FRANTISEK HORAK, APPELLANT,
v.
DANICA HORAKOVA, APPELLEE
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In this modification of a dissolution decree, the trial court eliminated alimony but denied a reduction in child support without making explicit findings about imputed income to either party. The appellate court reversed and remanded because it cannot review whether the modified child support complies with statutory guidelines without clear factual findings regarding each party's income.
The court reversed and remanded because the trial court must make explicit factual findings regarding the income imputed to both parties in modification proceedings. Without such findings, the appellate court cannot determine whether the modified support amount complies with statutory guidelines or whether a substantial change in circumstance actually justified the modifications.
[1] A trial court must make explicit findings on the net income attributable to each party when modifying child support obligations.
[2] Appellate courts require factual findings regarding the probable and potential earnings level, source of income, and adjustments to income to review child support modific…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“without the benefit of explicit findings on net income attributable to the husband and the wife, we are unable to determine if the amount of modified support is within the guidelines or substantially exceeds the guidelines”
Establishes the core requirement that trial courts must make explicit factual findings regarding imputed income in modification proceedings for appellate review to be possible.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe husband petitioned to modify the final judgment of dissolution. The trial court denied his request to reduce child support but eliminated his alim…
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WARNER, Judge.
When the trial court considered the husband’s petition for modification of the final judgment of dissolution, the court denied the request to reduce the child support obligation but then eliminated the alimony award. The trial court found that income should be imputed to both parties but did not determine the amount of income attributable to each party. Thus, the court must have found some substantial change in circumstance to justify the modification of at least the alimony provision, which is not contested by cross-appeal.
Our problem in reviewing the trial court’s order is the same as the one we experienced in Jones v. Jones, 636 So. 2d 867 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994):
[wjithout the benefit of explicit findings on net income attributable to the husband and the wife, we are unable to determine if the amount of modified support is within the guidelines or substantially exceeds the guidelines. It may be that the trial court imputed additional income to the former husband, but factual findings as to the probable and potential earnings level, source of imputed and actual income and adjustments to income must also be set forth. This requirement is equally important in modification proceedings as in the initial proceeding, especially where the amount of each parties’ income was never established at the time of the original dissolution as in this case. Such findings assist the appellate court in determining whether the statutory support guidelines were properly applied, in evaluating the propriety of the modified child support amount and in assessing the propriety of any subsequent modifications.
Id. at 868 (citations omitted)(emphases added). The trial court obviously found that because of the income which it had imputed to both parties, a substantial change in circumstance had occurred so as to justify the elimination of alimony. Those same circumstances may have been sufficient to justify a reduction in child support. Without findings of fact as to the income level imputed to the parties, we cannot perform our function under the statutory child support guidelines.
We therefore reverse and remand for further proceedings on the petition for modification, including findings of fact as to the income imputed to both parties.
GLICKSTEIN and DELL, JJ., concur.