Acquiescence to a Reduction in Child Support
Under certain circumstances the equitable doctrine of waiver by acquiescence may be raised as a bar to an action for child support arrearages where the evidence shows the existence of an agreement by the custodial parent to reduce child support, supported by consideration, and where the agreement has been acquiesced in over a period of time under circumstances giving rise to estoppel. McCurry v. McCurry, 117 N.M. 294, 871 P.2d 390 (Ct. App. 1994). Consideration means that something of value was given for the reduced amount of child support that was paid. Generally, courts will not address the sufficiency of the consideration, meaning the value of the item(s) given, only the fact that something of value was given. Estoppel means that someone relied your actions, and you cannot now argue that they shouldn't have.
Joint Support Awards
Suppose one of your children has turned 18 and is out of school, but you still have other minor children. You believe the support obligation you have been paying should be modified. You go to the CSED calculator and put in the numbers and determine what your support should be. You then start paying the new amount to the other party. This is almost always a mistake. Most awards of support for multiple children are called “joint awards.” This means you are paying a set amount for more than one child, for example, “Bob will pay $500 a month for the support of Melvin and Tina.”
You need to go back to the Court to modify an award of joint support when one of the children is no longer in high school and is over 18. If one of the children is close to being 18 and out of school your attorney should be trying to get the Court to provide for that expectancy in the Order. “Bob will pay $500 a month for Melvin and Tina, but once Melvin graduates high school in June of 2007 (assuming he will be 18), his support will only be for Tina and it shall be in an amount of $400 a month.” You may not unilaterally, or even with the consent of the other party, safely change the obligation of a joint award. You and the opposing party need to have an Order signed by the judge to ensure that you will not be later told you have a child support arrearage.
What usually happens in the above situation is that person paying the award assumes it is $250 per child. When Melvin turns 18, Bob changes his support to $250 a month. The support obligation is not divided like that. The extra money that a custodial parent receives because of a second child is only slightly higher than for having only one child (for example, when the parties have a gross monthly income in excess of $8,000 it is 11% for one child and 16.1% for two children, as a base level of support). McCurry v. McCurry, 117 N.M. 294, 871 P.2d 390 (Ct. App. 1994).
- Overview
- Page One - Prepaid Child Support and Visitation's Relation to Child Support
- Page Two - Children Suing for Support and Waiver
- Page Three - Acquiescence to Nonpayment and Joint Support Awards
- Page Four - Equitable Defenses and Miscellaneous Defenses