Skolak v. Skolak

895 N.E.2d 1241, 2008 Ind. App. LEXIS 2617, 2008 WL 4792416
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 5, 2008
Docket64A05-0805-CV-289
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 895 N.E.2d 1241 (Skolak v. Skolak) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Skolak v. Skolak, 895 N.E.2d 1241, 2008 Ind. App. LEXIS 2617, 2008 WL 4792416 (Ind. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinions

OPINION

DARDEN, Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

John Edward Skolak appeals the trial court’s order finding that the State’s action to collect child support arrearage was not untimely.

We reverse.

ISSUE

Whether the statute of limitations bars the State’s action to collect child support [1242]*1242payments eighteen years after the last payment was made in 1989.1

FACTS

Skolak and Linda Skolak (“Mother”) were married in 1970. There were five children born of the marriage. The youngest, S.S., was born on September 4, 1978. On September 23, 1983, Wife filed a petition for dissolution. Beginning in November of 1983, Wife received welfare benefits from the county. On March 2, 1984, the trial court issued its decree of dissolution. Therein, the trial court ordered Sko-lak to pay child support to the Clerk in “the sum of $50.00 per week commencing March 9, 1984, which said funds shall go to the reimbursement of the funds expended by the Department of Public Welfare.” (App. 7).

On August 20, 2007, the county Title IVD Prosecutor, on behalf of the State of Indiana, filed against Skolak a petition to determine the amount of child support ar-rearage pursuant to the dissolution decree entered in March 2, 1984.2 In his response, Skolak argued that the action was time-barred by the statute of limitations and, in addition, the affirmative defense of laches.

On January 17, 2008, the trial court held a hearing on the petition. The State submitted into evidence records showing public assistance payments made to Mother from November of 1983 through April of 1989, with no reimbursement of payments made by Skolak thereon; as well as a demonstrative exhibit reflecting that a lapse of 263 weeks at $50 per week resulted in a total arrearage of $13,150. At the close of the hearing, the trial court took the matter under advisement and allowed the parties to submit further authority on the statute of limitations issue.

On February 14, 2008, the trial court held that the “State’s attempt to collect child support arrearages [wa]s not time barred,” and that the arrearage as of March 1,1989, was $13,150.00, and entered judgment in that amount. (App. 10). Skolak filed a motion to correct errors, arguing that the State’s claim was “time-barred since 18 years have elapsed since the last payment by the State until it brought its petition to determine arrear-age,” and the State was “guilty of laches in this matter.” (App. 19, 20). The trial court denied Skolak’s motion.

DECISION

Skolak argues that the applicable statutes of limitation bar the State’s action of August 20, 2007, to determine and collect an arrearage of his court-ordered child support payments. We agree.

The issue he raises involves statutory construction; therefore, we review the trial court’s decision de novo. In re Paternity of S.J.J., 877 N.E.2d 826, 828 (Ind.Ct.App.2007). Our goal is to give effect to [1243]*1243the legislature’s intent, and our primary-source for determining its intent is the language of the statute. Id.

The State initially concedes “that the statute of limitations has expired on Sko-lak’s child support obligations that were due from 1984 through the first half of 1987.” State’s Br. at 8. This concession by the State results from its analysis under various statutes.

First, at the time of the 1984 divorce, the applicable statute of limitations provided that “a cause of action that (1) arises on or after September 1, 1982; and (2) is not limited by any other statute must be brought within ten (10) years.” Ind. Code § 31-11-1-2. This statute was in effect until it was superseded on May 8, 1995. The general rule is that “the period of limitation in effect at the time the suit is brought governs in an action.” Connell v. Welty, 725 N.E.2d 502, 506 (Ind.Ct.App.2000). However, a “new statute of limitations cannot revive a claim which was foregone under the prior statute of limitations.” Id. The statute of limitations in effect from March 2, 1984, the date of the dissolution decree, until May 8, 1995, provided that in order to seek enforcement of Skolak’s child support obligations commencing on March 9, 1984, the State was required to file its action on or before May 8,1995. It did not.

Effective May 8, 1995, the emergency measure initially found at Indiana Code section 34-1-2-1.6 was enacted. See P.L. 46-1995, SEC. 85. This specific statute of limitation was recodified in 1998 as Indiana Code section 34-11-2-10, and provides that “an action to enforce a child support obligation must be commenced not later than ten (10) years after: (1) the eighteenth birthday of the child; or (2) the emancipation of the child; whichever occurs first.” Thus, for child support obligations accruing after May 8, 1995, the action must have been brought within ten years of S.S.’s eighteenth birthday on September 4, 19963 — ie., by September 4, 2006. Again, the State did not file its action until August 20, 2007, and the State concedes that “it appears that the State is barred by” this particular statute of limitations from pursuing the instant action. State’s Br. at 9.

Nevertheless, the State argues that other statutory provisions allow the collection of “delinquent child support payments for twenty years after the delinquency accrues.” Id. The State first directs our attention to Indiana Code section 31 — 16— 16-2, initially enacted in 1987 and found in Title 31, concerning family law. Chapter 16 begins by stating that it “supplements other remedies available for the enforcement of a support order.” I.C. § 31-16-16-1. Section two then states that a “payment that is: (1) required under a support order; and (2) delinquent; shall be treated as a judgment against the obligor for the delinquent amount.” I.C. § 31-16-16-2. The State next directs our attention to Indiana Code section 34-11-2-12, which states that “[e]very judgment and decree of any court of record of the United States, of Indiana, or of any other state shall be considered satisfied after the expiration of twenty (20) years.” The State then asserts that as a matter of law, an order for child support is “a judgment against the obligor for the delinquent amount,” I.C. § 31-16-16-2, and that judgment is not “considered satisfied” until “after the expiration of twenty (20) years,” I.C. § 34-11-2-12; thus, its argument concludes, the [1244]*1244State’s action filed on August 20, 2007 is timely as to Skolak’s child support arrear-age that had accrued after August 20, 1987. We cannot agree.

We first note that the cases applying Indiana Code section 34-11-2-12 suggest that the provision is entirely separate from any assertion of a statute of limitation. See Odell v. Green, 72 Ind.App. 65, 122 N.E. 791 (1919); Pensinger v. Jarecki Mfg. Co., 78 Ind.App. 569, 136 N.E. 641 (1922). Moreover, the section specifies a “judgment and decree of any court,” I.C.

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Bluebook (online)
895 N.E.2d 1241, 2008 Ind. App. LEXIS 2617, 2008 WL 4792416, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/skolak-v-skolak-indctapp-2008.