LADAWN R. SEWARD, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
TROY P. HANE, Defendant-Appellant, And Involving STATE OF IOWA, CHILD SUPPORT RECOVERY UNIT, Defendant-Appellee.
Appeal
from the Iowa District Court for Monona County, Jeffrey A.
Neary, Judge.
In this
second appeal from a paternity decree, the Child Support
Recovery Unit (CSRU) weighs in on our decision to afford the
unit formal notice of the paternity proceeding, and a father
challenges the child support and medical support provisions
of the decree. AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED.
Maura
Sailer of Reimer, Lohman, Reitz, Sailer & Ullrich,
Denison, for appellant.
Jacquelyn S. Johnson of Vonnahme Law, P.C., Sioux City, for
appellee.
Thomas
J. Miller, Attorney General, and Gary J. Otting and Amy E.
Klocke, Assistant Attorneys General, for appellee State.
Heard
by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Potterfield and McDonald, JJ.
VAITHESWARAN, Presiding Judge.
In this
second appeal from a paternity decree, the Child Support
Recovery Unit (CSRU) weighs in on our decision to afford the
unit formal notice of the paternity proceeding, and a father
challenges the child support and medical support provisions
of the decree.
I.
Background Facts and Proceedings
A
detailed rendition of the facts is set forth in a prior
opinion, Seward v. Hane, No. 15-0119, 2016 WL
902838, at *1 (Iowa Ct. App. Mar. 9, 2016). We summarize and
supplement the facts as follows.
Troy
Hane and LaDawn Seward are the unmarried parents of two
children. Because Seward received State medical assistance,
the CSRU obtained a support order of $152 per month against
Hane. See Iowa Code § 252C.2(1) (2013)
("If public assistance is provided by the department to
or on behalf of a dependent child or a dependent child's
caretaker, there is an assignment by operation of law to the
department of any and all right in, title to, and interest in
any support obligation . . . .").
Seward
subsequently filed a petition to establish paternity, care,
custody and visitation. Seward also sought temporary and
permanent child support. Hane invoked the CSRU order and
asserted "there has been no change of circumstances that
would warrant a modification of child support since child
support was established." The district court issued a
pretrial order stating in part:
If there is a pre-existing child support action or judgment
concerning the children, the parties shall notify the
appropriate person in Child Support Recovery Unit of the
pendency of this action and the trial date. The parties shall
file documentation of their notification no less than ten
business days before trial.[1]
Following
trial on the paternity petition, the district court made the
following pertinent findings:
Troy currently has a child support obligation which was set
in Monona County case number DRCV028597 in the amount of $152
per month. In that proceeding, the Court imputed income to
[Hane] based upon a scant record of earnings. There is more
evidence here as to [Hane's] earning capacity, earnings,
and his current status as to how he meets his business and
personal expenses. To find that [Hane's] income is as
limited as he reflects in the pretrial stipulation is to
ignore his life style, how he meets his expenses and
generally lives and ...