Court Opinion

ID: 9647080
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:22:46.696361+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:45.294428
License: Public Domain

Justice, FLAHERTY,
dissenting.
I emphatically dissent. The support guidelines provide a starting point to calculate what child support should be paid in a given case. There is, as the majority states, a presumption that the guidelines are correct, but this presumption can always be rebutted by a presentation of facts in the case which suggest that the amount paid should be more or less than the guideline.
The guiding principle is that the absent parent should pay his or her fair share of what is required to support the children.
In many cases, that need is uncertain and so the guidelines are relied upon. In this case, the need is defined. The custodial parent, the mother, tells us, through submission of her monthly budget, that she requires $850 per month to support her family of five. Because only two of these five people are the non-custodial father’s responsibility to support, the trial court properly multiplied the required $850 by 40%, the percentage of the mother’s new family represented by the non-custodial father’s children. This calculation yields the amount of $340. Out of an abundance of caution, the court then increased that amount to $400 per month.
This calculation and reasoning process were entirely proper. The whole purpose of the guidelines and of support hearings generally is to determine what amount of money is needed to support the children and to require both parents to pay their fair share of that need. This is exactly what the trial court did.
Furthermore, the trial court properly explained its deviation from the guideline. As Rule 1910.16 — 4(b)(7) requires, the court must consider, inter alia, “standard of living of the *454parties and their children.” In basing its order on the monthly budget for the family as presented by the mother, the court appropriately considered the standard of living of the parties and their children.
The majority “finds” that subsection (7) of Rule 1910.16-4(b) cannot be used to justify a downward modification of the guideline. The justification for this remarkable determination is “the premises on which the guidelines are based.” Needless to say, this justification justifies nothing. By definition, a guideline must be able to be modified upwards or downwards, depending on the facts of the case.
Generally, I agree with the majority’s conclusion that “the purpose of the support guidelines is to make available for the children’s reasonable needs the full amount of the guideline figures unless unusual obligations of the obligor limit his or her ability to pay the guideline amount,” but this has no application where the parties tell us what amount is needed to support the children and that amount is different from the guideline.
The trial court is correct in reasoning that on the facts of this case, if the father were required to pay the guideline amount, he would, in effect, be subsidizing the mother’s new husband and child in addition to supporting his own children. Such a result defies rationality.
PAPADAKOS, J., joins this dissenting opinion.