appropriate party to pay all or a proportion of the reasonable expenses of the mother’s pregnancy and confinement
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Minn.Stat. § 257.66, subd. 3 (emphasis added). Bunge suggests that the district court erred when it failed to interpret section 257.66, subd. 3 to allow her to recover from Zaehman wages that she lost while on bed-rest and during the child’s first four months of life in the hospital.

There is no Minnesota caselaw supporting Bunge’s interpretation that a mother’s lost wages should be included as “expenses.” 2 There are two other UPA states, however, that have construed similar paternity provisions and we look to their interpretations to similarly construe our statute.

Montana approved the UPA on April 29, 1975. 9B Uniform Laws Annotated at 287 (1987). The Montana statute, like the UPA’s section 15(c), and Minnesota’s section 257.66, subd. 3, states that “the court may direct the father to pay ‘the reasonable expenses of the mother’s pregnancy and confinement.’” In re Paternity ofW.L., 259 Mont. 187, 855 P.2d 521, 523-24 (1993) (quoting Mont.Code Ann. § 40-6-116(3)(c)). In W.L., the Montana Supreme Court held that an unmarried mother was not entitled to compensation from the child’s father for lost wages. Id. at 524. The court specifically refused to interpret its UPA-based statute to allow “lost wages” to be considered “expenses” of a “mother’s pregnancy and confinement.” Id.

Ohio adopted the UPA on June 29, 1982. 9B Uniform Laws Annotated at 287 (1987). The Ohio Court of Appeals has issued three published opinions on this issue. Most recently, the Ohio Court of Appeals held that a father who is not married to a child’s mother is only responsible for the maintenance of the child, not the mother. Gilpen v. Justice, 85 Ohio App.3d 86, 619 N.E.2d 94, 96 (1993). In addition, Ohio has two earlier cases that specifically deny compensation, for lost wages during pregnancy and childbirth. See Jelen v. Price, 9 Ohio App.3d 174, 458 N.E.2d 1267, 1270 (1983) (lost wages occasioned by mother during pregnancy and childbirth properly not awarded to mother because paternity statute does not specifically provide for lost wages); Baugh v. Carver, 3 Ohio App.3d 139, 444 N.E.2d 58, 62 (1981).(under paternity statute there was no abuse of trial court’s discretion when it failed to award mother lost wages occasioned during pregnancy).

Montana, Ohio; and Minnesota all have adopted the UPA’s language regarding the reimbursement of a mother’s pregnancy and confinement expenses. Both Montana and Ohio treat the lost wages claim as outside of the scope of the statute, and, consequently, outside the scope of the UPA. We agree with Montana and Ohio. Consistent with Montana and Ohio, we hold that if the UPA and Minn.Stat. § 257.66, subd. 3 were meant to allow a mother to recover lost wages, the *390 language in those provisions would have so indicated. Cf. Martinco v. Hastings, 265 Minn. 490, 497, 122 N.W.2d 631, 638 (1963) (“[i]f there is to be a change in the statute, it must come from the legislature, for the courts cannot supply that which the legisla^ ture purposely omits or inadvertently overlooks.”).

Our decision is also consistent with this state’s historical treatment of an unmarried woman’s pregnancy “expenses.” Predating our adoption of the uniform act, a father of a child born out of wedlock could be held liable for the mother’s “lying-in” expenses. See State v. Sax, 231 Minn. 1, 3, 42 N.W.2d 680, 682 (1950); State v. Wiebke, 154 Minn. 61, 67, 191 N.W. 249, 251 (1922).

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578 N.W.2d 387, 1998 Minn. App. LEXIS 525, 1998 WL 233754, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bunge-v-zachman-minnctapp-1998.