Court Opinion

ID: 9526157
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:13:20.006779+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:18:54.998479
License: Public Domain

Sievers, Judge,
concurring.
I write separately with respect to the matter of child support. How child support should be set when a noncustodial parent paying child support then remarries and has additional children is difficult. While I do not believe the result reached in the instant case is an abuse of discretion, this conclusion is not because I think the trial judge hit upon the “interdependent arithmetic” calculation referenced in this court’s earlier opinion Prochaska v. Prochaska, 6 Neb. App. 302, 308, 573 N.W.2d 777, 781 (1998).
The Prochaska opinion did not define or illustrate the “interdependent arithmetic” calculation referenced in that opinion. To the extent that the term “interdependent arithmetic” implies a precise mathematical formula which can be used in all of these cases, I believe our use of that term is confusing to lawyers and trial judges. Absent further guidance from the Supreme Court, perhaps via an amendment to the child support guidelines, I believe the appropriate language and rule is that the problems presented in such cases require an “interdependent consideration” by the trial court of the parent’s obligations to the children of his or her now dissolved marriage and the children resulting from a subsequent marriage so that both families are treated as *782fairly as possible. The more information the trial courts provide as to how they make such interdependent considerations, the better the parties will understand the matter, and the more effective will be our review of how the two competing obligations were handled by the trial court.
In the case at hand, study of the record shows that the trial court interdependently considered the competing obligations to the two families and arrived at a fair and equitable resolution. Thus, I find no abuse of discretion and agree that its decision should be affirmed.