Opinion ID: 1247879
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Student Loan Payments

Text: Paragraph E of the Guidelines provides a specific list of deductions from income that may be subtracted in calculating child support. Student loan payments are not specifically provided for in that list of deductions. Under the Guidelines, a deviation is permissible whenever application of the Guidelines in an individual case would be unjust or inappropriate. Guidelines, paragraph C(5). Deviations from the Guidelines also must take into account the best interests of the child. Brooks v. Brooks, 261 Neb. 289, 622 N.W.2d 670 (2001). In Sears v. Larson, 259 Neb. 760, 612 N.W.2d 474 (2000), we determined that a trial court may, in appropriate cases, deviate from the Guidelines to allow a deduction from income based on a parent's student loan payment. In order to do so, however, we held that it is the moving party's burden to prove that an application of the Guidelines without a deviation based on his or her student loan obligation would produce an unjust result. Id. In Sears, we found that the moving party had failed to meet such burden. We noted that there was nothing in the record regarding the amount of the loans, the terms of the loans, the amount attributable to principal and interest, and the amount of the loans that were used for education, child support, or other expenditures. Id. Therefore, we concluded that because the moving party had not proved that the district court should have deviated from the Guidelines by considering the loans, the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to consider the loan obligations in computing child support. In the instant case, the district court did permit a deviation from the Guidelines by including the father's student loan payments as a deduction from income. The only evidence at the modification hearing relating to student loans was the amount of the monthly payment and the fact that the debt was incurred during the Noonans' marriage. Aside from the fact that the father's student loan payments were not allowed as deductions in the original proceedings, we note that there is nothing in the record to indicate the total amount of the father's loans, the terms of the loans, the amounts attributable to principal and interest, or what amounts were used for education, child support, or other expenses. There is also no evidence that reveals whether the loan terms allow the father to reduce the size of the monthly payment. It was the father's burden to prove that an application of the Guidelines without a deviation based on his student loan obligation would produce an unjust result. Id. We find that the father failed to meet this burden and that therefore, the district court abused its discretion by including the father's student loan obligation as a deduction in calculating child support. However, our conclusion in Sears v. Larson, supra , remains intacti.e., paragraph C(5) of the Guidelines allows a trial court in an appropriate case to deviate from the Guidelines to allow a deduction from income based on a parent's student loan payment. Deviation was not appropriate in the case at bar because the father failed to meet his burden of proof.