FAMILY LAW
Kate Goldberg
In Rosenbaum v. Shaw, the supreme court held that a father was not entitled to credit or reimbursement for overpaid child support when the mother was receiving children’s insurance benefit (CIB) payments from the Social Security Administration (SSA) in addition to the regular monthly child support payments from the father. In 2012, when Rosenbaum began receiving Social Security retirement benefits, the daughter for whom he had been paying child support became eligible to receive CIB payments. Rosenbaum received and retained these payments on her behalf until 2014, when Shaw, the child’s mother, requested SSA to redirect future payments to her. Rosenbaum continued to pay child support while Shaw was receiving CIB payments, unaware that the CIB payments could be credited against his child support. In 2016, the Alaska Department of Revenue, Child Support Services Division (CSSD) informed Rosenbaum that he had an overbalance of $47,432. The superior court denied entry of judgment to recover this overpaid child support. On appeal, Rosenbaum argued that Alaska case law dictates that an overpayment resulting from combined normal child support payments and CIB payments is not to be treated as a gratuity to the child, and that national trends, public policy, and constitutional principles supported his position. The supreme court held that if a parent has no arrearages and makes duplicative child support payments even after SSA began making CIB payments, those duplicative payments shall be treated as gratuity, and such overpayment may not be recovered in the future. The supreme court reasoned that public policy supported allocating the risk of loss to Rosenbaum. The supreme court affirmed, holding that a parent was not entitled to credit or reimbursement for overpaid child support when the other parent was receiving CIB payments in addition to regular monthly payments.
