Divided MS Supreme Court Reverses Court of Appeals on Child Support Lien Issue

Reversing a decision by deeply divided Court of Appeals (for additional details on that earlier decision, see my post from last year), the Supreme Court of Mississippi, in a split decision, held that when an employee’s parental rights were terminated through an adoption proceeding at a time when the employee owed almost $35,000 in unpaid child support, the employee’s children ceased to be his dependents. Accordingly, where the employee subsequently died in a work-related accident, no death benefits were payable (other than funeral expenses) and there was no fund upon which any child support lien could attach [Young ex rel. Heirs of Tewksbury v. Air Masters Mech., Inc., 2020 Miss. LEXIS 96 (Apr. 20, 2020)]. The majority of the Court found, therefore, that the state Commission properly dismissed the death benefits claim filed by the former spouse on behalf of the minor children.

Background

Tewksbury and Young were previously married and were the parents of two minor children. They divorced in May 2006, and Tewksbury was ordered to pay child support. He stopped making child-support payments in 2008. Young later married Gerald Allen Young, Jr., who filed a petition to adopt the minor children. As a result of the adoption, Tewksbury’s parental rights were terminated. As of the termination of his parental rights, Tewksbury owed Young $34,759 for child support.

On April 5, 2015, Tewksbury died in a work-related automobile accident. Young then filed a petition with the Workers’ Compensation Commission on behalf of the minor children, contending that they were entitled to Tewksbury’s workers’ compensation death-benefit proceeds. She also sought the payment of the $34,759 in outstanding child support.

Procedural Aspects of the Case

The administrative judge (AJ) determined that the question was whether the child-support lien should be paid from Tewksbury’s death-benefit proceeds due under the workers’ compensation statute. The AJ held that the child-support lien of $34,759 was valid and payable under Miss. Code Ann. § 71-3-129. Upon review, the Commission concluded that the minor children were not entitled to Tewksbury’s death benefits because they were not his statutory dependents under Miss. Code Ann. § 71-3-25 (Supp. 2019). Accordingly, the Commission reversed the AJ’s order and dismissed Young’s petition.

As noted above, a deeply-divided Court of Appeals reversed the Commission’s decision, concluding that the child-support lien was valid under §71-3-129. The court further ruled that the Commission was without authority to discharge a lien for delinquent child support filed under Section 71-3-129. The court reasoned that the child-support payments were vested and that the adoption did not preclude Young’s ability to execute on the lien. The court remanded the case to the Commission “to determine whether a valid child-support lien [was] a benefit payable under the death benefits statute.”

Supreme Court’s Review

The Supreme Court of Mississippi granted certiorari. Reviewing Miss. Code Ann. § 71-3-25, Justice Griffis, writing for the majority of the Court, noted that death benefits are payable only to specified persons, such as a surviving spouse, child or children, and other persons dependent on the deceased employee at the time of the injury that resulted in death. Parenthetically, citing Mississippi judicial precedent, Justice Griffis stressed that an employee’s natural child is no longer considered a dependent of the employee entitled to receive death benefits under the Act once the child has been adopted and the employee’s parental rights and obligations to that natural child have been terminated.

The justice concluded, therefore, that at the time of the injury that resulted in his death, Tewksbury had no dependents and left no statutory dependents. Under the Act, other than funeral expenses, no death benefits were payable in the case.

No Death Benefits – Nothing to Which Lien Could Attach

The justice noted that under Miss. Code Ann. § 71-3-129(1), an “obligee may cause a lien for unpaid and delinquent child support to be placed upon any workers’ compensation benefits payable to an obligor delinquent in child support …” [emphasis added]. The justice indicated that Tewksbury’s children could not recover the unpaid child support under § 71-3-129(1) because, upon Tewksbury’s death, workers’ compensation benefits were not payable to Tewksbury — the “obligor delinquent in child support” — but instead were payable to his “dependents.” Again, the justice noted: there were no dependents.

Simply put, said Justice Griffis, If there are no statutory death benefits to be paid, there are no benefits to which the $34,759 child-support lien could attach. The child-support lien provision [Miss. Code Ann. § 71-3-129] did not authorize a lien on death benefits payable directly to the deceased employee’s statutory dependents. Accordingly, the child-support lien did not apply to Tewksbury’s death benefits. Justice Griffis restated the majority’s holding: Because Tewksbury had no statutory dependents, there were simply no benefits to which the lien could attach in this case. As a result, the Commission properly dismissed the claim.

Dissent

Presiding Justice Kitchens, joined by Presiding Justice King, dissented. Justice Kitchens indicated he would hold that the case was “easily and appropriately resolved in favor of the children without delving into the complicated question of whether the child support lien statute allows a lien against death benefits payable to the decedent’s statutory dependents” [Decision, ¶ 21]. Siding with the majority of the Court of Appeals, the justice said the important issue was that the lien existed prior to the adoption of the minor children. Child support belongs to the child, not the parent, argued the justice. The adoption of Tewksbury’s children did not extinguish their right to the unpaid child support payments. Therefore, said Justice Kitchens, at the time of Tewksbury’s death, although the children had been adopted, they remained dependent upon their biological father up to and including the sum of $34,759 in unpaid child support.