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NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
CARRIE DETWILER : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
: PENNSYLVANIA
Appellant :
:
:
v. :
:
:
RONALD DETWILER, JR. : No. 1905 MDA 2018
Appeal from the Order Entered October 26, 2018
In the Court of Common Pleas of York County Civil Division at No(s):
2000-FC-000492-15
BEFORE: BOWES, J., McLAUGHLIN, J., and STRASSBURGER*, J.
MEMORANDUM BY BOWES, J.: FILED OCTOBER 29, 2019
Carrie Detwiler (“Mother”) appeals from the October 26, 2018 order
enforcing the marital settlement agreement that she entered into with Ronald
Detwiler (“Father”). We affirm.
Mother and Father have two daughters, born in 1997 and 1999,
respectively. On January 8, 2004, the parties executed a marital settlement
agreement (“MSA”) that was incorporated in, but not merged with, the divorce
decree entered on January 23, 2004. As it relates to this appeal, Paragraph
Eleven of the MSA outlines the financial responsibilities of the parties to aid in
their children’s post-secondary educational expenses. The MSA provides:
EDUCATIONAL EXPENSES OF CHILDREN. With respect to the
Children’s future education, the parties agree that they will
contribute to the cost of the Children’s undergraduate college
and/or post-secondary vocational or technical training expenses,
including but not limited to the expenses therefore incurred for
tuition, room and board, books and educational fees (hereinafter
“the Educational Costs”) to the extent they are financial[ly]
____________________________________
* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.
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capable at the time the expenses are incurred. Before a party
can be expected to contribute to the Educational Costs, the
children must apply for scholarship, grant money and other
available financial aid and the parties will consult with each other
and jointly agree as to the expenses to be incurred and the
educational institution to be selected for the Children. Since it is
impossible to determine at the present time the ability of the
Children to perform satisfactorily in their educational endeavors,
at the time or times the Educational Costs are to be incurred, the
effectuation of the parties’ intent pertaining to the
foregoing will be determined from time to time based upon
the Children’s then existing ability to perform satisfactorily
in their educational endeavors and the amount of the
Educational Costs as such may exist when the Educational
Costs are to be incurred. This provision shall not confer any
third[-]party beneficiary rights upon the parties’ Children.
Marital Settlement Agreement, 1/8/04, at 14-15 (emphases added).
On August 23, 2015, Mother filed a petition to enforce the MSA and for
contempt. Following a hearing on September 18, 2015, the trial court issued
an order, hereinafter referred to as the 2015 order, requiring Father to pay
fifty percent of the total educational expenses incurred by their elder child who
was attending Bloomsburg University at the time. As it relates to Mother’s
current argument, i.e., that Father continues to be responsible for no less than
fifty percent of the children’s education costs even though the MSA clearly
requires payment only “to the extent the [parents] are financially capable,”
the 2015 order directed as follows:
We then come to the amount Father should contribute,
Mother's petition requests one[-]half of the educational costs. At
hearing, [Father’s] counsel requested 45%, which we assume is
based on the domestic relations allocation for child support
purposes. Mother did provide . . . an itemization of various costs
for Bloomsburg University specifically, but also including SAT test
prep course cost[,] . . . computer backup service for laptop, laptop
surge protector, $730.00 college application fees, clothing and
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personal items and unspecified costs to visit various colleges. The
language of the MSA is in pertinent part, “the parties agree that
they will contribute to the cost of the children's undergraduate
college and/or postsecondary vocational or technical training
expenses, including but not limited to the expenses therefore
incurred for tuition, room and board, books and educational fees,
to the extent they are financially capable at the time the
expenses are incurred.”
....
The language of the agreement then is what it is.
Accordingly, we find $23,000.00 (rounded) total yearly cost less
$5,500.00 (loans and grant) or $17,500.00 annual cost is the
amount to be shared equally by the parents.
Court Order, 9/18/15 at 4-5 (emphasis added).
Three years later, Mother filed a second petition to compel Father to pay
educational costs, this time in relation to the then-approaching 2018-2019
school year, and for contempt. At that time, the parties’ older daughter was
starting her senior year at Bloomsburg, and their younger daughter was
entering her freshman year at that institution. In the petition, Mother sought
reimbursement for fifty percent of the educational expenses for the 2018-
2019 school year. During the August 29 hearing, the court issued an order
directing Father to pay Mother $3,967.68 for the older child’s educational
expenses during the fall semester and $4,529.88 for the younger sibling’s
educational expenses for the same period, which totaled $8,497.26,. He was
required to satisfy the obligation by September 10, 2018 to avoid incurring
late fees and interest. As to the petition for contempt, the court issued a rule
to show cause directing Father to explain why he should not be held in
contempt for failing to comply with the MSA.
