Warner v. Warner

2019 Ark. App. 60, 572 S.W.3d 6
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 6, 2019
DocketNo. CV-18-505
StatusPublished

This text of 2019 Ark. App. 60 (Warner v. Warner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Warner v. Warner, 2019 Ark. App. 60, 572 S.W.3d 6 (Ark. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

RAYMOND R. ABRAMSON, Judge

The parties were divorced by decree of the Saline County Circuit Court in 2012. Appellee Melissa Warner has custody of the parties' daughter, S.W., who turned 18 years old in February 2017. On August 21, 2017, Melissa filed a motion to modify child support and to compel disclosure of income information. S.W. had been diagnosed with neurocardiogenic syncope, and Melissa sought to continue appellant Russell Warner's support obligation past S.W.'s 19th birthday. After a hearing, the circuit court found that child support should continue and entered an order extending child support past the age of majority. On appeal, Russell argues that there was insufficient evidence to support the circuit court's determination that the parties' adult child suffered from a disability at the time of her majority when it extended his obligation to continue to pay child support. We disagree and affirm.

Our standard of review for an appeal from a child-support order is de novo on the record, and we will not reverse a finding of fact by the circuit court unless it is clearly erroneous. Ward v. Doss , 361 Ark. 153, 205 S.W.3d 767 (2005). A finding is clearly erroneous, even though there is evidence to support it, if the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Deluca v. Stapleton , 79 Ark. App. 138, 84 S.W.3d 892 (2002). In reviewing a circuit court's findings, we give due deference to that court's superior position to determine the credibility of the witnesses and the weight to be accorded to their testimony. Ward , supra.

The sole issue on appeal is whether the circuit court properly ordered that support continue beyond the age of majority. The custodial parent seeking continued support bears the burden of proving that support should continue. Harris v. Harris , 82 Ark. App. 321, 107 S.W.3d 897 (2003).

Arkansas Code Annotated section 9-14-237 provides that:

(a)(1) Unless a court order for child support specifically extends child support after these circumstances, an obligor's duty to pay child support for a *8child shall automatically terminate by operation of law:
(A) When the child reaches eighteen (18) years of age, unless the child is still attending high school;
(B) If the child is still attending high school, upon the child's high school graduation or the end of the school year after the child reaches nineteen (19) years of age, whichever is earlier.

Ark. Code Ann. § 9-14-237 (a)(1)(A), (B) (Repl. 2015).

A parent ordinarily has no legal obligation to support a child beyond age eighteen. However, a parent may have a duty to provide continuing support to a child who is disabled upon reaching her majority. See Elkins v. Elkins , 262 Ark. 63, 553 S.W.2d 34 (1977) ; Petty v. Petty , 252 Ark. 1032, 482 S.W.2d 119 (1972). Our supreme court recognized in Petty that the onus of supporting the disabled child should not be borne solely by one parent.

As our court stated in Guthrie v. Guthrie , 2015 Ark. App. 108, 455 S.W.3d 839 :

The common-law duty to support a disabled adult child, set forth in Petty and Elkins, was not included in section 9-14-237 when the legislature enacted that statute in 1993. The statute's automatic-termination provision made no exception for disabled children. Nevertheless, since 1993, our courts have continued to recognize a parent's ongoing duty to support a disabled adult child. See Bagley v. Williamson , 101 Ark. App. 1, 269 S.W.3d 837 (2007) ; Davis v. Davis , 79 Ark. App. 178, 84 S.W.3d 447 (2002) ; Kimbrell v. Kimbrell , 47 Ark. App. 56, 884 S.W.2d 268 (1994).

Id. at 4-5, 455 S.W.3d at 843.

S.W. suffers from neurocardiogenic syncope, an autonomic dysfunction that causes an abnormal reflux between her brain and heart that causes her to faint. Her health condition first presented when she was sixteen years old when she had her first fainting episode in December 2015. Since that time, she has had at least two fainting or near fainting episodes every day. S.W. described her symptoms as dizziness, light-headedness, loss of vision, loss of hearing, weakness, and feeling like she will collapse. Since her diagnosis, S.W. has been completely dependent on her mother.

Patrick Stage, a nurse practitioner, who is part of S.W.'s medical team at the Arkansas Heart Hospital, testified at the hearing. At the time of trial, her condition was not stable, and Stage confirmed that S.W.'s neurocardiogenic syncope was "severe" and "debilitating." S.W.

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Related

Deluca v. Stapleton
84 S.W.3d 892 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2002)
Davis v. Davis
84 S.W.3d 447 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2002)
Towery v. Towery
685 S.W.2d 155 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1985)
Harris v. Harris
107 S.W.3d 897 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2003)
Petty v. Petty
482 S.W.2d 119 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1972)
Bagley v. Williamson
269 S.W.3d 837 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2007)
Ward v. Doss
205 S.W.3d 767 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2005)
Elkins v. Elkins
553 S.W.2d 34 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1977)
Guthrie v. Guthrie
2015 Ark. App. 108 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2015)
Kimbrell v. Kimbrell
884 S.W.2d 268 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 1994)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2019 Ark. App. 60, 572 S.W.3d 6, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/warner-v-warner-arkctapp-2019.