Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska

Willers v. Willers, 255 Neb. 769, 587 N.W.2d 390 (1998)
Not a classic retro support case. Mother took minor child to Washington State, then filed for
divorce. Washington State entered the divorce, but no support was ordered because the court
lacked jurisdiction over the husband/father. Now father has been brought to court in Nebraska
and custodial parent sought support retroactive to the date of the divorce.
A child born out of wedlock is entitled to child support retroactively to the date of
birth, because it is upon the child‘s birth that the parental duty of support
commences.
[T]he parental duty to support minor children can be enforced retroactively to the
date of the divorce decree where a child is born in wedlock, the parents are
subsequently divorced, but the divorce decree is silent on the issue of child support.
67A C.J.S. Parent and Child 75 at 390 (1978)
―While the right to child support may be barred by laches, an unreasonable delay in seeking
support cannot waive the right of the child to support, or remove the obligation of the father to
support the child‖
See Modification Issues.
Review & Modification
Same Sex Marriage/ Civil Union Related Issues
§42-117. Marriage contracted out of state; when valid.
All marriages contracted without this state, which would be valid by the laws of the country in
which the same were contracted, shall be valid in all courts and places in this state.
Source: R.S.1866, c. 34, § 17, p. 257; R.S.1913, § 1556; C.S.1922, § 1505; C.S.1929, § 42-117;
R.S.1943, § 42-117.
While many attorneys have long scoffed at child support law as being static and ―boring‖,
we who practice in the area know that nothing could be further from the truth. Now, with a
growing number of states† adopting same sex marriage laws or policies, including Nebraska‘s
neighboring State of Iowa, it is becoming clear that a whole new chapter is being written in the
field of child support. This is an exciting time for child support and family law practitioners!
Differences in state laws involving same sex marriages, separations and dissolutions will
have to be addressed by child support offices nationwide, including here in Nebraska. The ink
had barely dried on the new marriage rules in Iowa before one of our child support offices got a
call from an attorney who has a client who pays support on a Nebraska child support order. He
pays for his minor daughter, who planned on marrying her same sex partner in Iowa after she
turns 18 years old. The inquiry was whether this marriage will serve to terminate the father’s
ongoing child support obligation. Traditionally, when a minor child marries anywhere before
their 19 th birthday, and the NCP provides proof of same, the marriage will serve to terminate the
child support obligation as of the date of the marriage.
What God -- or the State -- has lawfully joined will sooner or later be subject to the winds
of time, and many marriages end up cast like boats upon the rocks of life. That is where we as
CSE offices have come in to work our magic. There is no reason to expect that same sex couples
will be any better at the marriage thing then their straight cousins, who after all have had a
millennia to work on marriage but still can’t seem to get it right. Same sex families have a lower
instance of raising children then heterosexual ones, but still a fair number of children are adopted
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