In the Matter of Holly & William Doherty

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The parties divorced in January 2010. They had two minor children at that time. They entered into a stipulation, which was incorporated into the divorce decree that the trial court approved; in the stipulation, they agreed upon, among other things, the amount of monthly alimony and child support to be paid by Husband. Husband and Wife both appealed after the trial court issued orders modifying Husband's child support obligation. Wife argued that the trial court erred by: (1) including foster care payments that she received in her gross income for the purpose of modifying Husband’s child support and alimony obligations; (2) terminating Husband’s ongoing alimony obligation; and (3) concluding that it, a family division court, lacked jurisdiction to enforce the parties’ agreement to share equally in certain litigation costs. After review, the Supreme Court vacated the trial court's determination of Wife's gross income figure. Because the Court vacated for redetermination of Wife’s gross income for child support purposes, and because the trial court relied, in part, upon that gross income figure when deciding to eliminate Husband’s ongoing alimony obligation, the Court also vacated the alimony award and remand for redetermination of whether and to what extent ongoing alimony is warranted. The Court found the family division court had jurisdiction to enforce the parties' litigation cost agreement. The case was affirmed in all other respects, and remanded for further proceedings. View "In the Matter of Holly & William Doherty" on Justia Law