Justice Jeffrey Sunshine
The court opined if silence on the issues of child support and maintenance in a pendente lite stipulation served as a waiver of retroactive support. Wife cross-moved for an order directing husband to pay child support and maintenance arrears for the period of May 11, 2012 to June 27, 2012. The court noted the parties’ pendente lite agreement for child support and maintenance was silent on the issue of retroactivity, but wife now sought such arrears. It also noted while the agreement was silent on the issue of retroactivity, wife did not waive her right to readdress these issues at a later date as she did not intentionally relinquish such known right by not addressing it on the record. Also, there was no written agreement that wife expressly waived her rights. The court noted the Court of Appeals in Dox v. Tyson rejected the notion of implied waiver of child support. Thus, in accordance with the parties’ agreement, husband was to pay temporary child support to wife of $4,100 monthly, and temporary maintenance of $8,500. Hence, the court concluded wife was entitled to retroactive support arrears from the date of service of the first application and ordered husband to pay arrears of $8,579.10, crediting him for partial payments previously made.