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Father complied with the rule returnable, and after the case was
rescheduled twice, the hearing was scheduled to occur on October 23, 2018.
The parties introduced documentation of their respective earnings. The
evidence revealed that, in 2017, Mother’s gross income was $82,441 and
Father’s income was $84,653. However, it was estimated that Father’s income
would decrease in 2018 by roughly $7,000. Mother’s counsel requested an
evidentiary hearing to provide proof of Mother’s payments. However, the
court declined to hold an evidentiary hearing at that juncture, stating that its
concern at the time was not Mother’s proof of payment, but Father’s ability to
pay, and whether the children had exhausted all means of financial aid and
assistance as required by the MSA. The trial court issued the following order:
[G]iven the communication difficulties and trust issues between
the parties, the Court notes that it would make more sense for
one parent to be responsible for one semester and one
parent to be responsible for the other semester. By
responsible, the court means coming up with a plan by which the
children will have no interruption in their education.
The parties have agreed that both of their children will
complete their undergraduate education at Bloomsburg University.
In each year [M]other shall be responsible for all of the
expenses in Semester 1, [F]ather shall be responsible for all
of the expenses in Semester 2. That means that each of them
will be responsible for assisting their children in meeting the terms
of the agreement and working with their children to come up with
the education plan so that there are no interruptions. That includes
the children providing directly to the parent responsible for that
semester the actual costs for tuition, room and board, books, and
educational fees.
Additionally, the children will be responsible for working with
their parent to quote, apply for scholarship, grant money, and
other financial aid. If there are any loans that must be co-signed
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by a parent, [M]other will be responsible for signing any loans
necessary for her to finance the first semester in any year and
[F]ather shall be responsible for co-signing any loans that are
necessary for the second half of any year.
N.T., 10/23/18, at 52-53 (emphases added).
Mother timely appealed and complied with the court’s order to file a
Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement of errors complained on appeal. She raises two
issues for our review:
1. Did the lower court err in failing to uphold the Marital Settlement
Agreement in the same manner as the court had three years prior,
in an earlier proceeding to enforce the Agreement?
2. Did the lower court err in failing to hold a full evidentiary hearing
to determine to what degree each party must contribute to their
children’s post-secondary education costs?
Mother’s brief at 6.
This Court reviews an order denying a petition to enforce a marital
agreement for abuse of discretion. Bennett v. Bennett, 168 A.3d 238, 245
(Pa.Super. 2017). As we said in that case, “An abuse of discretion is not
lightly found, as it requires clear and convincing evidence that the trial court
misapplied the law or failed to follow proper legal procedures.” Id.
Mother’s first issue invokes the law of the case doctrine. Specifically,
she asserts that, because the 2015 order directed Father to pay fifty percent
of the older child’s educational expenses incurred that year, the court’s
calculation of Father’s share was the law of the case. Thus, she posits that
the current trial court was bound by that determination in addressing her
present claim concerning both daughter’s expenses for the 2018-2019 school
year. Hence, she asserts that Father is responsible for fifty percent of the
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educational costs rather than a division of the costs by semester after
accounting for the girls’ financial assistance. Mother also complains that the
present order imposes new obligations on the children that did not exist in
2015. For all of the following reasons, no relief is due.
First, the law of the case doctrine does not apply to this situation. The
law of the case doctrine “refers to a family of rules which embody the concept
that a court involved in the later phases of a litigated matter should not reopen
questions decided by another judge of that same court or by a higher court in
the earlier phases of the matter.” Commonwealth v. Starr, 664 A.2d 1326,
1331 (Pa. 1995). As the High Court explained in Starr,
Among the related but distinct rules which make up the law of the
case doctrine are that: (1) upon remand for further proceedings,
a trial court may not alter the resolution of a legal question
previously decided by the appellate court in the matter; (2) upon
a second appeal, an appellate court may not alter the resolution
of a legal question previously decided by the same appellate court;
and (3) upon transfer of a matter between trial judges of
coordinate jurisdiction, the transferee trial court may not alter the
resolution of a legal question previously decided by the transferor
trial court.
Id.
As it relates to the present case, the law of the case doctrine is designed
to rectify differing determinations by courts of coordinate jurisdiction in the
same case regarding identical subject matter. Nevertheless, the doctrine does
not apply herein because the 2015 order did not establish Father’s fixed
obligation to his daughters’ educational expenses. Instantly, following the
presentation of new facts concerning the current economic status of the
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parties and their daughters’ existing educational expenses, the trial court
resolved Mother’s petition to compel based on the relevant evidence before it
and reached a decision that varied only slightly from the earlier decision that
was predicated on different costs and incomes. Phrased differently, the trial
court’s present consideration of the parties’ current financial status and their
daughters’ respective educational expenses for the 2018-2019 school year
differs from the considerations before the trial court three years earlier.
