In Re Marriage of Stockton

937 N.E.2d 657, 401 Ill. App. 3d 1064, 344 Ill. Dec. 634, 2010 Ill. App. LEXIS 503
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 28, 2010
Docket2-09-0594
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 937 N.E.2d 657 (In Re Marriage of Stockton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Marriage of Stockton, 937 N.E.2d 657, 401 Ill. App. 3d 1064, 344 Ill. Dec. 634, 2010 Ill. App. LEXIS 503 (Ill. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

JUSTICE JORGENSEN

delivered the opinion of the court:

Petitioner-appellant Wendy Stockton and respondent John Stockton divorced in 1994. At that time, John was employed by defendant-appellee Rockwell Trucking, Inc. (Rockwell). In 1994, the court entered a withholding order under the Income Withholding for Support Act (Withholding Act) (750 ILCS 28/1 et seq. (West 2006)), mandating Rockwell to withhold $60 per week from John’s income. John left Rockwell in June 1995. At that time, nine outstanding payments remained under the 1994 withholding order, totaling $540.

John returned to Rockwell in December 1997. On January 9, 1998, the court entered the withholding order at issue in this appeal (the 1998 withholding order), mandating Rockwell to withhold $120 per week from John’s income. On March 31, 2000, John again left Rockwell. On April 3, 2000, a week in advance of its April 11, 2000, due date, Rockwell submitted its last withheld payment under the 1998 withholding order. Although John again returned to Rockwell in 2002, this December 1997 to March 2000 employment term is at the center of the instant appeal.

On January 8, 2007, Wendy filed a complaint under the 1998 withholding order, alleging that Rockwell failed to withhold and submit payments in a timely manner, hence accruing a number of penalty days. Wendy further argued that at least one outstanding payment continued to cause penalty days to accrue. The parties disagreed as to whether one outstanding payment remained under the 1998 withholding order or whether, despite Rockwell’s untimeliness, it had ultimately submitted all payments due and cured any arrearage under the 1998 withholding order. The cause of this disagreement was a “problematic line” on a printout from the State Disbursement Unit (SDU printout), which detailed a certain disbursement, listed as due January 5, 2000 (the contested disbursement). The trial court found that the record did not show that an outstanding payment remained under the 1998 withholding order (and implicitly found that penalties therefore did not continue to accrue beyond the term of John’s employment), found that the last payment was made April 3, 2000, found that either a two-year or a five-year statute of limitations applied, and found that, therefore, Wendy’s action was time barred. Wendy appealed. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Wendy and John were married in 1988. They had two children, Tiffany (born February 2, 1990) and Colton (born December 8, 1992). The parties divorced in 1994. Wendy was named the residential custodian and John was to pay child support. At the time, John was employed by Rockwell. Defendant-appellee Mark Davis was the president of Rockwell and was also John’s brother-in-law. Aside from one contested payment to be elaborated below, the parties stipulate to the following facts regarding John’s employment with Rockwell and withheld payments by Rockwell to the State Disbursement Unit (SDU). The withheld payments were tracked by both the SDU (and information regarding the disbursements was contained in the SDU printout) and the De Kalb County clerk’s office (and information regarding the disbursements was contained in the clerk’s printout).

On July 1, 1994, Rockwell received via certified mail a withholding order requiring it to withhold $60 per week from John’s paycheck. In June 1995, John left Rockwell. At that time, there were nine outstanding payments of $60, totaling $540, that had not been submitted by Rockwell to the SDU.

From June 1995 to December 1997, John worked for employers other than Rockwell, and these employers received new withholding orders.

In December 1997, John returned to Rockwell’s employ after 2V2 years. On January 9, 1998, Rockwell received a new withholding order, this time requiring it to withhold $120 per week from John’s paycheck. John again left Rockwell’s employ on March 31, 2000. During this two-year-plus employment term and under the 1998 withholding order, Rockwell paid a total of $13,800 to the SDU, with the last payment being submitted April 3, 2000.

From April 2000 to December 2002, John worked for at least three new companies, each of which received a new withholding notice. In December 2002, John again returned to Rockwell’s employ, but Rockwell did not receive a new withholding notice. On September 20, 2005, Wendy filed a “petition for failure to withhold child support against Rockwell,” alleging that Rockwell had failed to withhold income from John’s paychecks since July 2004. Rockwell responded that it had never received a withholding order for the relevant employment term. Wendy initially argued that the 1998 withholding order continued to be binding on Rockwell but, in May 2006, ultimately moved to voluntarily dismiss her action without prejudice and the trial court granted the motion. 735 ILCS 5/2 — 1009 (West 2006).

On January 8, 2007, Wendy filed a complaint for penalties under the 1998 withholding order, alleging that Rockwell failed to withhold and submit payments in a timely manner, hence accruing a number of penalty days beginning in 1998. The penalty system upon which Wendy’s complaint relied works as follows. Under the Withholding Act, the payor-employer is subject to a $100 penalty for each day the amount designated in the withholding order is not paid. 750 ILCS 28/ 35(a) (West 2006). If two payments are outstanding, then the employer is subject to two $100 penalties for each day that both payments remain outstanding. In re Marriage of Miller, 227 Ill. 2d 185, 194 (2007).

On April 16, 2009, after several continuances and procedural motions, the parties presented written arguments to the court. The thrust of the parties’ written arguments centered around whether one outstanding payment remained under the 1998 withholding order for the employment period of January 9, 1998, to March 31, 2000. According to the parties, if no outstanding payments remained, then 359 penalty days would have accrued by April 11, 2000, in the manner set forth above, and the penalty amount would be “locked in” at $35,900; however, if one outstanding payment remained, then penalty days continue to accrue. The parties then debated whether any statute of limitations applied to the action for penalties.

However, though she did not mention it in her complaint, Wendy also contested in her April 16, 2009, written argument that penalty days accruing from the nine outstanding payments under the 1994 withholding order should “carry over” to the 1998 withholding order, thereby resulting in multiple outstanding payments and causing 21,000 penalty days to accrue, for a total penalty amount of $2.1 million. On this point, Rockwell responded that outstanding payments under the 1994 withholding order and the penalty days accruing therefrom at best gave rise to a separate cause of action and should not be considered in the instant cause, in which the complaint referenced only the 1998 withholding order and penalty days beginning in 1998.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
937 N.E.2d 657, 401 Ill. App. 3d 1064, 344 Ill. Dec. 634, 2010 Ill. App. LEXIS 503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-marriage-of-stockton-illappct-2010.