FAILURE TO PAY SUPPORT IS PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF A WILLFUL VIOLATION OF A SUPPORT ORDER, FAMILY COURT REVERSED.

The Second Department, reversing Family Court, determined Family Court should have granted mother’s objection to the support magistrate’s finding father did not willfully violate the support order. Proof that support payments were not made is prima facie proof of a willful violation requiring father to come forward with an explanation. Father offered no explanation:

Here, the father’s failure to satisfy his child support obligations constituted prima facie evidence of a willful violation … . This showing shifted the burden to the father to come forward with competent, credible evidence that his failure to pay support in accordance with the terms of the support order was not willful … . The father failed to satisfy this burden. There was no evidence that the father was financially unable to meet his child support obligations. Accordingly, the Family Court should have granted the mother’s objection to so much of the Support Magistrate’s order as determined that the father did not willfully violate the support order. Since the father’s violation of the support order was willful, the court was required to award an attorney’s fee to the mother … . Matter of Torres v Moran, 2016 NY Slip Op 06506, 2nd Dept 10-5-16

FAMILY LAW (FAILURE TO PAY SUPPORT IS PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF A WILLFUL VIOLATION OF A SUPPORT ORDER, FAMILY COURT REVERSED)/EVIDENCE (FAMILY LAW, FAILURE TO PAY SUPPORT IS PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF A WILLFUL VIOLATION OF A SUPPORT ORDER, FAMILY COURT REVERSED)/CHILD SUPPORT (FAILURE TO PAY SUPPORT IS PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF A WILLFUL VIOLATION OF A SUPPORT ORDER, FAMILY COURT REVERSED)