KATY BACHMAN, APPELLANT,
v.
MICHAEL MCLINN, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 2016-07-20
No. 2D15-2796
BLACK and BADALAMENTI, JJ., Concur.
197 So. 3d 123 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (2016) Positive Treatment
Cited by 1 case

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

A former wife appeals an order granting child support relief to her former husband. The court reversed the portion awarding retroactive child care cost credits prior to the filing of the modification petition, holding that support modifications can only be retroactive to the date a modification petition is filed.


Holding

A trial court may only modify support retroactively to the date a modification petition is filed. The trial court erred in crediting the former husband for child care costs retroactive to March 2010 when the petition was filed in June 2012; retroactive relief could only apply from June 2012 forward.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court may modify an order of support retroactively to the date of the filing of the action or supplemental action for modification.

[2] A trial court can only modify support payments prospectively from the time a petition for modification is filed.

Previewing 2 of 3 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

Key Quotes

“Except as otherwise provided in [section] 61.30(ll)(c), the court may modify an order of support ... by increasing or decreasing the support ... retroactively to the date of the filing of the action or supplemental action for modification as equity requires”

Establishes the statutory requirement that retroactive modifications must date from the filing of the modification petition

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

The parties were married for 25 years and divorced in December 2005 with an 8-year-old child. In 2012, the former husband sought retroactive child sup…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
MORRIS, Judge.

MORRIS, Judge.

Katy Bachman, the former wife, appeals an order granting child support relief to Michael McLinn, the former husband. We reverse the portion of the. order granting the former husband retroactive relief for child care costs.

The parties were married for twenty-five years before their marriage was dissolved in December 2005. The parties’ only child was eight years old at the time of the divorce. In 2007, the parties filed petitions to modify the final judgment, and the former husband’s petition was granted. This court reversed and remanded with instructions to enter judgment in favor of the former wife. Bachman v. McLinn, 65 So.3d 71, 75 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011). It is not clear from the limited record in this appeal, but it appears that on remand from that appeal, the trial court entered an amended supplemental judgment in favor of the former wife in August or September 2011.

In June 2012, the former husband filed a supplemental petition for modification of child support, claiming that he was entitled to a retroactive reduction in child support because $61.88 in -monthly child care costs had not been incurred since April 2009. In September 2012, the former husband also filed a motion for relief, seeking credits against his child support arrears for the child care costs that had not been incurred since April 2009. On June 2, 2015, the trial court entered an order granting the former husband’s ’ motion for relief and crediting the former husband with “$61.88 per month from March of 2010 as child care which [fjormer [w]ife did not incur.”1

*124On appeal, we find merit only in the former wife’s claim that the trial court erred in crediting the former husband $61.88 per month in child care costs retroactive to March 2010. The former husband filed his supplemental petition seeking this relief in June 2012. Therefore, the trial court erred in granting relief for child care costs retroactive to March 2010. See § 61.14(l)(a), Fla. Stat. (2011) (“Except as otherwise provided in [section] 61.30(ll)(c), the court may modify an order of support ... by increasing or decreasing the support ... retroactively to the date of the filing of the action or supplemental action for modification as equity requires....”); Fayson v. Fayson, 482 So.2d 523, 525 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986) (“A trial court can only modify support payments prospectively from the time a petition for modification is filed.” (first citing Benson v. Benson, 369 So.2d 99 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979); and then citing Alterman v. Alterman, 208 So.2d 472 (Fla. 3d DCA 1968))).' Accordingly, wé reverse the portion of the order on appeal relating to child care costs and remand for the trial court to credit the former husband for such costs retroactive to June 2012.

We note that on the same day the trial court entered the .order on, appeal, June 2, .2015, the trial court also entered a supplemental judgment on the former husband’s petition, crediting the former husband for the child care costs from June 2012 forward. This was proper, and the former wife does not appeal this supplemental,final judgment. In addition, the former wife and the former husband both represent on appeal that the parties entered into an agreement acknowledging that the trial court “erroneously credited [fjormer [hjusband for child care costs from March 2010 through May 2012” and that the former husband “is not procedurally entitled to the credit from March of 2010 through May of 2012.” Accordingly, our decision is consistent with the trial court’s supplemental final judgment as well as the concession by the former husband that the relief he received on this matter should be retroactive only to June 2012.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.

BLACK and BADALAMENTI, JJ., Concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Mirabella v. Mirabella (Fla. 2d DCA 2019)
    …. 2d DCA 2011) (holding that section 61.14(1)(a) prohibited a trial court's postdissolution modification order from imposing "a retroactive child support obligation . . . prior to the filing of a petition seeking a modification"); Bachman v. McLinn, 197 So. 3d 123, 124 (Fla. 2d DCA 2016) (reversing a trial court's amended supplemental judgment that modified a child support obligation to a date prior to the filing of the supplemental petition for - 7 - modification); Ivanovich v. Valladarez, 190 So. 3d 1144,…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw