Colston v. Green

742 So. 2d 280, 1998 Fla. App. LEXIS 2860, 1998 WL 128890
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 24, 1998
DocketNo. 97-2717
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 742 So. 2d 280 (Colston v. Green) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colston v. Green, 742 So. 2d 280, 1998 Fla. App. LEXIS 2860, 1998 WL 128890 (Fla. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

BARFIELD, Chief Judge.

The mother challenges those portions of a final order in a paternity proceeding relating to child support and reimbursement of medical bills incurred in connection with the birth of the child. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.

The mother currently works as an office manager and is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. The father is a 31-year-old professional football player who in March 1997 signed a four-year contract with the Denver Broncos Football Club (Denver) that provides for increasing yearly salaries1 and a $900,000 [281]*281signing bonus (paid in three installments in 1997 and a final installment in 1998). The father testified that the signing bonus was used to avoid the National Football League’s “salary cap.” The parties do not dispute that under the contract, Denver has agreed to pay him a total of $925,000 in 1997, $900,000 in 1998, $1,225,000 in 1999, and $1,350,000 in 2000.

The child was born in June 1993. In' September 1993, the mother initiated the paternity action against the father, who was playing for the Detroit Lions at the time. On April 14, 1994, the trial court entered an order finding him to be the child’s father and ordered him to pay $1,500 per month temporary child support “until further order of .Court.” In October 1994, he filed a petition for modification, alleging that after entry of the original order, he had been released by Detroit and had been signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at a “substantially reduced salary,” that he had recently been released by Tampa, and that he “does not anticipate having any earned income for approximately two years while he completes his undergraduate education so that he can become gainfully employed.” After a hearing on December 14, 1994, the trial court entered an order on December 19; 1994, in which it imputed an income of $1,500 per month to the father, ordered him to pay child support arrearages, reduced his temporary child support obligation to $400 per month effective November 1994, and ordered him to provide the mother’s attorney with any future contract with a professional football team, noting that it would “consider modification of child support upon Defendant receiving compensation from the NFL for playing professional football.”

On June 19, 1995, the mother filed a motion for contempt and for reinstatement of the original temporary child support award. She asserted that the December 19, 1994, modification order reducing the father’s temporary child support obligation “was based on the testimony of the Defendant, that he was unemployed and had no prospects of returning to his previous employment, where he earned in excess of $250,000 per year, with a National Football League Team” and that “he anticipated obtaining employment as a Recreation Director in Athens, Georgia for which he expected to be compensated at the rate of $1,500.00 per month.” She asserted that at the time the father gave this testimony, “he had in fact previously signed a contract with the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League,” that she had later discovered this fact from newspaper articles, and that “[i]n furtherance of his clear intent to mislead the Court, the Defendant GREEN has, as of this date, failed to provide counsel with a copy of the afor-ereferenced contract with the Carolina Panthers.” She sought an order reinstating the original temporary child support order retroactive to November 1994, finding the father in contempt and sentencing him to incarceration, and requiring him to pay her attorney fees and costs. The father’s response to the motion admitted that he had signed a contract with the Carolina Panthers “subsequent to the last hearing” which provides for a salary of $100,000 or $250,000, depending upon whether he makes the club’s roster during the 1995 regular season, but asserted that no modification of child support was presently justified because “[u]ntil such time as the regular season begins, Defendant’s sole compensation is in the amount of $200 per week, during training camp and in the amount of $600 per week during pre-sea-son (the month of August).” Attached to the response.was the father’s contract with the Carolina Panthers, which was signed on December 15, 1994, and which indicated that he would be paid $100,000 in 1995 (increasing to $250,000 if he is a member of the club’s active or inactive roster during the 1995 season) and $400,000 in 1996, plus pre-season and post-season travel expenses, bonuses for various contingencies, and a $20,000 signing bonus to be paid in two installments, on the date of signing and on January 15,1995.

[282]*282On July 26, 1996, trial court entered an order in which it reserved ruling on the mother’s motion, but ordered the father to pay $4,251 in temporary attorney fees and costs, to continue paying $400 per month in temporary child support, and to direct his employer to send $1,200 per week to his attorney’s trust account, to be retained in trust “until further order of this Court.”

On September 27, 1996, the trial court adopted an agreement signed by the parties as superseding all prior support orders. Under the consent order, they would share joint custody of the child, the monthly financial support would be at the discretion of the parents “according to the needs of the child,” and final resolution of the matter “will commence upon the relocation of [the mother and the child] by [the father], to the Atlanta, Georgia area.” In December 1995, the mother filed a motion for relief from the stipulated consent order, alleging that she had been induced into the agreement through the father’s fraudulent representations. She also filed a motion for an emergency hearing on child support, contempt and attorney’s fees, which requested an order finding the father in contempt for not having his employer send $1,200 per week to his attorney’s trust account and ordering him to direct his employer to forward to his attorney any further monies due him, to pay $2,000 per month child support plus health care, dental care, and day care, to reimburse her “for all the medical and dental expenses incurred on behalf of the parties’ minor child, including those related to the birth of said child,” and to pay her attorney fees and costs. The father responded that he had paid more than $3000 for the support of his child since the September 1995 agreement was signed, that the mother had voluntarily vacated his residence in Atlanta, that no emergency existed, that neither he nor his attorney would be available for a hearing in December 1995, and that “no prejudice will accrue to Plaintiff in continuing this hearing to a time when Defendant and his counsel are available for hearing.” On December 21, 1995, the court entered an order continuing the hearing on the emergency motion and ordering the father to pay $1000 per month temporary child support, to pay $2,000 in temporary attorney fees, and to pay his own attorney’s firm $15,000 “to be held in trust by the aforesaid firm for the purpose of the firm paying, on behalf of the Defendant, the aforesaid child support and attorney’s fees in accordance with this Order.”

The hearing on the mother’s pending motions was held on May 29, 1997. Each party presented a financial affidavit and various child support guidelines worksheets. The mother testified that she had $4,160 in outstanding medical bills as a result of the child’s birth.

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Bluebook (online)
742 So. 2d 280, 1998 Fla. App. LEXIS 2860, 1998 WL 128890, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colston-v-green-fladistctapp-1998.