John and Susan were married
with two kids in Pennsylvania. Then they got a divorce. As part of the
divorce settlement, Susan got primary physical custody of the kids, and
John had to pay child support.
Two years later, Susan took
the kids and moved to New Hampshire. John continued to pay child
support.
Susan decided that because of
her daughter's behavioral problems she needed to be enrolled in a special
(expensive) private school.
Both John and Susan
submitted financial forms to the school, but did not receive any
financial aid.
Susan paid for the first
year's tuition, but asked John to help with the next year's. He refused.
Susan went to court in New Hampshire and asked them to order John to pay
(aka a modification of the child support order).
Susan argued that there had
been a material change in circumstances because of increased need of the child.
The Trial Court found that
John did not have the ability to pay. Susan appealed.
Susan argued that John's
income was higher than he said it was because he had failed to include
his new wife's income in his financial statement.
The Appellate Court reversed
and ordered John to pay $8k. He appealed.
The Appellate Court
recalculated John's income and found he did have the ability to pay.
The New Hampshire Supreme
Court reversed and remanded.
The New Hampshire Supreme
Court looked to New Hampshire law (RSA 458-C:5) and found that a non-custodial parent is not
required to pay extra child support for a private school
education unless there are 'special circumstances'.
Basically, public school is
free, so unless there is a good reason, New Hampshire finds that private
schools are an unnecessary luxury.
In this case, the Court
remanded to the Trial Court to determine if the daughter's behavioral
problems were enough to warrant 'special circumstances'.
The Court found that a new
spouse's income is not to be
considered when determining child support payments (except for a few exceptions).
However, this wasn't a situation in which child support was being calculated. This was a situation
where the Court was deciding if there were 'special circumstances' that
justified a deviation from the child support guidelines.
...and that included both
a determination of whether the child needed the school as well as a
finding that the non-custodial parent had 'an ability to pay'.
So basically, while the
new spouse's income could not be considered to determine general child
support, it could be considered
when determining if the court should deviate from their guidelines due
to special circumstances.
