Kim and Kinnersley

337 Or. App. 503
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJanuary 29, 2025
DocketA180803
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 337 Or. App. 503 (Kim and Kinnersley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kim and Kinnersley, 337 Or. App. 503 (Or. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

No. 49 January 29, 2025 503

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF OREGON

In the Matter of Chantha KIM, Petitioner-Appellant, and Daniel KINNERSLEY, Respondent-Respondent. Multnomah County Circuit Court 19DR02699; A180803

Susan M. Svetkey, Judge. Argued and submitted October 29, 2024. Elizabeth C. Savage argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellant. Andrew Newsom argued the cause and filed the brief for respondent. Leigh Shepley Miranda filed the brief amicus curiae for Oregon Trial Lawyers Association. Before Ortega, Presiding Judge, Hellman, Judge, and Mooney, Judge. ORTEGA, P. J. Supplemental judgment vacated and remanded as to retroactive child support, statutory interest, and “unreim- bursed medical expenses” awards; otherwise affirmed. 504 Kim and Kinnersley Cite as 337 Or App 503 (2025) 505

ORTEGA, P. J. In this domestic relations case, mother appeals a supplemental judgment that modified her monthly child sup- port obligation to father; ordered her to pay $26,274 in ret- roactive child support, plus $6,728.58 in statutory pre-judg- ment interest; and ordered her to pay father $102,536 in “unreimbursed medical expenses” for their minor child, S, which were meant to cover half of the child’s private board- ing school and summer camp tuition and related expenses. In her first assignment of error, mother argues that pri- vate boarding school and summer camp tuition and related expenses were not recoverable as “unreimbursed medical expenses” separate from child support and do not qualify as “medical care” as a matter of law. In her second assign- ment, mother argues that the trial court plainly erred in ordering retroactive child support and “unreimbursed med- ical expenses” that accrued prior to the date she was served with father’s motion to modify. We agree with mother’s second assignment and con- clude that the trial court plainly erred in ordering mother to pay for child support and “unreimbursed medical expenses” accrued prior to July 11, 2022, the date mother was served with father’s motion to modify, and we exercise discretion to correct that error. That disposition obviates the need to address the bulk of mother’s first assignment because all but $130 of the awarded “unreimbursed medical expenses” that mother challenges on appeal accrued before July 11, 2022. However, we accept father’s concession that the child’s boarding school tuition and related expenses, including the $130 expense accrued after July 11, 2022, are not “medical” expenses. We therefore vacate the supplemental judgment awards of retroactive child support, statutory interest, and “unreimbursed medical expenses,” and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. We otherwise affirm the supplemental judgment. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY The parties are the parents of one minor child, S. Pursuant to the general judgment of custody and parent- ing time entered in 2008 under ORS chapter 109 (governing 506 Kim and Kinnersley

unmarried parties) when S was five months old, mother had sole custody of S and father had regularly scheduled par- enting time and paid monthly child support to mother. The general judgment further required father to provide medi- cal insurance for S and to pay 50 to 100 percent of any unin- sured medical costs, depending on the circumstances. In June of 2021, when S was 13 years old, the par- ties stipulated to a supplemental judgment modifying cus- tody and parenting time. They agreed that father would have sole custody and that mother would have regularly scheduled parenting time, except when S “engage[s] in a 3-week camp in Utah during the summer of 2021” during which neither parent would have parenting time. Parents further stipulated that “the issue of child support shall be resolved through [a pending administrative child support] proceeding, subject to each party’s right to appeal the deci- sion to the circuit court.” Finally, parents agreed that “[f] ather shall cover the child on medical insurance, and [m] other may provide secondary insurance for the child.” In June of 2022, father filed a motion to modify child support, through counsel. Father asserted that mother had “refused to allow the Department of Justice to modify the pending child support order [in the administrative pro- ceeding], citing that child support should not be ordered since [S] is in boarding school.” Father represented that he had covered all costs associated with boarding school and that S resides with him when school is not in session. Father requested that the child support modification be “retroac- tive to September 1, 2020, the date [m]other was served with the [previous] motion to modify custody that lead [sic] to the entry of the most recent [stipulated supplemental judgment entered June of 2021].” Mother, who was then not represented by counsel, was served with father’s motion to modify on July 11, 2022. She filed a pro se response to father’s motion in which she “agree[d] with the child support date starting September 2020.” However, mother denied that she had refused to cooperate with the pending child support administra- tive proceeding and asserted that it was father who had refused to cooperate. Mother further asserted that, “despite Cite as 337 Or App 503 (2025) 507

[her] previous and multiple objections,” father had sent S to Wasatch Academy (Wasatch), a boarding school in rural Utah, one month after entry of the June 2021 stipulated supplemental judgment. Mother objected to paying a share of S’s board- ing school costs because public school is available to S and because mother had repeatedly expressed objections to send- ing S to boarding school and had repeatedly told father she could not afford it. Mother also objected to S’s participation in Aspiro Wilderness Program (Aspiro). Mother asserted that S had been expelled from Wasatch in the fall of 2021, that Wasatch required S to complete Aspiro before she could return to Wasatch, and that father had sent S to Aspiro over mother’s objection. Through counsel, father submitted a memorandum in support of his motion to modify. Father again asked that monthly child support be ordered retroactive to September 2020. Father additionally asked the court to deviate from the presumptive child support amount under the guide- lines and to order mother to pay half of father’s “ongoing out of pocket expenses” for S, including boarding school tui- tion and related expenses from June 2021 through August 2022: Wasatch, $152,470; Aspiro, $38,570.75; and an Aspiro- referred psychological evaluation, $4,200. At the hearing on father’s motion in December 2022, the trial court began by explaining to mother, who appeared without counsel, what to expect at the hearing and that the court understood, “from reading some of the pleadings, and your response to [father’s] motion, that at least there’s agreement as to the start date for child support” so “we don’t have to spend any time talking about that.” Father then testified that S, who was then 15 years old, was enrolled in her sophomore year at Wasatch, a board- ing school in Mount Pleasant, Utah, and began at Wasatch in the summer of 2021 when she attended a three-week summer camp there. He offered that S had had “some rough patches” during her freshman year at Wasatch and entered the eight-week Aspiro wilderness program as “an ask from * * * Wasatch Academy to help with some of her impulsivity[.]” 508 Kim and Kinnersley

Aspiro requires a psychological evaluation to com- plete the program, and S was evaluated in November 2021 while attending Aspiro. The evaluator diagnosed S with depression, anxiety, ADHD, and specific learning disabili- ties and “strongly recommended that [S] complete the pro- gram at Aspiro” and “transition to a structured, support- ive educational boarding placement” after completing the program.

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Bluebook (online)
337 Or. App. 503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kim-and-kinnersley-orctapp-2025.