Summary
The Georgia Supreme Court reviewed a divorce judgment involving child support, allocation of marital debt, and a parenting plan. The court held that the trial court erred by failing to make mandatory written findings supporting a child-support deviation, using an incorrect weekly-to-monthly conversion factor for child-care expenses, and failing to specify when weekend visitation began and ended. The judgment was affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with direction.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the trial court properly calculated Husband's gross monthly income for child-support purposes, including whether it properly excluded career sea pay.
- Whether the trial court's child-support deviation complied with the mandatory written-findings requirements of OCGA § 19-6-15.
- Whether the trial court used the correct conversion factor for Wife's weekly work-related child-care expenses.
- Whether credits for health-insurance expenses and allocation of uninsured medical expenses constituted deviations requiring written findings.
- Whether Wife preserved a challenge to the failure to order a child-support deviation based on her student-loan debt and whether the trial court abused its discretion in allocating that debt.
- Whether the parenting plan complied with OCGA § 19-9-1 by specifying when weekend visitation begins and ends.
Holdings
- The trial court did not clearly err in attributing Husband gross monthly income of $5,491.04 because his testimony and earnings statement supplied sufficient evidence, and the court properly excluded career sea pay under OCGA § 19-6-15(f)(1)(E) in light of the evidence that it was incentive pay that would cease after his transfer.
- A trial court that orders a child-support deviation must make the mandatory written findings required by OCGA §§ 19-6-15(c)(2)(E) and (i)(1)(B). Because the trial court failed to make those findings for the $75 visitation-related travel-expense deviation, the decree had to be reversed in part and remanded.
- The trial court erred by using a 4.3-week conversion factor instead of the 4.35 factor required by Uniform Superior Court Rule 24.2A, and the decree had to be reversed in part and remanded for recalculation of child support.
- The trial court's credit to Husband for health-insurance expenses and its allocation of uninsured medical expenses were not child-support deviations requiring the written findings applicable to deviations. The allocation of uninsured expenses was not an abuse of discretion.
- Wife waived her argument that the trial court should have ordered a child-support deviation based on her student-loan debt because she did not request that deviation below. The trial court did not abuse its broad discretion in assigning Wife responsibility for the loan while awarding her 20 percent of Husband's military retirement.
- A parenting plan must specify when weekend visitation begins and ends under OCGA § 19-9-1(b)(2)(A). Because the plan did not do so, the decree was reversed in part and remanded for the trial court to supply the applicable day and time.
Key quotations
“The written findings described in these sections are mandatory” (764)
“We therefore reverse the trial court’s order to the extent it incorporates the incomplete weekend visitation provisions of the parenting plan and remand to the trial court to supply the day and time weekend visitation begins and ends.” (767)
Factual background
The parties were married for more than seven years and had two children. Husband was employed by the United States Navy and received compensation that included career sea pay; he expected to transfer to Connecticut, where his sea pay and possibly his housing allowance would change. Wife had incurred a student loan after using its proceeds for child-care and household expenses, and the trial court assigned her responsibility for that debt while awarding her 20 percent of Husband's military retirement. The trial court also adopted a parenting plan that did not specify when Husband's weekend visitation began and ended.
Procedural history
Following a bench trial, the trial court entered a divorce decree granting joint legal custody, primary physical custody to Wife, child support of $1,379 per month, allocation of Wife's student-loan responsibility, and a parenting plan. The Supreme Court of Georgia granted Wife's application for discretionary review, affirmed portions of the decree, reversed portions concerning child-support calculations and the parenting plan, and remanded with direction.
Remand instructions
Remand for entry of a final judgment and decree containing the mandatory written findings supporting the child-support deviation, application of the 4.35-week monthly conversion factor for child-care expenses, and specification of the day and time Husband's weekend visitation begins and ends.