Court Opinion

ID: 9716059
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:24:37.541358+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:41.078275
License: Public Domain

BAKER, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur with the majority opinion as to parts I, II, and III But I must dissent from the majority's determinations that the trial court properly ordered Husband to pay an unfettered amount of the children's college expenses, that Husband is not entitled to the dependent tax exemptions, and that the trial court's order that Husband return Wife's property is not supported by the evidence.
I. College Expenses
The commentary to Ind. Child Support Guideline 6 addresses educational support and provided the following at the time of Husband's petition and the hearing: 4
Extraordinary educational expenses may be for elementary, secondary or post-secondary education, and should be limited to reasonable and necessary expenses for attending private or special schools, institutions of higher learning, and trade, business or technical schools to meet the particular educational needs of the child.
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*181b. Post-Secondary Education. The authority of the Court to award post-secondary educational expenses is derived from IC 81-16-62. It is discretionary with the court to award post-secondary educational expenses and in what amount. In making such a decision, the court should consider post-secondary education to be a group effort, and weigh the ability of each parent to contribute to payment of the expense, as well as the ability of the student to pay a portion of the expense.
If the Court determines that an award of post-secondary educational expenses is appropriate, it should apportion the expenses between the parents and the child, taking into consideration scholarships, grants, student loans, summer and school year employment and other cost-reducing programs available to the student. These sources of assistance should be credited to the child's share of the educational expense.
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The court may limit consideration of college expenses to the cost of state supported colleges and universities or otherwise may require that the income level of the family and the achievement level of the child be sufficient to justify the expense of private school.
Child Supp. G. 6, commentary (emphasis added). Thus, the Guidelines make it clear that educational expenses are to be a collaborative effort on the part of the child and both parents. Based on the clear wording of the Commentary, the mere fact that Husband earns more money than Wife-no matter how great the disparity-does not relieve her and the children of their responsibility to contribute toward the education of the children. See McMaster v. McMaster, 681 N.E.2d 744, 747 (Ind.Ct.App.1997) (finding that ten percent difference of income supports a "modest contribution" by Mother to child's college expenses rather than requiring Father to pay all of the expenses).
Furthermore, it seems to me to be beyond what is reasonable and necessary to require Husband to pay any amount that the children may incur in their education. As a panel of this court recently noted in Snow v. Rincker, 823 N.E.2d 1284 (Ind.Ct.App.2005), trans. denied, a trial court may not plunge a parent into poverty with an order for higher education expenses. By placing no limitations on the amount that Husband is responsible for with regard to his children's higher education expenses, it is entirely possible that he too could be plunged into poverty, in spite of his relatively high income. For example, the cost of attendance at Harvard for the 2005-2006 academic year is between $44,350 and $46,750. See Harvard College Financial Aid Office at http://wwwfao. fas.har-vard .edu/eost.htm (last visited October 11, 2005). If this cost remains static, putting three children through four years of education at Harvard would cost Husband $561,000-twice Husband's current annual income. The situation only worsens if any of the children attend graduate school. Thus, the lack of limitations on the order for Husband to pay 100% of the college expenses appears to me to be unreasonable. I would therefore reverse on this basis.
II. Dependent Tax Exemption
As the majority stated, the Child Support Guidelines recommend that when determining who is to be given the dependent tax exemption, the trial court should consider at least these five factors:
(1) the value of the exemption at the marginal tax rate of each parent;
(2) the income of each parent;
*182(3) the age of the child(ren) and how long the exemption will be available;
(4) the percentage of the cost of supporting the child(ren) borne by each parent; and
(5) the financial burden assumed by each parent under the property settlement in the case.
The majority essentially finds that the trial court properly awarded the exemption to Wife because Husband did not provide us with a calculation and precise outcome as to the first factor. But it is apparent to me that this tax exemption is worth significantly more to someone who earns $280,000 per year than to someone who earns $20,800 per year. By giving the exemption to Husband, the trial court would have made more funds available to him with which he could support his children. The exemption will be available for many years to come, as the youngest child is currently eight years old. Furthermore, Husband bears a significant percentage of the cost of supporting the children as well as a significant portion of the marital debt. As such, I would find that it was improper for the trial court to award the dependent tax exemption to Wife.
III. Wife's Personal Property
As to the issue of the return of Wife's personal property, I believe that it is possible to read Paragraphs 48 and 49 in harmony. Paragraph 48 describes the common scenario in a divoree-one spouse leaves the house without taking all of her personal belongings with her immediately. The remaining spouse does not necessarily take possession of that property by virtue of the other spouse leaving. As such, it is neither person's property. But in this case, Husband is to give to Wife certain items of personal property that she left behind if he possesses them. If he no longer possesses them, he cannot be held in contempt because he did not divest himself of property that rightfully belonged to Wife before the issuance of this order. The property no longer belonged to anyone, but the trial court ordered it to be given to Wife if it still exists. Based on this reading of the trial court's order, I would affirm on this issue.

. The commentary to Ind. Child Support Guideline 6 was amended on Sept. 10, 2003, effective Jan. 1, 2004. No substantive changes were made to the relevant portions of the commentary.