Gray v. Pearson

797 So. 2d 387, 2001 WL 1187116
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedOctober 9, 2001
Docket2000-CA-01248-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 797 So. 2d 387 (Gray v. Pearson) 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
Gray v. Pearson, 797 So. 2d 387, 2001 WL 1187116 (Mich. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

797 So.2d 387 (2001)

Karen Elissa Pearson GRAY, Appellant
v.
Doyle Gene PEARSON, Appellee.

No. 2000-CA-01248-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

October 9, 2001.

*389 Bobby T. Vance, Batesville, Attorney for Appellant.

Omar D. Craig, Oxford, Attorney for Appellee.

BEFORE McMILLIN, C.J., THOMAS, and CHANDLER, JJ.

CHANDLER, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Karen Gray appeals a judgment on her former husband's petition to modify child support and her counter petition for contempt. We affirm on all issues except the trial court's order which authorized a deposit of child support funds into the chancery court registry. We remand on that issue for dissemination of those funds in accordance with this ruling.

FACTS

¶ 2. Two children, Benji and Michael Pearson, were born during the marital union of Doyle and Karen Pearson. Michael was born with Down's Syndrome. Karen and Doyle ultimately divorced. Benji who was twelve years of age at the time of the divorce and Michael who was six remained in their mother's custody. The court ordered Doyle to pay child support in an amount which was later modified to $800 per month. The court also ordered Doyle to pay for Benji's college education.

¶ 3. Benji was enrolled in college on March 25, 1996, when he became twenty-one years of age. Doyle, believing that he was no longer obligated to pay for Benji's college education because Benji attained the age of majority, refused to pay for the 1996 spring semester. Doyle continued to pay the $800 per month child support for three months after Benji's twenty-first birthday. Then, on advice of his attorney, Doyle reduced the amount of his child support payments to $400 per month. He paid no child support from February 2000 to June 2000, during which time he petitioned the court for modification of child support.

¶ 4. From January 1999 to March 1999, Michael lived in a group home. He returned to live at the group home in September 1999 and continued to reside there at the time of trial which was May 31, 2000. While living at the group home, Michael spent weekends with Karen. Karen continued to maintain Michael on her medical insurance policy and continued to purchase Michael's clothes. Michael earned a small stipend for working in a workshop setting and he received approximately $200 per month in social security *390 benefits. One half of Michael's earnings and all of his social security proceeds were paid to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health (MDMH) for his care in the group home. Each month, Karen paid $322 of the $400 in child support that she received from Doyle to the MDMH for Michael's care. MDMH agreed that Karen should keep $88 of the child support money to offset Michael's expenses while he was in her care on the weekends.

¶ 5. In response to Doyle's modification petition, Karen counter-petitioned, alleging that Doyle was in contempt of court for failure to pay child support, failure to pay Benji's college expenses, and failure to comply with a term of the divorce decree which required Doyle to provide upkeep for a gun collection he was holding for his sons.

¶ 6. After trial, the chancellor ruled that Doyle was not obligated to continue paying child support for Benji. He reduced the amount of child support from $800 per month to $600 per month and made this ruling retroactive to the date of Benji's twenty-first birthday. The chancellor found that Doyle was in contempt for unilaterally reducing his child support payments to $400. Because Doyle was acting on advice of counsel, however, the chancellor held that the contempt was not wilful.

¶ 7. The chancellor ordered Doyle to reimburse Karen $700 for Benji's college expenses for the 1996 spring semester. Although Karen testified that this amount was $1,500, based on the evidence before this Court, the chancellor correctly calculated the amount as $700.

¶ 8. The chancellor ruled that Doyle was in arrears on his child support in the amount of $11,200. The chancellor computed the arrearage as follows:

• The date Doyle first reduced his payment to $400 is June 1, 1996. The date of judgement is June 1, 2000. That period of time is 48 months. The amount of child support in arrears for this time period is $9,600. The chancellor arrived at this amount by calculating the:
Amount of monthly child support ordered by the court                           $   600
Amount of monthly child support paid by Doyle                                  $   400
Amount of monthly child support due                                            $   200
                                                                                  × 48
                                                                              --------
                                                                               $ 9,600
• February 1, 2000 to June 1, 2000 is the time Doyle paid no child support. That period of time is 4 months. The additional amount of child support in arrears for this time period above the amount factored into the previous calculation is $1,600. The chancellor arrived at this amount by calculating the:

Amount of monthly child support ordered by the court                            $   600
Amount of monthly child support factored into court's previous calculation      $   200
Amount of monthly child support due                                             $   400
                                                                                    × 4
                                                                                -------
                                                                                $ 1,600
*391 • Total amount of child support due is $11,200. The chancellor arrived at this amount by calculating the:

Amount of child support due from June 1, 1996 to June 1, 2000                   $ 9,600
Amount of additional child support due from February 1, 2000 to June 1, 2000    $ 1,600
                                                                               ________
                                                                                $11,200

The chancellor did not give Doyle credit for the three months that Doyle paid $800 after Benji's twenty first birthday. Doyle did not request a credit for this amount, so this is not an issue in this appeal.

¶ 12. Doyle paid the $11,200 arrearage to the North Mississippi Regional Center, a division of MDMH. Counsel for MDMH determined that Karen was entitled to $8,400 of the arrearage as reimbursement to her for her past care of Michael before he became a resident at the group home. MDMH moved the court for an order authorizing it to deposit $8,400 into the registry of the court pending the court's final decision as to whom the money was owed. The chancellor granted the motion and ordered MDMH to deposit the funds into the chancery clerk's registry pending a final ruling as to whom the funds are owed.

¶ 13.

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797 So. 2d 387, 2001 WL 1187116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gray-v-pearson-missctapp-2001.