Mullins v. Sellers

58 So. 3d 817, 2010 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 251, 2010 WL 3463437
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedSeptember 3, 2010
Docket2090297
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 58 So. 3d 817 (Mullins v. Sellers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mullins v. Sellers, 58 So. 3d 817, 2010 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 251, 2010 WL 3463437 (Ala. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

BRYAN, Judge.

Tracy Lynn Mullins (“the father”) appeals from a judgment entered by the Madison Circuit Court (“the trial court”) [818]*818that found him in contempt for failure to pay child support, ordered him to pay his child-support arrearage, and sentenced him to serve 700 days in jail for 140 separate acts of contempt, with all but 5 days of that term suspended.

The father and Lisa Christine Sellers (“the mother”) were divorced by the trial court in September 1995. Two children were born of the parties’ marriage, a boy born in September 1985 (“the older child”) and a boy born in August 1990 (“the younger child”) (hereinafter the older child and the younger child are referred to collectively as “the children”). Pursuant to the divorce judgment, the mother was awarded physical custody of the children and the father was ordered to pay child support. On or about May 25, 2001, the parties entered into an agreement modifying the divorce judgment so that the father was awarded custody of the older child and neither party was responsible for the payment of child support; that agreement was incorporated into a judgment of the trial court (“the May 2001 modification judgment”). The May 2001 modification judgment included a provision that the father would not be responsible for any past or future dental expenses of the children arising from a genetic disorder that the children had.

The divorce judgment was modified again on August 30, 2001 (“the August 2001 modification judgment”), and, pursuant to that modification judgment, the mother was awarded custody of the older child and the father was ordered to pay $451.08 a month in child support, beginning on August 13, 2001. The father was ordered to make the child-support payments on the 15th day of each month through the clerk of the trial court. The parties were also ordered to equally share the cost of the children’s “health care services which are not covered by insurance ... including bills for doctors, hospitals, prescription drugs, orthodontic, dental, and optometric expenses.”

On June 13, 2008, the mother filed a petition for a rule nisi alleging that the father had failed to pay court-ordered child support from August 13, 2001, until the day she filed her petition, and she requested that the father be ordered to pay the child-support arrearage due with interest.1 The mother also requested an award of her attorney’s fees. The father filed an answer to the mother’s petition for a rule nisi, and he denied all the allegations made by the mother.

The trial court conducted an ore tenus hearing on October 21 and 22, 2009. The mother and the father both testified that the father had paid his child-support obligation as ordered in the August 2001 modification judgment from August 2001 through May 2002. It was also undisputed that the father had not made a single child-support payment through the clerk of the trial court from June 2002 through the date of the final hearing in October 2009.

The evidence revealed that both the older child and the younger child had lived, at times, with the father despite the fact that the mother had had physical custody of the children. According to the mother, the older child had lived with the father from June 2002 through December 2002. However, according to the father, the older child had lived with him from June 2002 through May 2004. The mother testified that the father had stopped paying child support after the older child moved into the father’s home. According to the fa[819]*819ther, he and the mother had agreed in June 2002 that the father no longer had to pay child support because the older child was living with him and the younger child was living with the mother. The mother denied that the parties had reached such an agreement. The father stated that he began paying child support directly to the mother after the older child turned 19 years old in September 2004.

Tina Mertz, the father’s sister, testified that she was present when the mother and the father reached an agreement in May 2002 that the father would not owe child support to the mother because the older child was going to live with the father. The mother testified that she agreed in June 2002 that, as long as the older child was in high school and was living with the father and the younger child was living with her, she would not require the father to pay child support. The mother stated that she expected the father to resume paying child support in December 2002, after the older child graduated from high school.

The father testified that when the older child lived with him he provided the older child’s housing, utilities, cable television, food, clothing, vehicle, car insurance, gasoline, and vehicle maintenance and paid for the older child’s extracurricular activities. The father stated that, even though he and the mother had reached an agreement that he did not have to pay child support while the older child was living with him, he had paid the mother child support during that time. The older child graduated from high school in December 2002, and the mother testified that she had supported the older child while he was in high school and after he graduated from high school by purchasing clothing for the older child and by giving him money.

According to the mother, the younger child moved in with the father in October 2008, but the father testified that the younger child had begun living with him in June 2008. The father testified that, when younger child lived with him, he paid for the younger child’s housing, utilities, Internet service, vehicle, vehicle maintenance, clothing, and food. The father testified that he only gave the mother child support when she asked for it.

The mother submitted an exhibit that calculated the father’s child-support obligation from June 13, 2002, until July 13, 2009, which was the month before the younger child turned 19; according to the mother, the father’s child-support arrear-age for that period totaled $42,942.12, including interest. However, the mother testified that, because the younger child had gone to live with the father in October 2008, she was not seeking child support from the father that would have been due after October 2008. The mother submitted an exhibit that calculated the father’s child-support arrearage, including interest, due from June 2002 through October 2008. According to the mother’s calculations, the father owed $38,343.20 in child support for that period.

The father was responsible for payment of one-half of the medical and dental expenses of the children, and the mother testified that the father had given her money, in the form of checks, to cover his one-half of the medical expenses of the children. The mother testified that the younger child had several medical conditions, including a genetic disorder, and that she had incurred approximately $8,000 in medical bills for the younger child in 2008. The father alleged that he did not have to pay for the medical treatment of the younger child insofar as it arose from his genetic disorder, pursuant to the May 2001 modification judgment. However, he admitted that he did have to [820]*820pay half of the children’s regular dental costs.

The mother stated that the father had provided some child support directly to her and that she was willing to allow the father’s child-support arrearage to be credited to reflect the payments that the father had made directly to her.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Blasdel v. Blasdel
110 So. 3d 865 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 2012)
Faellaci v. Faellaci
98 So. 3d 521 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 2012)
Tracy Lynn Mullins v. Lisa Christine Sellers.
80 So. 3d 935 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
58 So. 3d 817, 2010 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 251, 2010 WL 3463437, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mullins-v-sellers-alacivapp-2010.