Marriage of Beckler v. Hart

STATON, Judge,

concurring.

I concur with the Majority, but I feel that it should be emphasized that the principle of law enunciated here applies only to a similar factual posture. Here, there was one child under a support order-not several. The child was emancipated and the obligation to support automatically suspended as of the date of emancipation. The date of emancipation is a question of fact which may be disputed. It is far better to have the support order terminated by a court rather than leaving it to happenstance.

Too, if several children are covered by the support order, the date of emancipation for one of the several children does not terminate the obligation of support as it does in the case of the single child support order. When one of several children covered by a support order is emancipated, the obligated party under the support order must petition for a modification to reduce the amount of the support obligation. Otherwise, there is no relief for what would be an overpayment. Kirchoff v. Kirchoff, 619 N.E.2d 592, 596 (Ind.Ct.App.1993).