In a mobile society such as ours, people are often divorced in one state and then move to another. Under such circumstances, it is not uncommon for the second state to modify provisions of the Judgment of Divorce from the original state when the circumstances have changed – such as changing a parenting plan or amount of child support. Typically, Massachusetts will apply its own laws when modifying provisions of a Judgment from another state. However, when it comes to child support, the law actually prohibits Massachusetts from changing the duration – meaning that Massachusetts cannot order that a parent pay support for longer than that parent would have paid had he remained living in the state that issued the Judgment.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court issued a decision in the matter of Freddo v. Freddo, in which it ruled that a Massachusetts judge’s decision to order a father to pay support for children over the age of 18 was an error because under Florida law child support terminates at age 18. Under Massachusetts law, an obligation to pay child support can end as late as age 23 if the child is attending college. In the Freddo case, after being divorced in Florida, the mother, father and children all moved to Massachusetts. When the father went to the Massachusetts court seeking to end his obligation to pay child support at his youngest child’s eighteenth birthday, a Massachusetts trial court judge denied his request, ruling that he must continue to pay support as permitted by Massachusetts law. The Appeals Court overturned that decision, making clear that the duration of child support in a Judgment from another state is not modifiable in Massachusetts. And so, Mr. Freddo is permitted to stop paying at age 18, just as he would have been permitted to do had he continued to live in Florida.
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