DYE VS. DYE (CHILD SUPPORT)

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

The court reversed the dismissal of an action to recover child support arrearages accrued under a 1964 divorce decree. The district court had erroneously concluded that its earlier refusal to reduce the arrearages to judgment barred the later collection action. The Supreme Court held this was error under Brown v. Vonsild, 91 Nev. 646, 541 P.2d 528 (1975), and Folks v. Folks, 77 Nev. 45, 359 P.2d 92 (1961), and remanded for trial on the issues raised by the pleadings.

In plain language

This case involved unpaid child support that had built up under a divorce decree entered in January 1964. A parent sued to collect the accrued support payments. The district court threw out the lawsuit, believing that because the court had earlier refused a request to convert the child support arrearages into a formal money judgment, that earlier refusal blocked the new collection action. The Nevada Supreme Court reversed. It held that the dismissal was error and that the earlier refusal did not bar the collection action, citing its prior decisions in Brown v. Vonsild and Folks v. Folks. The case was sent back to the district court for a trial on the issues raised in the pleadings.