In September 2013, the Kansas Court of Appeals held, in a 2 to 1 decision in In re Marriage of Stephenson, that where the children’s father made his court ordered child support payments, he was not entitled to reimbursement from the children’s mother where she later received a retroactive Social Security Disability lump sum payment covering the same months, even though he would have been entitled to credit for the monthly disability payments made to the children’s mother as a result of the father’s disability if the SSD payments had been contemporaneous rather than retroactive. Commending the father for his timely payment of his child support obligations, the Court nevertheless treated the excess payment resulting from the retroactive lump sum as a “gratuity” or gift to the children. The Court’s opinion traces the rationale of the decision and is available online at http://www.kscourts.org/Cases-and-Opinions/Opinions/CtApp/2013/20130913/109121.pdf
On October 9, 2015, however, the Kansas Supreme Court reversed, holding that a district court may—but does not necessarily have to—grant a credit to a child-support obligor who is current on child support when a lump-sum payment of accumulated social security disability insurance derivative benefits duplicates the obligor’s support payment. A credit, if granted, may be used to offset other support obligations imposed by the court on the obligor. Alternatively, the district court might adjust an obligor’s [future] support obligations, require reimbursement of the duplicative payments from funds that are discrete from the social security benefits, or fashion some other equitable remedy permitted under applicable federal statutes and regulations. Full opinion available at http://www.kscourts.org/Cases-and-Opinions/opinions/SupCt/2015/20151009/109121.pdf
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