Combined Parental Income

What is the significance in a divorce settlement agreement of the parents’ decision to apply the child support formula to all of the parents’ income in excess of the statutory “cap?” How will such an agreement affect a subsequent modification proceeding?

Such was the issue addressed in last week’s decision of the Appellate Division, Second Department, in Matter of Monaco v. Monaco, 2023 NY Slip Op 01091, 2023 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1093, 2023 WL 2290584 (2nd Dept. 2023).

The parties were married in 1996 and have three children. In 2013, the parties executed a stipulation of settlement that was incorporated but not merged into their judgment of divorce. The agreement fixed the father’s biweekly child support obligation at $1,618.02. In doing so, the parties had agreed to apply the 29% Child Support Standards Act (C.S.S.A.) statutory percentage to their total combined parental income of $185,980.

In September 2020, the father filed a petition seeking a downward modification and the mother filed a petition for an upward modification. By order dated December 3, 2021, Support Magistrate Darlene Jorif-Mangane granted the father’s petition. The Magistrate found that the parties’ combined parental income was $251,708.46 and exceeded the then statutory cap of $154,000.00. The father’s child support obligation on the combined parental income up to the statutory cap was the sum of $1,220.00 biweekly for 3 children, and $1,051.00 biweekly for 2 children [1 child having been emancipated prior to the hearing].Continue Reading The effect of divorce settlement agreements on child support modification proceedings

Calulator on 100s 6 redThe Third Department gave us insight into its analysis of child support awards in two recent decisions in which it increased those awards.

What to do when the parents’ combined income exceeds the Child Support Standards Act (C.S.S.A.) cap, now $141,000, appears to be, at the trial level, often county-, if not judge-dependent. Use by the lower courts around the state upon these decisions will vary, perhaps greatly.

In Petersen v. Petersen, decided February 26, 2015, the Third Department increased the divorce-action award of Albany Supreme Court Justice Eugene P. Devine (now, himself, sitting on the Third Department).

The parties had one child, born in 1999. After the parties separated and lived apart for several years, the husband commenced this divorce action based on the parties’ separation agreement. After finding that the child support provision of the separation agreement did not comply with the Child Support Standards Act, a trial was held to address, among other things, child support.

Justice Devine granted the divorce, incorporated the parties’ separation agreement except for the weekly child support provision, and ordered the husband to pay child support in the amount of $414 per week, declining to order child support on any income above the C.S.S.A. statutory cap, then $136,000 (and now $141,000). The wife appealed.Continue Reading Increasing Child Support On Appeal: Awards On Income Over The Cap

Considering the add-ons for private school, health care, child care, and extra-curricular activities, imposing a base child support obligation upon a father (the less-moneyed spouse) in excess of his pro rata share of the first $136,000 of combined parental income would be unjust and inappropriate. Such was the holding of Acting Supreme Court Kings County Justice Debra Silber in her August 12, 2013 decision in A.C. v. J.O.

That ruling, at first blush, would appear to be at odds with the Second Department’s August 14, 2013 decision in  Beroza v. Hendler, the subject of Monday’s blog post. There, the appellate court held it was improper for the trial court to have limited the base child support obligation of the father (the less moneyed spouse) to less than his pro rata share of the first $400,000 in combined parental income.

Any comparison, however, must be clouded by the vast number of factors that Justice Silber considered when deciding all of the issues incident to the parties’ divorce.

In A.C. v. J.O., at the time of the commencement of the divorce action in May, 2011, the parties had been married for almost 13 years. They had two children, a daughter now 12 and a son now 10. The parties were still living together. The wife, 52 years old, had her own dental practice, with income stipulated to be $251, 395. The husband, 47, worked as a first assistant director, primarily for television. He also wrote screenplays and recently made a full length film, which he both wrote and directed. The husband’s income was stipulated to be $171,706.

In a lengthy opinion, Justice Silber awarded the mother both physical and legal (decision-making) custody of the two children. Although both parents could handle parenting responsibilities alone, joint custody was not appropriate as the parents’ “cannot easily agree upon anything.” Justice Silber provided a detailed plan for the father’s “parental access” and consultation on major decisions.Continue Reading No Child Support Awarded Upon Combined Parental Income in Excess of $136,000 Statutory Cap

Two published decisions last week ruled on the whether to award child support upon combined parental income in excess of the base child support amount. In the first, the Second Department in Beroza v. Hendler, found it was an improvident exercise of discretion for the trial court to have capped the parties’ combined parental income at $255,000.00. On appeal, the Second Department increased the cap to $400,000.00 and awarded the mother the father’s pro rata portion of that capped amount.

In the second case, A.C. v. J.O. (to be the subject of Wednesday’s blog post), Acting Kings County Supreme Court Justice Debra Silber, determined that although the parents had net combined parental income of $423,100.00, the father’s child support obligation would be limited to his pro rata share of the $136,000.00 cap.

In Beroza, the father had commenced this divorce action in 2001 after 11 years of marriage. At that time the oldest of the parties’ three children was 4½ years old and their twins were 18 months old. The parties were both educated professionals. The father was a veterinarian with a private practice devoted to horses and a related horse-boarding business and the mother was a partner in a group anesthesiology practice. Both parties worked throughout the marriage. the family enjoyed an affluent lifestyle in Laurel Hollow.

Underlying the parties’ 2008 divorce judgment, Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Ira Warshawsky imputed gross annual income to the father of $259,100.00. The father’s base annual child support obligation was fixed at as 29% of $200,000.00, or $4,833.33 monthly.

On the husband’s appeal from the 2008 judgment, the Second Department agreed with amount of the father’s imputed annual gross income, but remitted the matter to the Supreme Court because it had failed to properly set forth the parties’ pro rata shares of child support. Additionally, the lower court failed to adequately explain its application of the “precisely articulated, three-step method for determining child support’” pursuant to the Child Support Standards Act (Beroza v Hendler, 71 AD3d 615, 617, 896 N.Y.S.2d 144 [2010]).

On remittitur, Justice Warshawsky re-determined the parties’ respective annual net C.S.S.A. incomes to be $248,721.00 for the father and $487,693.00 for the mother, for net combined parental income of $736,414.00. However, for the purpose of determining the plaintiff’s child support obligation, the court capped combined parental income at $255,000.00.

Justice Warshawsky found that $255,000.00 adequately reflected a support level that met the needs and continuation of the children’s lifestyle, as dictated by the past spending practices of the parties. Justice Warshawsky applied the 29% statutory percentage to combined parental income capped at $255,000.00 ($73,950.00 total support obligation), and the calculated that the husband’s 33.7% pro rata support obligation at $24,921.00, annually, or $2,076.75, monthly.

The Second Department modified. Although he had articulated his analysis pursuant to the three-step method for determining child support embodied in the C.S.S.A. guidelines, Justice Warshawsky, the appellate court held, improvidently exercised his discretion in capping the parties’ combined parental income at $255,000.00.Continue Reading $400,000 Combined Parental Income Cap Imposed by Second Department when Determining Father’s Child Support Obligation