Furthermore, Mother’s claim that the divergent outcomes offended the
law-of-the-case doctrine ignores the fact that the trial court did not alter a
prior resolution of a legal question. Plainly, the trial court’s 2015
characterization of the language in the MSA as “it is what it is” relates to
Mother’s claim that Father was responsible for the additional expense that fell
outside of the agreement, not the division of financial responsibility. Court
Order, 9/18/15, at 5. While the court ultimately divided the costs equally
between the parties, nothing in the MSA or the certified record supports
Mother’s notion that Father’s obligation is permanently fixed at fifty percent.
Indeed, as demonstrated by the conditional language in the accord that states
the parents will contribute “to the extent they are financial[ly] capable,” the
MSA is purposely vague as to the precise share of each parties’ financial
responsibility. Marital Settlement Agreement, 1/8/04, at 14. While the trial
court previously determined that Father was capable of paying what amounted
to fifty percent of his older daughter’s approved educational costs in 2015,
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that does not mean that the Father is required to pay fifty percent of all future
educational costs for both daughters under all circumstances. Mother’s
contrary perspective mischaracterizes the 2015 order and ignores the express
terms of the MSA.
Moreover, to the extent that Mother asserts that the trial court added a
condition in the 2018 order that was absent from the 2015 order, i.e.,
requiring the children to seek financial assistance in addition to accepting their
parent’s contributions, the record also belies this contention. The MSA clearly
states, “Before a party can be expected to contribute to the Educational Costs,
the children must apply for scholarship, grant money and other available
financial aid.” Marital Settlement Agreement, 1/8/04, at 14. The record
simply does not sustain Mother’s assertion that the trial court “created a
completely new ruling” which “could mean as little as co-signing [a loan] for
the student loans of the children without actually contributing [to] any costs
at all[.]” Mother’s brief at 14. Again, both parents’ obligations to the
children’s educational costs are expressly conditioned on the parent’s ability
to pay. As that contingency flows directly from the MSA, rather than the 2018
order, Mother’s argument fails.
Next, we reject Mother’s assertion that the trial court erred in failing to
“hold a full evidentiary hearing” prior to rendering its decision. Mother’s brief
at 16. This contention is predicated on the inaccurate assumption that the
trial court modified the MSA due to Father’s loss of income. That is not the
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case. In outlining the parties’ current responsibilities under the MSA, the court
specifically noted that “we are limited to the four corners of the [MSA] and will
not be broadening, expanding, or otherwise modifying what the parties agreed
to [do].” Court Order, 10/23/18, at 4.
In reality, consistent with the express contingency in the MSA relating
to each parent’s “financial capab[ility]” when the education costs are incurred,
the trial court questioned Mother and Father from the bench during the
October 23, 2018 hearing and accepted evidence regarding the parties’
respective incomes and expenses, including annual income over the preceding
four years, and their daughter’s anticipated education expenses for the 2018-
2019 school year. N.T., 9/23/18, at 3-4, 5, 6, 9-10, 16-24, 33. As noted,
supra, the parties documented that Mother’s gross income for 2017 was
$82,441 and Father earned $84,653 that year. Id. at 3. The children’s
combined projected education costs for the 2018-2019 academic year were
approximately $34,000. Id. at 33.
When Mother sought to introduce additional evidence to establish the
amounts that she already paid, the trial court reminded that parties that,
pursuant to MSA, “The issue is [Father’s] financial circumstances, not what
[Mother] paid.” Id. at 24. The court continued,
from an evidentiary perspective, there first needs to be evidence
that they have jointly agreed as to the expense to be incurred.
There then has to be evidence that the children have applied for
all financial aid. After that, then I will look at what husband is --
father is financially capable of paying. I don’t see [how] what she’s
paid is relevant, quite frankly.
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Id. at 25.
Thus, contrary to Mother’s protestations, the certified record does not
support Mother’s assertion that the trial court modified the agreement.
Moreover, in light of the evidence presented during the October 2018 hearing,
we do not discern an abuse of discretion in the court’s decision to fashion an
order that enforced the MSA’s consideration of the current financial status of
both parties and their present ability to contribute to their daughters’
education related expenses.
Accordingly, for all of the foregoing reasons, we do not disturb the trial
court’s decision to make Father and Mother individually responsible for
expenses incurred for the respective semesters for each daughter during the
2018-2019 academic year.
Order affirmed.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 10/29/2019
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