Long Island’s Best Divorce Lawyer said this appeal was from an order of the Supreme Court which granted Defendant Wife’s motion for an order directing Plaintiff Husband to pay child support arrears and counsel fees.
An oral stipulation of settlement was entered into by the parties in December 1999 where the Husband agreed to pay the Wife child support for their three minor children. However, in 2011 the Husband moved for the stipulation to be vacated arguing it failed to comply with the Child Support Standards Act. The motion was subsequently denied and the Appellate Division affirmed. The Wife then moved for an order which would direct the Husband to pay arrears due and the Husband opposed the motion with an order to show cause by again arguing the stipulation should be vacated. This appeal followed.
A Nassau County Divorce Lawyer said the arrears had been granted without a hearing. The Appellate Division said a hearing was not required because the Husband had not submitted any evidentiary evidence which could dispute the amount he failed to pay nor support “his claim that the parties’ eldest daughter was emancipated or contesting the amount of counsel’s fees.” Therefore a hearing was not necessary.
On the Husband’s order to show cause the Appellate Division affirmed the Supreme Court’s denial on the grounds of res judicata. As the Appellate Division states, “[t]he husband had a full and fair opportunity to challenge the stipulation as part of his previous, unsuccessful motion and cannot now attack its validity based on defects raised either in his prior motion or for the first time in his order to show cause.”
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