Somerset County Children & Youth Services v. H.B.R.

155 A.3d 627, 2017 Pa. Super. 24, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 59
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 31, 2017
DocketNo. 823 WDA 2016
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 155 A.3d 627 (Somerset County Children & Youth Services v. H.B.R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Somerset County Children & Youth Services v. H.B.R., 155 A.3d 627, 2017 Pa. Super. 24, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 59 (Pa. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION BY

STRASSBURGER, J.:

Somerset County Children and Youth Services (CYS) appeals from the order entered May 6, 2016, terminating ELB.R.’s (Father’s) child support obligation to his son B.R. (Child). After careful review, we affirm.

The trial court summarized the pertinent factual and procedural history as follows.

On August 22, 2013, [Child] was put into placement pursuant to court order, with placement costs totaling approximately $24.00 per day. CYS filed a complaint for support against [Father] on September 6, 2013. A conference was scheduled for October 15, 2013, after which [the trial court] entered an interim order for support against [Father] in the amount of [$220.00] per month,1 including, pursuant to the support guidelines, a $197.51 support obligation, and $22.49 for arrears.
On October 29, 2015, [Father] filed a petition for modification of an existing support order wherein [Father] sought termination of his support obligation because [Child] had turned eighteen years old and graduated from high school, On November 3, 2015, [the trial court] scheduled a modification conference for November 25, 2015, and on December 2, 2015, [the trial court] terminated the support order without prejudice, having stated the following rationale: “[Child] has graduated from high school and has reached the age of emancipation. [Child] still remains in placement, but for child support purposes[,] [Child] has been emancipated.”
On December 21, 2015, CYS filed a demand for hearing contesting the termination of [Father’s] support obligation because, “[Child] is not emancipated. [Child] continues to be a dependent child under the jurisdiction of the [lower court]. Therefore [Father] is still responsible for support while [C]hild is not in [Father’s] care.” The [trial court] scheduled a de novo hearing for January 19, 2016; however, [Father] was scheduled for a two-day criminal jury trial beginning on that date. [The trial court] therefore rescheduled the de novo hearing for March 10, 2016.
In the meantime, on January 20, 2016, [Father’s] jury trial resulted in a verdict of guilty, and [Father] was sentenced on [629]*629April 18, 2016 to, inter alia, a minimum of thirty-six months, and a maximum of one hundred twenty months, in a state correctional institution. On March 10, 2016 — that is, between [Father’s] guilty verdict and his sentencing — [the trial court] conducted the de novo hearing, and [] took the matter under advisement.

Trial Court Opinion, 6/6/2016, at 1-2 (unnecessary capitalization and some footnotes omitted).

On May 6, 2016, the trial court issued an order re-affirming its December 2, 2015 order terminating Father’s support obligation, “without prejudice to the right of CYS to pursue recovery under 62 Pa. C.S.[ ] § 704.1(e).” This timely-filed appeal followed.1

CYS raises the following issues on appeal, which we have reordered for ease of disposition.

[L] Whether the trial court committed an abuse of discretion or committed an error of law by terminating the order of support[.]
[II.] Whether the filing of a complaint for support against [Father] through the domestic relations office pursuant to Pa. R.C.P. [ ] 1910.8, is the appropriate avenue for [CYS] to seek reimbursement costs for [Child] who is over 18, enrolled in post-secondary education, and who remains in foster care[.]
A. Whether the trial court committed an abuse of discretion or committed an error of law by holding that the proper avenue by which [CYS] must seek reimbursement is dependent upon whether [Child] is capable of self-support[.]

CYS’s Brief at 4 (unnecessary capitalization and suggested answers omitted).

Our review of an order terminating a party’s child support obligation is as follows.

When evaluating a support order, this Court may only reverse the trial court’s determination where the order cannot be sustained on any valid ground. We will not interfere with the broad discretion afforded the trial court absent an abuse of the discretion or insufficient evidence to sustain the support order. An abuse of discretion is not merely an error of judgment; if, in reaching a conclusion, the court overrides or misapplies the law, or the judgment exercised is shown by the record to be either manifestly unreasonable or the product of partiality, prejudice, bias or ill will, discretion has been abused.

Krebs v. Krebs, 944 A.2d 768, 772 (Pa. Super. 2008) (internal citation omitted).

At the outset, we recognize that as a general rule, the duty to support a child ends when the child turns eighteen or graduates from high school. However, pursuant to 23 Pa.C.S. § 4821(3), a parent may be required to support a child who, upon reaching the age of majority, has a mental or physical condition that prevents the child from being self-supporting.

Kotzbauer v. Kotzbauer, 937 A.2d 487, 489-90 (Pa. Super. 2007) (citation omitted).

We first address CYS’s argument that the trial court erred in terminating the order obligating Father to pay child support. Here, CYS disagrees with the trial court’s finding that “unless [Child] can demonstrate some mental or physical disability which would make him unemployable, then [CYS] must recoup [the cost incurred by CYS for Child’s care] through some other avenue, not through the support law.” CYS’s Brief at 9-10. Specifical[630]*630ly, CYS avers “that the law provides no other mechanism by which [CYS] may institute legal proceedings to recoup [the costs of Child’s care]. The only statutory or regulatory means for [CYS], as a public body, to institute legal proceedings against [Father] for the reimbursement of the costs expended to provide care for [Child] is through the filing of a support action[.]” Id, at 14.

In determining that, outside the circumstances cited supra, a parent has no legal duty to provide college educational support, the trial court offered the following analysis.

[I]n 1993, the legislature attempted to pass a statute permitting courts to “order either or both parents who are separated, divorced, unmarried[,] or otherwise subject to an existing support obligation to provide ... for educational costs of their child whether an application for this support is made before or after the child reaches 18 years of age,”
Our Supreme Court struck that provision down based on a finding that parents had no duty to provide college educational support to children, and that § 4327(a) failed to pass constitutional muster under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, pursuant to the rational basis test, because the law irrationally imposed a duty only on divorced, separated, and unmarried parents as opposed to all parents.
Thus, a parent has no duty in Pennsylvania to provide support to a college-age child who has graduated high school and who suffers from no infirmities which would prevent that child from earning income to help support himself.

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

Related

Abromitis, T., Jr. v. Abromitis, K.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2024
Vasquez-Cordoba, J. v. Hernandez-Maldonado, M.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2023
Balwick, T. v. Balwick, H.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2021

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
155 A.3d 627, 2017 Pa. Super. 24, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 59, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/somerset-county-children-youth-services-v-hbr-pasuperct-2017.