PATRICIA C. ACREE, APPELLANT,
v.
LARRY M. ACREE, APPELLEE
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Florida appeals court held that a father's original 1969 child support obligation for $20 per week continues until age 21, despite the state's 1973 lowering of the age of majority to 18, because the original agreement predated that change. However, post-1973 modifications to increase support obligations terminate at age 18, when the lower age of majority applies.
The original $20 per week support obligation from the 1969 agreement continues until age 21 because the agreement was executed when majority age was 21 and section 743.07 operates prospectively only. However, child support payments ordered or modified by the court after July 1, 1973, terminate on the child's 18th birthday.
[1] Child support obligations established by a property settlement agreement and incorporated into a final judgment of divorce prior to the statutory reduction of the age of…
[2] Subsequent modifications to child support payments do not alter the original durational requirements of the support obligation unless explicitly stated.
Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“It is well established that section 743.07 operates prospectively and not retroactively.”
Establishes the controlling principle that the 1973 age of majority change does not retroactively apply to support obligations created before that date.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceParents divorced in 1969 with one child under age 2. The original property settlement agreement required the father to pay $20 per week in child suppo…
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SCHEB, Acting Chief Judge.
The trial court entered an order terminating a father’s duty of support for his child on the ground that the child had . attained the age of 18. The mother appeals, contending that the father is responsible for continuing child support payments until the child reaches the age of 21.
The parties were divorced in 1969. They had one child, Robert Aeree, then less than 2 years of age. Their property settlement agreement stipulated the father would pay child support of $20 per week until their child became “self-supporting, marries or reaches majority....” The final judgment incorporated by reference the property settlement agreement and specified that payments would continue until the child “attains the age of 21 years, dies, marries, or becomes emancipated.” When the final judgment was entered, the age of majority was 21.
The age of majority was lowered to 18 on July 1,1973. § 743.07, Fla.Stat. (1973). In 1976, the mother moved to have the child support increased, and on May 24,1976, the court entered an order providing:
support of the minor child of the parties hereto shall be increased by the sum of $10.00 per week, making a total child support payment of $30.00 per week. Said sum shall continue until such time as the child attains majority, dies, marries or becomes self-supporting, whichever the first shall occur. Subsequently, the court entered an order requiring the father to increase the child support payment to $50 per week, effective January 19, 1982. Thereafter, on May 27, 1982, the court confirmed a stipulation by the mother and father that the father would continue to pay the $50 per week child support.
In April 1986, the father filed a petition to terminate child support, alleging that Robert Aeree attained the age of 18 on January 6, 1986. The mother filed a cross-motion to compel the father to continue the payments. She alleged that Robert had not attained the age of 21, nor had he died, married, or become emancipated. As noted, the trial court terminated the father’s duty of support because Robert had become 18, and this appeal ensued.
The mother argues that the father must make child support payments as augmented by the 1976 modification order and the 1982 order confirming the stipulation for increased support, i.e., $50 per week until Robert is 21. We reject this argument; however, we do not think the judges’ orders awarding additional support had any bearing on the durational requirement of the father’s original obligation to pay $20 per week support. The parties’ 1969 property settlement agreement provided that the child support would continue until Robert reached the age of majority, which at that time was 21. It is well established that section 743.07 operates prospectively and not retroactively. Finn v. Finn, 312 So. 2d 726 (Fla.1975). Thus, the lowering of the age of majority did not retroactively reduce the duration of the support payments of $20 per week, since at the time the property settlement was entered into and the final judgment of divorce was rendered, the age of majority was 21. Archer v. Archer, 427 So. 2d 325 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983). However, child support payments ordered by the court after July 1, 1973, terminate on Robert Acree’s 18th birthday.
Accordingly, we affirm the court’s order insofar as it terminating the father’s obligation of the additional $10 per week, and we terminate the father’s obligation to pay the additional $20 increase as stipulated by the parties effective January 6,1986. Otherwise, we reverse and direct the trial court to enter a revised order requiring the father to continue payments of $20 per week until Robert Aeree attains the age of 21 years, dies, marries, or becomes emancipated.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with directions.
RYDER, J., and BOARDMAN, EDWARD F., (Ret.) J., concur.
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Bingemann v. Bingemann, 551 So. 2d 1228 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989)…s entered, child support increases awarded after the age of majority was lowered to eighteen may be terminated when the child reaches age eighteen, although the original child support will continue until the child reaches twenty-one. Acree v. Acree, 508 So. 2d 742 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987). However, even in cases where the age of majority is eighteen, upon a showing of economic dependence, a parent may be directed to continue paying child support for a child past the age of eighteen, when such child has not yet grad…
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Bocchino v. Braner, 546 So. 2d 1121 (Fla. 5th DCA 1989)…. 2d 726 (Fla.1975). The $75 a month per child support amount originally ordered continues until the children reach twenty-one years old. But any child support ordered after July 1, 1973 terminates at the child’s eighteenth birthday. Aeree v. Aeree, 508 So. 2d 742 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987); Broche v. Broche, 489 So. 2d 841 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986); accord, Goldsmith v. Goldsmith, 487 So. 2d 332 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986); but see, Aumaitre v. Troyanos, 344 So. 2d 910 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977). Consequently, the trial court could not o…
Authorities Cited
- Finn v. Finn, 312 So. 2d 726 (Fla. 1975)
- Barbara S. Archer (Siek) v. Archer, 427 So. 2d 325 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983)