DE ANDRE BELLE v. DALLAS MILTON (2024)

While I agree with the majority in the denial of the writ application as to three of the issues raised, I would grant the writ application, in part, to reverse the lower courts’ determination that the child support order is not retroactive to the date of judicial demand. Under La. R.S. 9:315.21 A, “[e]xcept for good cause shown, a judgment awarding, modifying, or revoking an interim child support allowance shall be retroactive to the date of judicial demand, but in no case prior to the date of judicial demand.” (Emphasis added). The court of appeal, observing that the Department of Child and Family Services “offer[ed] no further argument in support of its position,”¹ and that “[r]etroactive payment is not required when the court finds good cause to waive it,”² found no abuse of the trial court's discretion in its “implicit finding of good cause.”³

Our jurisprudence clearly indicates that the burden of proving that good cause exists for not making an award of child support retroactive to the date of judicial demand is on the obligor parent. See, e.g., State, Dep't of Soc. Servs. in Interest of P.B., 12-838 (La. App. 5 Cir. 4/24/13); 114 So.3d 1161; State, Dep't of Soc. Servs. Office of Family Support ex rel. Douglas v. Williams, 46,520, p. 2 (La.App. 2 Cir. 10/5/11); 76 So.3d 103, 105; Cupstid v. Cupstid, 97-2392, p. 7 (La. App. 4 Cir. 11/10/98); 724 So.2d 238. In this case, there is nothing in the record demonstrating that Mr. Belle met this burden of proving good cause for not making the child support award retroactive. The obligation to support a child begins at conception, or at the very latest, at birth, and that obligation is the responsibility of the parent. That there is an interstices during which the taxpayers of the state assumed the responsibility of support neglected by others is grounds enough for retroactivity to the earliest date possible.

FOOTNOTES

1.   Belle v. Milton, 55,340, p. 4 (La. App. 2 Cir. 11/15/23), 374 So.3d 1123, 1126.

2.   Id., pp. 5-6, 374 So. 3d at 1127.

3.   Id., p. 7. 374 So. 3d at 1127.

McCALLUM, J., would grant, in part, and assigns reasons.