Ott v. Frederick County Department of Social Services5/22/1997
OPINION BY BELL, C.J.
WILNER, J., CONCURS.
The petitioner, Thomas E. Ott, III, was found in civil contempt of court, by the Circuit Court for Frederick County, for failing to comply with the child support order to which he consented. The court ordered the petitioner incarcerated for 6 months, but provided that he could purge the contempt by paying $2000 in installments, as specified. A divided panel of the Court of Special Appeals, in an unreported opinion, affirmed the judgment of the circuit court. At the petitioner's request, this Court issued a writ of certiorari. Applying the recent case of Lynch v. Lynch, 342 Md. 509, 677 A.2d 584 (1996) , we shall hold that the circuit court erred both in its contempt finding and in the purge provision it imposed.
The contempt hearing in this case took place on October 18, 1995. This was the fourth such hearing. By then, the parties agreed, the petitioner had accumulated a child support arrearage of $24,799.43. Therefore, after greeting the court, the petitioner's counsel commented:
... We're here on a contempt motion filed by the State. Your Honor with regard to that motion, Mr. Ott is willing to stipulate to the contempt. I don't have the details of the last payment, and the amount owed, but I'll let the State put that in. Leaving us solely then with the issue to be determined that is the purge amount and the amount of penalty.
When counsel for the respondent, Frederick County Department of Social Services, expressed a preference for testimony and counsel for the petitioner offered to withdraw the stipulation, the court informed the parties:
I'll tell you what we're going to do is this, let me be clear, I don't think we need testimony with the stipulation, and let me tell you where I am, contempt has been established, now I have a decision and that is what to do about the contempt. Now if I choose to use incarceration, then my next step is a purge bond. If it's a purge bond, get the old Baltimore, has to be the individual has the keys to his own freedom.
Thereafter, counsel for the respondent proffered, and the court found sufficient, the factual basis for the stipulation: that, pursuant to the relevant court order, the petitioner was required to pay $150 per week; that no payments had been made since December 7, 1994, over ten months before the hearing; and that the arrearage was, indeed, $24,799.43.
Called, over his objection, as the respondent's witness, "for the purpose of establishing what an appropriate purge provision would be in this case," the petitioner testified that he had been unemployed for only three months of the period covered by the contempt motion, the time when his father's business had been closed and his father recently had had by-pass surgery. As of the hearing date, he added, he had been working for two weeks for his father, who had rehired him, and he expected to receive his first paycheck the week following the hearing. The petitioner testified further that he had no driver's license, depended on his father for transportation, and walked to court that day. Moreover, he denied owning credit cards or bank accounts or having any money. Although acknowledging that he does, at times, give his sister money to hold for him when he gets paid, the petitioner denied that his sister was holding any money for him at that time.
As indicated, the court imposed a 6 month sentence and provided that the petitioner could avoid incarceration by paying $2000, the purge amount. Specifically, to purge, the petitioner was required to pay $800 that day and $600 each on the following November 3, and December 1. Responding to the petitioner's argume
Page 1 2 3 4 Maryland Employee Leasing Services
Employee Leasing Services
|