Court Opinion

ID: 9736486
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:58:08.23509+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:06.996371
License: Public Domain

SULLIVAN, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
The majority appropriately holds that the trial court erred in including Father's early withdrawal of his 401(k) account in calculating his weekly income for child support purposes. I further agree that the trial court erred in determining that Father was voluntarily underemployed and thereby imputing potential income to him for child support calculation purposes. I further agree that the majority reasonably analyzes Father's income situation and has, with cause, determined that Father is, or soon will be, in a better income situation than he would have been had he continued to earn wages as a pressman at Holden Graphics and upon which wages the $825 per week support order was based.
These factors do not, however, lead to the majority's determination to affirm the trial court's order upon grounds that if the trial court had correctly assessed the evidence in light of applicable law it would have automatically and necessarily entered the identical ruling. To the contrary, I believe it is incumbent upon us to reverse and remand the matter for reconsideration of the evidence without regard to the 401(k) withdrawal and without regard to the perceived underemployment and to then apply the Child Support Guidelines accordingly. Only after the trial court has been permitted to do its fact-finding job and has entered an order accordingly, should the matter be subject to appellate scrutiny. We should not affirm an anticipated denial of Father's modification petition before that denial is entered.
I otherwise concur in the holdings of the majority.