DANE DOYLE v. CYNTHIA DOYLE

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE

APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION

This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court." Although it is posted on the internet, this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R.1:36-3.

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY

APPELLATE DIVISION

DOCKET NO. A-0

DANE DOYLE,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.

CYNTHIA DOYLE,

Defendant-Respondent.

______________________________________________________

December 29, 2016

Submitted December 13, 2016 Decided

Before Judges Fisher and Leone.

On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division, Family Part, Union County, Docket No. FM-20-139-00.

Michael B. Blacker, attorney for appellant.

Respondent has not filed a brief.

PER CURIAM

Plaintiff moved, on August 14, 2015, for an order both declaring the parties' twenty-two-year-old son emancipated and terminating plaintiff's child support obligation as of the son's graduation from college on April 24, 2015. In response to the motion, defendant agreed emancipation was appropriate but argued plaintiff was not entitled to retroactive relief. The judge held that retroactive modifications or terminations of child support obligations are not favored -- implicitly relying on N.J.S.A. 2A:17-56.23a -- and entered an order that terminated the child support obligation only as of the date the motion was filed. Plaintiff appeals solely on the question of whether the judge erred in refusing to terminate the support obligation as of the emancipation date.

We reverse. N.J.S.A. 2A:17-56.23a prohibits retroactive modification of child support orders to a date earlier than the filing of the motion. But, as we held more than twenty years ago, the statute does not embody or effectuate a legislative intent to bar termination of child support retroactively to the time a child became emancipated. Mahoney v. Pennell, 285 N.J. Super. 636, 643 (App. Div. 1995).

There being no dispute that the parties' son became emancipated upon his college graduation, we reverse and remand for entry of an order terminating child support as of April 24, 2015. We do not retain jurisdiction.