Enforcing out of state support orders is controlled by the Interstate Family Support Act (23 Pa.C.S.A. § 8101 et al. It may seem like the most obvious of steps, but imperative in successfully obtaining and enforcing a support order is correctly identifying the individual subject to the support order. Such was the case in Worley v. Effler in which a fourteen year old North Carolina child support order was registered in Centre County, Pennsylvania for the purposes of enforcement.
The matter was heard by the Superior Court on the basis that the trial court did not adequately allow the purported payor to present evidence demonstrating that she was not, in fact, the individual against whom the order was entered. Mistaken identity is not something that happens merely in movies or on television. Here, Kelly Richards Webster, also known as Kelly Lynn Effler, found herself subject to $24,309 in unpaid child support based on the North Carolina support order.
At the trial level, having immediately requesting a hearing to contest the entry of the support order against her, Webster was barred from presenting evidence that she was not the person named in the order. The trial court believed it was obligated to give the North Carolina support order full faith and credit and the trial court is not wrong on that position. However, by entering the order without allowing Webster to present evidence contesting her identification as the payor was deemed an abuse of discretion by the Superior Court. Webster is to be afforded the opportunity to demonstrate that North Carolina does not have personal jurisdiction over her to make the underlying order valid against her.
This case offers an interesting analysis of the rules governing the validity and enforcement of foreign orders, but it also prompts one to consider how Worley and/or North Carolina concluded that Webster was the payor. The North Carolina order appears to have laid dormant from an enforcement standpoint for over a decade. Either the payee or the North Carolina domestic relations unit (or both) did not find the arrears to be important enough to enforce the order earlier. I would surmise that at some point the over $20,000.00 arrearage caught someone’s attention and a public records search was made based on names, age range, and other information to track down the payor. Webster was caught in that net. Absent more conclusive information, Worley/North Carolina may have reasonably believed that Kelly Webster of Centre County was their delinquent payor. Unfortunately for them, they were wrong and a deadbeat parent continues to avoid her child support obligation.