Court Opinion

ID: 9819235
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 06:20:41.301036+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:38:29.605052
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE GALLAGHER, dissenting: I agree with the majority’s disposition of the child support issue. I respectfully dissent from the majority’s treatment of the maintenance issue. After a hearing, the trial court reduced the maintenance amount from $2,500 per month to $1,200 and extended the maintenance payments for two years. The court made a specific finding that some form of maintenance would be continued since the respondent was taking care of two minor children. Moreover, the maintenance amount would, be reviewable in two years. It is difficult to perceive an abuse of discretion in that ruling. A trial court’s determination of maintenance is entitled to great deference. A maintenance award will not be set aside unless it is an abuse of discretion or against the manifest weight of the evidence. In re Marriage of Ward, 267 Ill. App. 3d 35, 41 (1994). An abuse of discretion occurs only when no reasonable person could find as the court did. Szesny v. Szesny, 197 Ill. App. 3d 966, 971 (1990). An appellate court must not substitute the trial court’s discretion with its own. In re Marriage of Partyka, 158 Ill. App. 3d 545, 550 (1987). In fact, in Ward, relied upon by the majority, this court found that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in setting a maintenance award based on the parties’ education and income. Here the majority is finding that respondent should not receive a two-year reduced maintenance award because she has not made, in the majority’s view, sufficient progress toward financial independence. The majority’s finding, however, puts trial judges in a very untenable position. The majority does not allow for the considerable latitude that is placed with the trial court. The effect of the majority’s decision is that unless a trial judge reaches precisely the same conclusion as the majority, and terminates maintenance completely, there is an abuse of discretion. Trial judges receive no guidance from such a ruling as to when their discretion may be used to reach a fair compromise by balancing all interests. The decision today calls for a black and white determination in the gray area of discretionary calls. The truth is, moreover, that the conclusion reached by the trial court in this case is eminently reasonable and fair and takes into account the two minor children living at home and what is in their best interest. The trial court balanced the various interests and made intelligent findings based on the evidence. Therefore, there was no abuse of discretion. I would affirm the trial court’s judgment in its entirety.