Wilkerson v. WaldropWilkerson v. Waldrop
Joey K. Wilkerson (“the father“) and Betsy Diane Wilkerson Waldrop (“the mother“) were divorced by a 1995 judgment of the trial court; one child was born of the parties’ marriage. On July 10, 2001, the trial court modified the 1995 divorce judgment and ordered the father to pay $450 per month in child support. In its July 10, 2001, modification judgment, the trial court stated that its judgment did not comply with the
On November 15, 2001, the father, alleging a material change in circumstances, filed a petition seeking a modification of the trial court‘s July 10, 2001, child-support award. On January 8, 2002, the State of Alabama, on behalf of the mother, intervened and filed a petition for contempt alleging that the father had failed to fully meet his child-support obligation.
Following an ore tenus hearing on May 14, 2002, the trial court denied the father‘s petition to modify; the trial court did not address the contempt petition. The father appealed, and on November 26, 2002, this court dismissed the appeal as being from a nonfinal judgment because the trial court had failed to adjudicate the contempt petition. On March 6, 2003, the trial court entered four separate orders; however, the orders left issues pending that pertained to the contempt petition. The father filed a second appeal, and on June 27, 2003, this court dismissed that appeal as being from a nonfinal judgment. See Wilkerson v. Wilkerson, 868 So.2d 1119 (Ala.Civ.App.2003).
On August 20, 2003, the father filed a motion asking the trial court to enter a final judgment with regard to his November 15, 2001, modification petition. The trial court entered an order on November 17, 2003, in which it stated that all matters had been decided and determined and that no further matters remained pending before it in case number DR-95-193.03. The father timely appealed.
The father contends on appeal that the trial court erred in failing to modify his child-support obligation; he asserts that the necessary child-support-guidelines forms do not appear in the record to support the trial court‘s conclusion that the July 10, 2001, child-support award should not be modified. Because none of the required child-support-guidelines forms are in the record on appeal and because it does not appear from the record that the parties submitted the child-support-guidelines forms to the trial court, we pretermit discussion of the trial court‘s refusal to modify the father‘s child-support obligation.
A noncustodial parent‘s child-support obligation is governed by the mandatory application of
The July 10, 2001, judgment of the trial court ordered the father to pay child support in the amount of $450 per month. In that judgment, the trial court stated that it did not comply with the child-support guidelines, and there is no indication in the record on appeal that the parties submitted child-support-guidelines forms in that action. Notably, the father did not appeal the trial court‘s July 10, 2001, judgment; therefore, that judgment is not before this court for review. With regard to the father‘s November 15, 2001, modification petition and the November 17, 2003, judgment currently before this court for review, the record contains no child-support-guidelines forms submitted by either party to that modification action.
The parties’ failure to submit the child-support-guidelines forms required by
REVERSED AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.
YATES, P.J., and PITTMAN, J., concur.
CRAWLEY, J., dissents, with writing.
MURDOCK, J., dissents, without writing.
CRAWLEY, Judge, dissenting.
“The law is well settled that a party may not induce an error by the trial court and then attempt to win a reversal based on that error.” Mobile Infirmary Med. Ctr. v. Hodgen, 884 So.2d 801, 808 (Ala.2003). The father‘s appeal is frivolous because he could have filed the forms required under