Marriage of Saraye

INTRODUCTION

Lois and David divorced in 1992.1 As part of the divorce judgment, David was to pay Lois child support. In 2001, the child support obligation legally terminated, but a wage and earnings assignment order remained in place and continued to garnish David’s wages to pay the child support obligation to Lois until 2008. Thirteen years later, in 2021, David filed a request for order to determine overpayment of child support and receive a refund thereof. Lois opposed the request. The trial court found David did not take timely action to seek reimbursement of the overpayment of child support and that the reasons given for the delay in seeking reimbursement were insufficient to overcome the prejudice to Lois. The trial court denied David’s request. On appeal, David requests that we reverse the trial court’s order. He argues the trial court erred because reimbursement of overpayment of child support is mandatory pursuant to Family Code section 4007. David also argues the defense of laches does not apply to a request for reimbursement of child support overpayment. We find the defense of laches does not apply here because Lois has unclean hands. We affirm on other grounds,…