California Court of Appeal

The trial court's denial of mother's request to enforce a 25 year old order for child support arrearages is affirmed, where: 1) a family law court, in the exercise of its broad equitable discretion, and upon a finding of "unclean hands," may decline to enforce a child support arrearage judgment; 2) the trial court did not err in finding that mother concealed the children for 15 years; 3) this equitably estops mother from enforcing a child support judgment; and 4) the appellate court may not substitute its discretion for that of the trial court unless the appellant can demonstrate, as a matter of law, that the trial court's judgment is arbitrary, capricious, whimsical, or exceeds the bounds of reason.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/28/2014
• Published 04/28/2014

Judges

• YEGAN

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel