Justia Alaska Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Richard and Olga Villars were married in Ukraine in 2004. Richard (a U.S. citizen), signed a Form I-864 affidavit of support in which he agreed to maintain Olga and her daughter, Linda, at 125% of the applicable federal poverty rate. Olga and Linda came to Alaska, and Richard and Olga later divorced. For several years Richard and Olga litigated Richard’s I-864 support obligation. After a previous appeal by Olga regarding Richard’s obligation for the first eleven months of 2010, the Alaska Supreme Court remanded the case to the superior court to resolve Richard’s obligation for that period, which was no longer at issue. The parties have continued to dispute Richard’s I-864 obligations for 2009, December 2010, and all of 2011, 2012, and 2013. Following a series of hearings and orders in the superior court relating to these years, Richard filed this appeal, alleging a variety of errors by the superior court regarding its calculations of his obligations and potential offsets against those obligations. Because the superior court properly rejected Richard’s attempt to relitigate issues resolved in earlier proceedings, the Supreme Court affirmed the superior court’s orders rejecting those claims. The case was remanded for further factual findings. View "Villars v. Villars" on Justia Law