Court Opinion

ID: 9577523
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:35:44.719183+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:20:44.480757
License: Public Domain

SANDSTROM, Justice,
concurring specially.
I agree this case must be reversed and remanded.
I would emphasize this case is under the Child Support Guidelines which became effective in 1991, and not the revised guidelines which became effective in 1995. In cases governed by the 1995 guidelines, courts will need to consider the rule changes, which are appropriately not considered in this ease.
I agree the relocation payments are income under N.D.Admin.Code § 75-02-04.1-01(5). The district court was required under N.D.Admin.Code § 75-02-04.1-02(3) to consider those relocation payments in determining the available funds for child support. The district court erred in not doing so.
The majority characterizes “bonuses, severance pay, capital gains, and gifts and prizes” as nonrecurrent payments. This classification is not found in the guidelines. Many of those payments may in fact be recurring.
N.D.Admin.Code § 75-02-04.1-02(7) provides: “Where gross income is subject to fluctuation ... information reflecting and covering a period of time sufficient to reveal the likely extent of fluctuations must be provided.” Under the 1991 guidelines, the district court should consider the likely extent of income fluctuations in determining the child support obligation.
The guidelines contemplate circumstances such as those in this ease, and provide the framework in which to handle them. Under N.D.C.C. § 14-09-09.7, the Department of Human Services adopts the Child Support Guidelines, and periodically the Department, not the judiciary, is to review, revise and, as appropriate, adopt additional guidelines. The judiciary should apply the guidelines, and the amount arrived at from that application is the rebuttably correct amount. N.D.C.C. § 14-09-09.7(3).