The ex-wife filed a complaint against her ex-husband’s employer. She alleged that it knowingly failed to withhold money owed for child support and maintenance payments from his wages on 15 pay periods.
The trial court assessed statutory penalties against the employer, in the amount of $66,700. Employer appeals. Employer argues that no penalties should have been assessed because there was no proper service of the Notice to Withhold. Therefore, the employer argues, no section 35(a) penalties can be imposed.
On cross-appeal, ex-wife argues the trial court erred in calculating the penalties assessed against the employer. She argues that the penalties imposed should have been $150,000.
The Appellate Court sent the case back to the trial court. This court said that there was sufficient proof that the employer was served with a Notice to Withhold. The employer knew that it would have to withhold income as support payments.
The $100-per-day penalty is limited to the days that the ex-wife did not receive support payment after a 7-day grace period expired. The penalty would not apply where the ex-wife received payments directly from her ex-husband.
In re Marriage of Schmidgall, 2018 IL App (3d) 170189 (September 11, 2018).
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