Lock v. Lock (In re Lock)

158 B.R. 438, 1993 Bankr. LEXIS 1377
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedSeptember 15, 1993
DocketBankruptcy No. 92-09763-R; Adv. No. 92-1300-R
StatusPublished

This text of 158 B.R. 438 (Lock v. Lock (In re Lock)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lock v. Lock (In re Lock), 158 B.R. 438, 1993 Bankr. LEXIS 1377 (E.D. Mich. 1993).

Opinion

SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION

STEVEN W. RHODES, Bankruptcy Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the plaintiff’s motion for summary dismissal of the defendant’s counter-complaint. This opinion supplements the bench decision given on April 29, 1993, granting the motion.

I.

John Lock is the debtor in this Chapter 7 proceeding. Ester Lock is the debtor’s former spouse, and the plaintiff in this adversary proceeding.

The parties were divorced in 1972. The divorce decree provided that the debtor would pay the plaintiff $900 per month for child support. The debtor did not make the required payments. On June 27, 1989, the state court entered a judgment requiring the debtor to pay past due child support and interest in the amount of $164,668.86. This order was entered following a complete review of the facts regarding the debtor’s child support arrearage.

II.

The debtor’s schedules list a debt of $80,-000 for interest on this child support ar-rearage. The plaintiff filed this adversary proceeding to have both the interest1 and the principal debt for child support declared nondischargeable. The debtor counter-claimed, alleging that a portion of the obligation owing by him to his ex-spouse should be discharged. The debtor asserts that, although designated as an obligation for child support, the debt is not actually for child support because it is unreasonable and excessive.

The plaintiff filed this motion for summary dismissal of the counter-complaint. The motion asserts that the reasonableness of the debtor’s child support obligations has been litigated at least once, and perhaps more than once, in the state court. Thus, applying res judicata or collateral estoppel, plaintiff asserts that the defendant is precluded from litigating that issue again. She argues that the obligation established by the state court was in the nature of child support, that there is no basis to characterize it in any other way or to determine that it is an obligation of any other nature, and that the reasonableness of the amount of the obligation is not relevant in these circumstances.

In response, the debtor contends that the Court must consider the reasonableness of the obligation in determining its discharge-ability. He further contends that there are issues of fact regarding the reasonableness of the child support obligation, both in regard to the arrearage amount and in regard to the continuing obligation for one of the children.

III.

The issue raised by this motion is whether the debtor’s obligations to the plaintiff are nondischargeable under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(5)2 because these obligations are in the nature of child support. The Sixth Circuit has interpreted this section in two cases: Long v. Calhoun (In re Calhoun), 715 F.2d 1103 (6th Cir.1983); and Singer v. Singer (In re Singer), 787 F.2d 1033 (6th Cir.1986).

[440]*440In Calhoun, the issue was whether the debtor’s agreement in his divorce judgment to assume certain marital debts and hold his former spouse harmless for such debts was nondischargeable support or dis-chargeable property settlement. The court held that in proving nondischargeability, the plaintiff must establish four elements:

1) First, whether the parties and state court intended the obligation to be for support or maintenance;
2) Second, whether the obligation has the effect of providing necessary support;
3) Third, whether the obligation is reasonable; and
4) Fourth, if the entire amount of the obligation is not reasonable, what amount would be reasonable to provide the former spouse support.

Calhoun, 715 F.2d at 1109-10.

Three years later, the Sixth Circuit decided Singer. At issue in Singer was a divorce decree which provided that neither spouse would pay the other support, and that the debtor would make monthly payments to the former spouse for ten years. The debtor alleged that the payments were in settlement of the former spouse’s interest in the marital home, and was thus a dischargeable property settlement.

The Singer court held that the obligation was nondischargeable because it was “a property settlement in conjunction with alimony, maintenance, or support_” Singer, 787 F.2d at 1034. The majority opinion in Singer did not refer to the Calhoun four part test for determining discharge-ability of debt assumption.

For the reasons stated below, this Court believes that Singer, rather than Calhoun, is the appropriate source of authority for this case.

IV.

The issue framed in the Calhoun case was very specifically identified by the Sixth Circuit:

This case presents the issue of when a debtor’s assumption of joint debts and the undertaking to hold a former spouse harmless as part of a marriage separation agreement constitutes support or alimony payments to the former spouse resulting in non-dischargeable debts under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(5).

Calhoun, 715 F.2d at 1106.

There are two critical distinctions between the Calhoun case and the present case.

A.

While the Calhoun ease dealt with the dischargeability of an obligation to assume a joint debt, the issue in the present case concerns the dischargeability of an obligation which was undisputedly intended as child support. The distinction is crucial because in Calhoun the issue was whether the assumption of joint obligations was in the nature of spousal support or property settlement.

The language of the Calhoun opinion strongly suggests that the tests announced therein are applicable only in circumstances involving the obligation to assume joint debts. For example, in stating the first of the tests to be applied, the court said: “We believe that the initial inquiry must be to ascertain whether the state court or the parties to the divorce intended to create an obligation to provide support through the assumption of the joint debts.” Id. at 1109 (emphasis in original).

The court’s emphasis on the specific facts before it was also apparent when the court described the second test:

If the bankruptcy court finds, as a threshold matter, that assumption of the debts was intended as support it must next inquire whether such assumption has the effect of providing the support necessary to ensure that the daily needs of the former spouse and any children of the marriage are satisfied.

Id. (emphasis in original).

Finally, in describing the last two tests, the Calhoun court again emphasized the factual circumstances in which the case arose.

[441]

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Bluebook (online)
158 B.R. 438, 1993 Bankr. LEXIS 1377, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lock-v-lock-in-re-lock-mied-1993.