McLean v. Kohnle

940 So. 2d 975, 2006 WL 3008164
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedOctober 24, 2006
Docket2005-CA-00033-COA, 2005-CA-02140-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 940 So. 2d 975 (McLean v. Kohnle) 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
McLean v. Kohnle, 940 So. 2d 975, 2006 WL 3008164 (Mich. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

940 So.2d 975 (2006)

Angus Laughton Malcolm Thom McLEAN, III, Appellant,
v.
Leigh Ann (McLean) KOHNLE, Appellee.

Nos. 2005-CA-00033-COA, 2005-CA-02140-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

October 24, 2006.

J. Mack Varner, Jennifer Powell Fortner, Clifford C. Whitney, Vicksburg, attorneys for appellant.

William B. Jacob, Joseph A. Kieronski, Daniel P. Self, Meridian, attorneys for appellee.

Before KING, C.J., SOUTHWICK and IRVING, JJ.

KING, C.J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Angus Laughton Malcolm Thom McLean III appeals the chancellor's order that he be required, under the terms of the judgment of divorce, to bear the entire cost of his daughter's college education, that his failure to bear the entire expense of that education constituted contempt of court, and that he pay Kohnle's attorney's fees and costs. On appeal, McLean challenges the court's jurisdiction and raises issues regarding various errors in the chancellor's findings.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. Leigh Ann McLean Kohnle filed her Complaint for Modification of prior judgment *976 and complaint for citation for contempt against her ex-husband, Angus Laughton Malcolm Thom McLean III on February 13, 2004, seeking an increase in child support and an order citing McLean for contempt for refusing to bear the entire cost of his daughter's college expenses at Harvard University. McLean filed a motion to dismiss under Mississippi Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b), challenging the trial court's jurisdiction over the case. McLean contended that under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, codified at Mississippi Code Annotated Sections 93-25-1 through XX-XX-XXX (Rev. 2004)., Virginia was the proper jurisdiction in which to hear Mrs. Kohnle's complaint.[1] Prior to the court's ruling on the matter, Kohnle withdrew the portion of her petition requesting a modification of child support, leaving the issue of the daughter's college expenses as the sole matter before the court. The trial court denied McLean's motion to dismiss and his subsequent motion to reconsider.

¶ 3. McLean then filed his answer and a cross-petition for a citation of contempt. Following a one-day trial, the court issued an order dated June 18, 2004, finding McLean in contempt, ordering him to bear all of the daughter's college expenses (including reimbursement of those expenses previously paid by Kohnle), and assessing costs and fees to McLean. The chancellor ordered incarceration based upon the finding of contempt but suspended that order on the condition that McLean meet certain requirements related to the payment of his daughter's college expenses. Following an unsuccessful motion for reconsideration, McLean appealed the chancellor's order.

¶ 4. In March 2005 and again in May 2005, Kohnle filed two additional complaints seeking a contempt citation, alleging that McLean had failed to meet the conditions set forth in the court's June 18, 2004, order. McLean argued that by posting of a supersedeas bond pending the outcome of his appeal, he had satisfied the court's order that he pay future college expenses. On June 20, 2004, the trial court ordered McLean to reimburse Kohnle for the outstanding expenses that she had paid as a result of McLean's failure to do so and to pay Kohnle's attorney's fees incurred as a result of bringing the additional complaints. The court further held that the supersedeas bond, while staying payment of the monetary judgment, did not affect McLean's obligation to make future payments as set forth in the court's June 18, 2004, order and ordered that McLean pay his daughter's continuing college expenses at Harvard while his appeal to this Court was pending.

¶ 5. McLean then filed a Motion to Reconsider Jurisdiction and to Determine Controlling Order. On September 27, 2005, the trial court heard McLean's motion. The chancellor denied the motion to reconsider, ruled that the original judgment of divorce—issued from the Chancery Court of Lauderdale County, Mississippi, *977 in 1990—was the controlling order under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act and ordered McLean to spend weekends in jail for contempt, effective immediately, until and unless he purged himself of contempt. McLean appealed that order, and the two cases were consolidated.

FACTS

¶ 6. In 1990, the Chancery Court of Lauderdale County, Mississippi granted a judgment of divorce to McLean and Kohnle. At the time of the divorce, the couple had two minor children. The court adopted the parties' custody and property settlement agreement as part of that judgment. In that agreement, the couple agreed that McLean would be responsible for paying child support in the amount of $900 per month, would bear the cost of the children's health insurance and medical expenses, and, should the children attend college, "would pay all reasonable expenses incurred in connection therewith to the best of his financial ability."

¶ 7. After the divorce, McLean relocated to Georgia. Kohnle remarried and moved with the children to Virginia, then to Puerto Rico, and back to Virginia. During Kohnle's first period of residency in Virginia, the parties reached an impasse regarding the interpretation of the terms of the divorce decree. In 1997, Kohnle filed a motion to modify child support in Virginia. McLean submitted himself to the jurisdiction of the Virginia court and filed a cross-petition regarding visitation issues.

¶ 8. On January 14, 1998, the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court of Fairfax County, Virginia issued an order on those motions. The Virginia court held that while the amount of child support would not increase, the manner in which McLean made payments to Kohnle would change. The court also found that McLean was in arrears on both child support and payment of medical expenses and ordered payment of those amounts. The court also ordered that, if the children were eligible for coverage under their stepfather's insurance (which they were), McLean would no longer be responsible for the expense of insurance coverage. Additionally, the court set forth a detailed visitation schedule and scheduling procedure and ordered that McLean bear the cost of all travel for visitation. Finally, the court held that the remaining terms of the Mississippi judgment of divorce not modified by its order would remain in full force and effect.

¶ 9. The parties returned to the Virginia court again in 2000 to further delineate the visitation schedule and procedures for arranging visitation. Thereafter, the parties did not avail themselves of any court until Kohnle filed her petition in Mississippi in February 2004, asking for an increase in child support and an order that the court enforce the 1990 decree and hold McLean responsible for bearing all of the costs of his daughter's college education at Harvard.

ANALYSIS

I. Standard of Review

¶ 10. In domestic relations cases, the Court's scope of review is limited to the substantial evidence/manifest error rule. See Sproles v. Sproles, 782 So.2d 742, 746(¶ 13) (Miss.2001). This Court may reverse a chancellor's findings of fact only when there is no substantial credible evidence in the record to justify her findings. This Court will not disturb a chancellor's findings unless manifestly wrong or clearly erroneous or unless the chancellor applied an erroneous legal standard. See id.

II. Subject Matter Jurisdiction

¶ 11. McLean argues that the Lauderdale Chancery Court does not have subject *978 matter jurisdiction to hear this case.

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940 So. 2d 975, 2006 WL 3008164, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mclean-v-kohnle-missctapp-2006.