Gaut v. Department of Revenue, Child Support Enforcement Program

220 So. 3d 552, 2017 WL 2484963, 2017 Fla. App. LEXIS 8487

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: June 9, 2017
• Docket: Case 2D16-1619
• Status: Published

Opinion

VILLANTI, Chief Judge.

Christopher Joseph Gaut appeals the Final Administrative Paternity and Support Order rendered by the Department of Revenue, Child Support Enforcement Program (the Department). Gaut raises two points on appeal: (1) the Department erred in determining his current child support and (2) the Department erred in determining his retroactive child support. As explained below, we affirm in part and reverse in part.

We affirm on the first point inasmuch as the Department requested income information from Gaut and provided him with notice advising him of his right to participate and to request a hearing. Moreover, the Department correctly could and did utilize available state wage information to calculate Gaut’s current child support obligation. See § 409.2563(5)(a), Fla. Stat. (2016) (“[T]he department may proceed on the basis of information available from any source, if such information is sufficiently reliable and detailed to allow calculation of guideline schedule amounts .... ”). Because Gaut failed to provide income information or to participate in the proceedings below, he cannot complain for the first time on appeal that the court utilized the statutorily permissible methodology to calculate his current child support obligation.

In contrast, on the second point the Department acknowledges that it incorrectly used Gaut’s current child support obligation calculation to also determine his retroactive obligation. Moreover, because the Department had state wage information for the time period in which retroactive child support was due, and because the income information for the two time-frames differed, “the Department ought not to [have] ignore[d] the information in its own files” when it calculated Gaut’s retroactive child support due. Salters v. Dep’t of Revenue ex rel. Mobley, 32 So.3d 777, 778 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010); see also § 61.30(17)(a), Fla. Stat. (2016).

Therefore, we affirm as to Gaut’s current support obligation but reverse as to Gaut’s retroactive support obligation. We remand for the Department to recalculate his retroactive child support obligation us ing the income information it has from the state for that time period.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with directions.

CRENSHAW and BADALAMENTI, JJ., Concur.