Court Opinion

ID: 9785519
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 22:07:36.2293+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:09.976886
License: Public Domain

Judge TAUBMAN
specially concurring.
I write separately to reiterate the view expressed in my special concurring opinion in In re Marriage of Zisch, 967 P.2d 199, 204 (Colo.App.1998), that a large one-time receipt of income should be considered as income only in the month in which it was received, and thereafter as a financial resource. Because I believe the trial court would have reached the same result under the analysis which I believe is correct, I concur with the result reached by the majority.
Fisch involved a one-time receipt of a large capital gain. The majority in that opinion expressed the view that the gross amount of such capital gain should be considered as income for the year in which the capital gain was received. That was the approach used by the trial court here. The trial court averaged father's gross $1.2 million lottery winnings over the entire year of 1998, even though such lottery winnings were not received until April, and mother's motion to modify child support was not filed until April as well. Consequently, the trial court attributed more than $300,000 of father's lottery winnings to the months of January, February, and March, and therefore, did not consider such amount in any way with respect to mother's motion to modify child support.
For the reasons set forth in my special concurring opinion in In re Marriage of Zisch, I believe that this approach was incorrect. As I indicated there, nothing in the child support statute, $ 14-10-115, C.R.S. 1999, specifies how a large, one-time receipt of income should be treated. In Fisch, I noted that anomalous results would follow from spreading out a large capital gain received in November over a two-month period, as opposed to spreading out a capital gain of the same amount received earlier in the year over a greater number of months.
*543Here, the trial court's approach was not one which I had envisioned when I wrote my special concurring opinion. However, as noted above, the disadvantage of the trial court's approach here was that it did not consider over $300,000 of father's lottery winnings, which the trial court had allocated to the months of January, February, and March.
Indeed, the effect of the trial court's approach would have been even more arbitrary had father received his lottery winnings in November. In that event, the trial court would have apportioned father's winnings over the entire year, but would have considered as income only approximately $200,000 attributed to November and December. Under such an approach, more than one million dollars of father's lottery winnings would not have been considered as income.
In contrast, my view is that father's lottery winnings should have been considered as income only for the month of April 1998. In subsequent months, the unspent amount of his lottery winnings would be considered a "substantial and continuing changed cireum-stance" pursuant to § 14-10-122(1)(a), C.R.S. 1999. As new wealth, the unspent portion of father's lottery winnings, beginning in May 1998, would have provided a basis for deviating from the child support guidelines under § 14-10-115@8)(a), C.R.S.1999. Further, I believe that beginning in May 1998, the trial court should have begun to compute a reasonable amount of investment income which father's unspent lottery winnings could reasonably be expected to generate. Beginning in May, such income also should have been used to determine an appropriate amount of child support.
Finally, I continue to urge that either the Colorado Child Support Commission or the General Assembly address the issue of how large, one-time receipts of income should be considered for purposes of child support modification and whether such amounts should be treated as income, assets, or both.
Because it is likely that the application of my approach would have led to the same result in the determination of father's child support obligation for 1998, I concur with the result reached by the majority.