Support Magistrate Darlene Jorif-Mangane

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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

In its June, 2019 decision in English v. Smith, the Second Department reminds to properly memorialize any agreed-upon understandings or changes to a divorce settlement agreement.

The parties’ Separation Agreement was incorporated but not merged into their 2015 judgment of divorce. The father was to pay the mother child support. In addition, the parents would share equally in the costs of their child’s undergraduate and graduate education, extracurricular activities, and uncovered medical, dental, orthodontic, eye care, and mental health treatment.

The agreement also provided that neither the agreement nor any provisions thereof could be modified or waived except by a writing “duly subscribed and acknowledged by both parties with the same formality as” the separation agreement itself.

The parties’ child began attending University College in Dublin, Ireland, on a full tuition scholarship in 2015. The father stopped making child support payments to the mother in May 2015. The father contended that the parties had agreed that they would equally share in paying the child’s living expenses in lieu of the father paying child support to the mother.Continue Reading Modifying Support? Do it Right. Claimed Off-Sets Denied