Court Opinion

ID: 9884004
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:30:48.400013+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:34.323610
License: Public Domain

OPINION
LESLIE, Judge.
Appellant Steven Markes appeals from an amended judgment modifying the original dissolution decree and ordering him to pay respondent Lea Covington $120 per month in child support. We affirm.
FACTS
A judgment entered in February 1983 dissolved the parties’ marriage and awarded them joint legal and physical custody of their two children, aged 11 and 8. Under the original decree the parties alternate weekly physical custody of the children, paying the children’s expenses during the week they have custody. The original decree contains no order for child support. The decree divided the parties’ property by awarding respondent the homestead and a 1972 Plymouth, and appellant a 1971 Ford.
In February 1983 appellant was in his final year of pharmacy school. He earned an annual net income of approximately $11,000. By April 1984, the time of the district court hearing, appellant’s net annual income rose to approximately $20,000. His liabilities rose as well. In November 1983 he purchased a house so that he could live in the children’s school district. That purchase brought his housing costs to $1,088 per month. He also began making student loan payments of $130 per month.
In February 1983 respondent earned a net income of approximately $12,000 annually. Her income remained unchanged in April 1984. With $200 monthly mortgage payments on the parties’ former homestead, her monthly housing costs totaled approximately $310. The only substantial change in respondent’s financial condition resulted from her purchase of a 1983 Ford Escort, with payments of $140 per month plus added monthly insurance costs of $21.
ISSUE
Did the trial court abuse its discretion by modifying the original judgment and decree to obligate appellant to pay child support of $120 per month?
*694ANALYSIS
A motion for modification of child support should only be granted when a substantial change in circumstances has occurred. See Minn.Stat. § 518.64 (1982). A party seeking a change in the amount of support payments “must show that the support terms are unreasonable and unfair because either (a) the earnings of a parent have substantially increased or decreased, or (b) the need of a party has substantially increased or decreased; and the court shall further consider the needs of the children * * *." Heaton v. Heaton, 329 N.W.2d 553, 554 (Minn.1983) (emphasis deleted).
Appellant first argues that his increased income does not constitute a substantial change in circumstances because that increase was contemplated in the original dissolution decree. See Abbott v. Abbott, 282 N.W.2d 561, 564 (Minn.1979); Kleinhuizen v. Kleinhuizen, 354 N.W.2d 588, 590 (Minn.Ct.App.1984). Appellant refers to language in the original findings of fact stating that respondent will graduate in June 1983 and that his expected income will be $20,000 to $25,000 per year. While the findings show the court anticipated appellant’s income would rise, the decree does not show the trial court relied upon that increase when it ordered that neither party pay child support. The conclusions of law provide in part: “Based on the findings of the Court relative to the financial condition of the parties and relative to the property settlement of the parties including the benefit provided by the low principal and interest payments on the homestead, the Court hereby orders that neither party shall pay child support to the other party until there has been a substantial change in the circumstances of the parties or either of them.”
Appellant also contends that no substantial change in circumstances occurred and that the order requiring him to pay $120 per month in child support unfairly burdens him. Appellant points out that his net income after payment of housing expenses roughly equals respondent’s net income after housing expenses. Therefore requiring him to pay child support leaves him with about $240 per month less to support himself and provide for 50% of the children’s needs than respondent has to meet her needs and pay her share of the children’s expenses. Appellant claims that the trial court erred by relying in part upon respondent’s new car expenses when he too presented evidence that he needs to replace his 1971 automobile. According to appellant, the trial court further erred when it failed to consider his monthly student loan payments of $130.
A trial court’s determination of whether a change of circumstances has occurred involves use of its broad discretion. Bledsoe v. Bledsoe, 344 N.W.2d 892, 895 (Minn.Ct.App.1984). We will not disturb its decision absent a showing that it abused that discretion. Id.
Appellant demonstrates that he has considerably less expendable income under the modified order than respondent. He presents a solid case that he will bear a disparate portion of the parties’ child support burdens. Nonetheless his financial condition substantially results from his decision to purchase a home. While we approve of his motive, he chose to divert a substantial amount of his income into that investment and away from his disposable finances. Although the trial court may have erred by failing to give his need for a new car fair consideration and by failing to consider his student loan payments, those errors merely lessen the change brought about by appellant’s increased earnings. Considering the children’s needs, we can not conclude that imposition of a $120 per month in child support payments for two children constitutes an abuse of discretion when, as here, a party’s income nearly doubles.
DECISION
The trial court did not abuse its discretion by modifying the original dissolution decree to order appellant to pay $120 per month in child support.
Affirmed.
RANDALL, J., concurs specially.