Hall v. Hall
Hall v. Hall
Opinion of the Court
This cause is before us on Former Wife’s appeal from a final judgment of dissolution of marriage, in which the trial court granted primary residential custody of the parties’ three children to Former Wife and ordered Former Husband to pay child support.
Former Wife argues that in calculating Former Husband’s child support obligation under section 61.30, Florida Statutes (Florida’s child support guidelines), the trial court erred by excluding from her gross income certain social security benefits received on behalf of the parties’ eldest child, due to that child’s psychiatric condition. The exclusion of these benefits, Former Wife argues, resulted in a lower combined net income for the parties, and an accordingly lower child support obligation under the guidelines. See § 61.30(5) & (6), Fla. Stat. (“Net income for the obligor and net income for the obligee shall be added together for a combined net income ... [and the child support schedules] shall be applied to the combined net income to determine the minimum child support need.”). Thus, Former Wife argues, Former Husband’s child support obligation would have ultimately been higher if the trial court had not excluded the social security benefits from its calculation of her gross income.
While section 61.30(2)(a)(8), Florida Statutes, provides that “[g]ross income shall include ... [s]ocial security benefits,” nothing in that section suggests that it extends to social security benefits received on behalf of a child (as opposed to on behalf of the parent whose gross income is at issue).
However, the trial court further held that due to her receipt of the social security
We therefore affirm the trial court’s exclusion from its calculation of Former Wife’s gross income the social security benefits she receives on behalf of the parties’ eldest child, but reverse the trial court’s complete exclusion of the eldest child in its application of the child support guidelines.
AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART; AND REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS.
. Williams v. Williams, 560 So.2d 308 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990), upon which Former Wife relies, is thereby distinguishable, as it involved children receiving ’social security benefits arising from their father's disability, not their own disabilities. The court in Williams, 560 So.2d at 310, held:
[T]he trial court erred in not including the [husband’s] social security benefits received by the children when calculating the husband’s contribution to the combined family gross income. Section 61.30(2)(a)8 specifically directs that, “Gross income shall include ... social security benefits.”
In cases such as this, a parent's [as opposed to a child’s] social security payments made directly for the support of children ... should be credited against that parent's child support obligations.
This holding neither informs nor controls the present case.
. We affirm without comment all other issues raised on appeal.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Mary L. HALL, Former Wife v. Columbus E. HALL, Former Husband
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published