Notice: This opinion is subject to correction before publication in the PACIFIC REPORTER. 

Readers are requested to bring errors to the attention of the Clerk of the Appellate Courts, 

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THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ALASKA 

MELANIE YVETTE O’NEAL, 

Appellant, 

v. 

MELVIN CAMPBELL, 

Appellee. 

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) Supreme Court No. S-14702 

Superior Court No. 3AN-10-12448 CI

O P I N I O N 

No. 6778 – May 3, 2013 

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Appeal from the Superior Court of the State of Alaska, Third 

Judicial District, Anchorage, Mark Rindner, Judge. 

Appearances: Melanie O’Neal, pro se, Anchorage, Appellant. 

No appearance by Appellee. 

Before: Fabe, Chief Justice, Winfree, Stowers, Maassen, and 

Bolger, Justices. 

MAASSEN, Justice. 

I. INTRODUCTION 

A mother appeals pro se from a child support order. She claims that the 

superior court erred in requiring her to pay child support to a father who shared physical 

custody and also erred in refusing to allow a deduction for her direct support of two 

children from a prior relationship. We hold that the child support order was justified 

despite the shared custody, but we vacate the order and remand to the superior court for 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

consideration of the deduction that Alaska Civil Rule 90.3 allows for the mother’s direct 

support of her other children. 

II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS 

Melanie Yvette O’Neal and Melvin Campbell are the parents of a daughter. 

In December 2010 Campbell filed an action seeking joint legal custody and shared 

physical custody. Following a trial at which both parties appeared pro se, Superior Court 

Judge Mark Rindner granted the parents joint legal custody and set a schedule for shared 

physical custody. He issued a child support order in January 2012 and then a corrected 

order on March 8, 2012, which required O’Neal to pay child support of $240 a month. 

On March 23, 2012, O’Neal moved for reconsideration of the corrected 

child support order, explaining that in addition to having her daughter fifty percent of the 

time, she had two children from a prior relationship for whom she was the sole provider.1 

The superior court invited Campbell to be heard on the merits of O’Neal’s motion. 

Campbell’s only response was that his work hours and income had dropped even further 

since the court’s order. 

The superior court denied the motion for reconsideration in a written order. 

It noted that “[t]he March 8, 2012 Child Support Order already takes into account that 

custody is shared” and further found that “the fact that Ms. O’Neal has other children [is 

not] a sufficient reason to deviate from Civil Rule 90.3.” 

O’Neal appeals. 

1 O’Neal’s motion to reconsider was procedurally deficient in two respects: 

she failed to file it within the ten days allowed by Alaska Civil Rule 77(k) and it 

addresses claims that she had not previously raised. See, e.g., Dunn v. Dunn, 952 P.2d 

268, 271 n.2 (Alaska 1998). Judge Rindner, however, clearly considered and ruled on 

the merits of her motion, so we do the same here. 

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III.	 STANDARD OF REVIEW 

We “reverse child support awards only if the superior court abused its 

discretion or applied an incorrect legal standard.” 2 Abuse of discretion exists when, in 

our review, we develop “a definite and firm conviction based on the record as a whole 

that a mistake has been made.”3 The superior court’s findings on a parent’s income are 

reviewed for clear error. 4 “The proper method of calculating child support is a question 

of law, which we review de novo, adopting the rule of law that is most persuasive in light 

of precedent, reason, and policy.”5 

IV.	 DISCUSSION 

A.	 The Superior Court Did Not Abuse Its Discretion In Ordering Child 

Support Even Though The Parents Share Equal Physical Custody. 

O’Neal argues that since she and Campbell have equal physical custody, 

neither of them should be required to pay child support. Child support is based on both 

the parties’ relative percentages of physical custody and their relative adjusted incomes.6 

In this case, the superior court accounted for the parents’ equal physical custody but 

found that child support was nonetheless justified because of the disparity in their 

incomes. The record shows that O’Neal’s adjusted income is more than double 

2 Koeller v. Reft, 71 P.3d 800, 804 (Alaska 2003) (citing Beaudoin v. 

Beaudoin, 24 P.3d 523, 526 (Alaska 2001)). 

3 Id. (quoting Beaudoin, 24 P.3d at 526) (internal quotation marks omitted). 

4 Id. (citing Routh v. Andreassen, 19 P.3d 593, 595 (Alaska 2001)). 

5 Faulkner v. Goldfuss, 46 P.3d 993, 996 (Alaska 2002). 

6 Alaska R. Civ. P. 90.3(a), (b)(1). 

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Campbell’s.7 Given these facts, which are not challenged on appeal, there was no abuse 

of discretion in requiring O’Neal to pay child support. 

B.	 O’Neal Is Entitled To A Deduction For The Direct Support Of Her 

Two Children From A Prior Relationship. 

Alaska Civil Rule 90.3 allows deductions for “child support for children 

from prior relationships living with the parent.” 8 The commentary 9 to Rule 90.3 

provides: 

A deduction . . . is allowed for the support of the children of 

prior relationships even if the party is the custodial parent of 

the “prior” children and does not make child support 

payments to the other parent of the children. In this situation, 

support provided directly to the children is calculated by Rule 

90.3 as if the children from the prior relationship were the 

[ ] only children. 10

7 There are several variations to the parties’ calculations of adjusted income, 

but O’Neal’s submissions show her adjusted income to be more than two times 

Campbell’s even at the closest margin. 

8 Alaska R. Civ. P. 90.3(a)(1)(D); see also id. at (b)(1)(A) (providing that 

child support in a shared physical custody case should be based on calculations required 

by Alaska Civil Rule 90.3(a)(1)). 

9 “Although we have not adopted or approved the commentary [to Civil 

Rule 90.3], we often rely upon it for guidance in child support matters.” Faulkner, 46 

P.3d at 998 (quoting State, Child Support Enforcement Div. v. Bromley, 987 P.2d 183, 

194 (Alaska 1999)) (internal quotation marks omitted). 

10 Alaska R. Civ. P. 90.3 cmt. III.D. 

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This reflects a change to the original Civil Rule 90.3.11 We recently addressed the 

change in Gorton v. Mann, in which we observed that “subsection (D) allows a parent 

to deduct the amount necessary to raise and care for [prior children] who are living full 

time with the parent, even though no child support payment has been made.”12 

O’Neal’s request thus concerns an allowed deduction under the revised 

rule, not a deviation. It was error for the superior court to deny the request on grounds 

that O’Neal had failed to provide sufficient reason to deviate from the rule. O’Neal is 

entitled to a deduction for her direct support of children from a prior relationship, though 

the actual amount of the deduction may differ from the figure she proposed. On remand, 

the superior court should make the findings necessary to determine the amount of the 

required deduction and adjust the child support order accordingly. 

V. CONCLUSION 

We VACATE the child support order and REMAND the case to the 

superior court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. 

11 See Alaska Supreme Court Order No. 1192 (July 15, 1995), available at 

http://courts.alaska.gov/sco.htm#1175. Earlier versions of Rule 90.3 allowed no 

“explicit deduction” for direct support, although parents could receive credit for direct 

support through a section (c) deviation from the rule, available only “when necessary to 

avoid substantial hardship to the prior children.” Renfro v. Renfro, 848 P.2d 830, 832-33 

(Alaska 1993) (quoting earlier versions of Alaska R. Civ. P. 90.3(c) and Alaska R. Civ. 

P. 90.3 cmt. VI.B.3). 

281 P.3d 81, 83 (Alaska 2012). 

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