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

A court may order that life insurance be maintained to secure the payment of child or spousal support or the payout of a distributive award. It is not to be an award in an of itself. Its purpose is not to create an additional fund on the death of a party, but rather to secure that support and property payments contemplated by the divorce decree will be made, even on death.

Thus, in its June 20, 2014 decision in Marfone v. Marfone, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, modified the judgment of Oneida County Acting Supreme Court Justice Joan E. Shkane to reduce the required life insurance from $500,000.

We agree with defendant, however, that the amount of life insurance the court required defendant to maintain with respect to his child support obligations is excessive, and we therefore modify the amended judgment by reducing the amount of that life insurance from $500,000 to $300,000.

Domestic Relations Law §236B(8)(a) authorizes the use of life insurance to secure the divorce payments:

8. Special relief in matrimonial actions.
a. In any matrimonial action . . . the court may also order a party to purchase, maintain or assign a policy of . . . on the life of either spouse, and to designate in the case of life insurance, either spouse or children of the marriage . . . as irrevocable beneficiaries during a period of time fixed by the court. The obligation to provide such insurance shall cease upon the termination of the spouse’s duty to provide maintenance, child support or a distributive award.

Thus, insurance can be ordered to be maintained on the life of either party, to be owned by either party, naming either spouse or the children as irrevocable beneficiaries for a period no longer than the divorce decree payments.Continue Reading The Divorce Life Insurance Trust