LISA G. ANDREWS, APPELLANT,
v.
JAMES P. ANDREWS, APPELLEE
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Lisa Andrews appealed a trial court's order modifying alimony and child support, reducing her former husband's obligations based on a substantial change of circumstances. The appellate court affirmed the modification in general but reversed the portion ordering Andrews to pay prospective child support, holding that such payment should only be retroactive to when she first failed to exercise time-sharing.
The court held that prospective child support payments based on failure to exercise time-sharing are not warranted without a modification of the time-sharing schedule. Child support modifications under section 61.30(ll)(c) must be retroactive to the date the parent first failed to exercise time-sharing, not prospective.
[1] A trial court may modify a child support award when a parent fails to exercise the parties' time-sharing schedule.
[2] Modification of child support due to a parent's failure to exercise time-sharing is retroactive to the date the parent first failed to exercise time-sharing.
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“Section 61.30(ll)(c), Florida Statutes (2015), allows for modification of a child support award based on one parent's failure to exercise the parties' time-sharing schedule, and the statute directs that modification shall be retroactive to the date the parent first failed to exercise time-sharing.”
Establishes the statutory framework governing child support modification based on time-sharing failures
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceLisa Andrews and James Andrews were former spouses with time-sharing obligations for their children. The trial court found that Mrs. Andrews had faile…
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Lisa G. Andrews challenges the. trial court’s final order granting her former husband James P. Andrews’ motion for modification of alimony and child support. In the order, the trial court concluded that Mr. Andrews had established a substantial and unanticipated change of circumstances and reduced his alimony and child support obligations. We reverse only that portion of the court’s order that directs Mrs. Andrews to pay $521 a month in child support to her former husband prospectively until the parties’ second oldest child’s eighteenth birthday. We affirm the final order in all other aspects.
Section 61.30(ll)(c), Florida Statutes (2015), allows for modification of a child support award based on one parent’s failure to exercise the parties’ time-sharing schedule, and the statute directs that modification shall be retroactive to the date the parent first failed to exercise time-sharing. Here, the trial court made a finding that Mrs. Andrews had failed to exercise her time-sharing since September 1, 2014, but it did not order a modification of the parties’ time-sharing schedule. As such, we conclude, and Mr. Andrews concedes, that Mrs. Andrews’ prospective monthly payment of the $521 was not warranted. See Buhler v. Buhler, 83 So.3d 790, 792 (Fla. 5th DCA 2011) (recognizing that “[b]y its nature,” a parent’s failure to exercise time-sharing “occurs over a period of time” and that pursuant to section 61.30(ll)(c), “during that time frame” the other parent'is entitled to a modification in the child support award (emphasis added)).-•
On remand, the trial court shall amend the final order to reflect that Mrs. Andrews is only responsible for the $521 pay*1007ment from September 1, 2014—the date she first failed to exercise her time-sharing—to December 16, 2015—the date the final order was rendered. If in the future Mrs. Andrews continues to fail to exercise her time-sharing, Mr. Andrews may seek further modification of the child support award and a modification of the time-sharing schedule. We affirm the final order in all other respects.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
CASANUEVA, J., and CASE, JAMES, R., ASSOCIATE SENIOR JUDGE,' Concur.