In a February 13, 2013 decision. the Second Department in Braun v. Abenanti directed a father to pay his child’s orthodontist directly and also directed that the mother’s petition for an upward modification of child support be granted.

Doing so, the Second Department reversed Family Court, Suffolk County Judge Richard Hoffmann, who in turn had denied the mother’s objections to an order of Support Magistrate Isabel Buse. The Magistrate’s order, after a hearing, granted the mother’s petition to enforce a 2001 support order only to the extent of directing the father to reimburse the mother the $20 she had paid to the orthodontist. Magistrate Buse also denied the mother’s petition for an upward modification of that decade-old support order.

As for the orthodontia, the 2001 order directed the father to pay 100% of “future reasonable health care expenses not covered by insurance.” The child had orthodontia expenses of $1,329 that were not covered by insurance, of which the mother could only afford to pay $20.

The Second Department acknowledged that as the mother demonstrated that she paid $20 of the child’s unreimbursed orthodontia expenses, the Family Court’s award of only $20 to the mother was properly limited to “those sums for which the mother submitted proof of actual payment to the third-party medical providers.”Continue Reading Father Directed to Pay Orthodontist Directly; and Mother Entitled to Upward Modification