Susan Hoefler vs. Paul Hoefler

This appeal involves a dispute over a provision in a marital dissolution agreement in which the parties agreed to enroll their children in parochial school. The non-custodial parent declined to pay for the parties' younger child's private school expenses after the custodial parent unilaterally withdrew the child from parochial school and enrolled him in another private school. When the non-custodial parent filed a petition in the Circuit Court for Davidson County to terminate his child support because his younger child had reached the age of majority, the custodial parent insisted that he should reimburse her for nearly $23,800 in expenses she had incurred to send the child to private school. The trial court, relying on the terms of the marital dissolution agreement, declined to order the non-custodial parent to reimburse the custodial parent for these expenses. On this appeal, the custodial parent asserts that the non-custodial parent waived his opportunity to object to her choice of schools for the parties' son and should be estopped to deny his responsibility for these educational expenses. She also requests this court to grant a retroactive upward deviation from the child support the non-custodial spouse had been paying. We affirm the trial court.