Q: Can I put in a motion to the court to get a child support judgement removed if my ex wife is deceased no administrator?
I put in a second motion to get the child support judgement removed on a closed child support case. I do not owe any arrears on this case. My first motion was denied because my ex wife is deceased and I was informed to send the paperwork to her administrator of estate. I then did a second motion with information from the surrogates court indicating that my ex wife does not have an administrator of estate so I had no one to send the motion to by certified mail. Do you think my second motion will be denied?
A:
You need to meet with a divorce and family law specialist or presumably, you will continue to go round and round with the legal process since you are not understanding the issues outstanding. There was an order outstanding for the payment of child support against you. That payment was to address your support obligation to your child[ren] and the fact that your ex wife has passed on, does not mean that you honored your child support obligation are required by the terms of the court's order. here are 2 hypotheticals to explain:
1. you owe your ex wife alimony of XXX per week and you are current in the payment of your alimony obligation weekly and on December 1, 2021, she passes away but the probation department continues to reflect an obligation for the payment of alimony for her after December 1, 2021. You can file your application with the court, providing clear proof that she passed away on December 1, 2021 and therefore you had no legal obligation to pay alimony after the date of her death.
2. Under a court order or a settlement agreement, you are obligated to pay your ex wife the sum of YYY per week for child support for your 2 children and on December 1, 2021, your ex wife passes away and the children are then living with her parents. And, as of December 1, 2021, you owed 2500.00 in outstanding child support arrears to the probation department. By virtue of your ex wife passing away on December 1, 2021, does not mean that you no longer owe the 2500.00 in outstanding child support arrears, since that is money owed to the children for their support. The question is simply who has the right to collect that money for the benefit of the children to ensure that it is used for their benefit.
3. Following my example, lets presume that one or both of your children are not yet emancipated and they are currently living with your ex wife's parents - therefore you still are obligated to pay child support for their benefit moving forward but the recipient of the payments changes and there may need to be a court proceeding to determine what your adjusted child support obligation should now be or whether it should remain the same.
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