COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
Present: Judges Elder, Annunziata and Agee
Argued at Alexandria, Virginia
ANDREW THOMAS McGARRY
MEMORANDUM OPINION ∗ BY
v. Record No. 1072-02-4 JUDGE ROSEMARIE ANNUNZIATA
DECEMBER 17, 2002
BEVERLY BRANDON McGARRY
FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY
Leroy F. Millette, Jr., Judge
Katherine M. Fogarty (James R. Kearney;
Miller, Kearney, Geschickter, Joshi &
Fogarty, L.L.P., on brief), for appellant.
Betty Moore Sandler (Nichols, Bergere,
Zauzig & Sandler, P.C., on brief), for
appellee.
Andrew T. McGarry ("father") contends on appeal that the
trial court erred in finding he failed to comply with the child
support provisions of a Separation and Property Settlement
Agreement ("PSA" or "agreement") he entered with his former
spouse, Beverly B. McGarry ("mother"). For the reasons that
follow, we affirm.
On appeal, we view the evidence in the light most favorable
to mother, the party prevailing below, together with all
reasonable inferences that may be drawn. See Richardson v.
∗
Pursuant to Code § 17.1-413, this opinion is not
designated for publication.
Richardson, 30 Va. App. 341, 349, 516 S.E.2d 726, 730 (1999).
The parties were married on June 3, 1977. One child, Shannon
Brandon McGarry, was born of the marriage on December 23, 1982.
On December 17, 1984, the parties entered into a PSA. The
agreement required father to provide child support according to
the following terms:
6. FAMILY SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE
(a) The Husband shall pay to the wife, for
her alimony support and maintenance, and the
support and maintenance of the said minor
child, the total monthly sum of ONE THOUSAND
FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS ($1,400), subject to
reductions of:
(1) FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS ($400) when the
child marries, dies, reaches eighteen (18)
years of age, enters active duty military
service or is otherwise emancipated,
whichever shall first occur; provided,
however, that such reduction shall not occur
until the child reaches twenty-three (23)
years of age for so long as the child is a
full-time student in an accredited college
or university and pursuing a bachelor's
degree, without abatement for academic
vacations.
The parties divorced on November 12, 1986. Shannon McGarry
turned eighteen years of age on December 23, 2000, while a senior
at Hylton High School; she was not enrolled full-time in an
accredited college or university at that time. It is undisputed
that, when she graduated from high school in June 2001, Shannon
enrolled immediately as a full-time student at Marshall
University.
Father made timely support payments in accordance with the
terms of the agreement until January 2001. He reduced his
payments by four hundred dollars ($400) thereafter. Mother filed
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a motion to establish arrearages and, on February 5, 2002, the
trial court ordered father to pay $5,392 in child support
arrears. He appeals from that order, 1 arguing that, under the
plain language of the agreement, the parties intended that child
support payments were to abate permanently once their daughter
reached eighteen unless she was enrolled full-time at an
accredited college or university on her eighteenth birthday. We
disagree.
A property settlement agreement is a contract between the
parties and their rights and obligations are defined under it.
Pellegrin v. Pellegrin, 31 Va. App. 753, 759, 525 S.E.2d 611, 614
(2000) (citations omitted). We construe the document as a whole
and give effect to all the language, if the contract's parts can
be read together without conflict. See Berry v. Klinger, 225 Va.
201, 208, 300 S.E.2d 792, 796 (1983). In construing contract
documents as a whole, the court will not treat any word or clause
as meaningless if any reasonable interpretation consistent with
the other portions of the contract can be ascribed to it. First
American Bank v. J.S.C. Concrete Const., 259 Va. 60, 69, 523
S.E.2d 496, 501 (2000).
Father's interpretation of the agreement would permit him to
terminate support in the event the parties' child reached the age
of eighteen while still in secondary school and failed to leave
before graduation and enroll as a full-time college student. The
1
The Court notes that the order appellant appeals reflects
a date of entry of March 29, 2001. As the order indicates the
matter came before the trial court on February 5, 2002, this
matter is remanded to the trial court for the sole purpose of
correcting the clerical error to reflect the proper date of
entry.
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interpretation he advances is strained and unreasonable, and we
decline to adopt it. See Hairston v. Hill, 118 Va. 339, 342, 87
S.E. 573, 575 (1916) ("[A]n unreasonable construction is always
to be avoided.").
Moreover, his interpretation fails to give any meaning to
the provision that obligates him to support the child until she
reaches the age of twenty-three if certain conditions are met.
"In the interpretation of written contracts every part of the
contract must be made, if possible to take effect, and every word
of it must be made to operate in some shape or other." Tate v.
Tate, 75 Va. 522, 527 (1881); see also Ross v. Craw, 231 Va.
206, 214, 343 S.E.2d 312, 317 (1986); Allsbury v. Allsbury, 33
Va. App. 385, 390, 533 S.E.2d 639, 642 (2000). Mindful of these
principles, we find the provision at issue establishes that
father's support obligation to his daughter terminated when she
reached eighteen years of age. In order to give effect to the
remainder of the support provision, we also find that the
provision obligates father to "wait and see" if his daughter
enrolled in college as a full-time student after she turned
eighteen and graduated from high school, at which time his
support obligation would resume and continue until she reaches
twenty-three.
The agreement, read as a whole, supports the construction we
place on the support provision. "'The tendency of the courts is
to give to contracts life and virility by interpretation of
their fair intendment . . . .'" Jennings v. Jennings, 12 Va.
App. 1187, 1194, 409 S.E.2d 8, 13 (1991) (quoting Kiser v.
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, 169 Va. 574, 590, 194
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S.E. 727, 733 (1938)). "In doing so, 'all of the provisions of a
contract should be construed together.'" Id. (quoting Chantilly
Constr. Corp. v. Dep't of Highways & Transp., 6 Va. App. 282,
293, 369 S.E.2d 438, 444 (1988)). Paragraph 9 obligates father
to maintain a life insurance policy for Shannon's benefit until
she receives her undergraduate degree or attains the age of
twenty-three, whichever occurs first. The coupling of the
child's age with her pursuit of a college degree mirrors the
language of the support provision and supports the conclusion
that the parties intended for the father's child support payments
to cease when the child reaches the age of eighteen, but resume
after the child reaches eighteen and continue until she reaches
the age of twenty-three, provided she enrolls full-time in a
college program. See generally Berry, 225 Va. at 208, 300 S.E.2d
at 796; Gazale v. Gazale, 219 Va. 775, 779, 250 S.E.2d 365, 367
(1979) (finding "the contract contained several support
provisions other than that for monthly cash payments, which
evince the parties' intent to provide for the children both
before and after they attained the age of majority"); Paul v.
Paul, 214 Va. 651, 653-54, 203 S.E.2d 123, 125 (1974) (holding
that, because there were other support provisions in the
agreement, it was clear the parties intended that support
continue past the age of majority).
Similarly, paragraph 7 of the PSA requires father to provide
health insurance for Shannon for as long as she is eligible. No
language limiting father's obligation to provide
health insurance to the period of the child's minority was
included in the health insurance provision.
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For the reasons stated in this opinion, we affirm the
decision of the trial court.
Affirmed.
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