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State Office of Child Support Enforcement v. Secrest
Citations: 334 Ark. 20; 970 S.W.2d 814; 1998 Ark. LEXIS 425Docket: 98-245
Court: Supreme Court of Arkansas; July 2, 1998; Arkansas; State Supreme Court
Vicki Rene Secrest was granted a divorce and awarded child support of $74.00 monthly from Hal Secrest by the Washington County Chancery Court. The venue was later transferred to Pope County, where a June 9, 1997 order found Mr. Secrest delinquent in child support payments totaling $998.00, leading to an adjusted payment of $81.40. Payments had previously been processed through the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) but, at Ms. Secrest's request due to issues with accessing those payments, the Chancellor ordered future payments to be made directly to the court registry. On September 11, 1997, OCSE sought to intervene, claiming Ms. Secrest had assigned her rights to them, and subsequently requested a modification of the order to revert payments to the clearinghouse. This modification request was denied, prompting OCSE to appeal, arguing that Arkansas law mandates all child support payments be processed through the clearinghouse. The court affirmed the Chancellor's decision, ruling that OCSE's motion to modify was filed too late, exceeding the ninety-day limit established by Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure (Rule 60(b)). Thus, the Chancellor lacked jurisdiction to modify the original order, as no applicable exceptions under Rule 60(c) were present. The ruling was supported by precedents set in Slaton v. Slaton and Griggs v. Cook.