Child Support Increased Based on Income Disparity

The Appeals Court recently upheld a decision of the Probate & Family Court to increase a divorced father’s child support payments because of changes in the children’s needs and a disparity in the standards of living between the divorced father’s household and the custodial mother’s household.

The mother, Carolyn Brooks, and the father, Robert Piela, were divorced in 1996. At that time, a judgment required Piela to pay $650 per week in child support to Brooks, the primary custodian of the couple’s five children. In 1998, the mother filed a complaint to modify the support order, alleging that her ex-husband’s income had increased, and that their children’s needs had “increased significantly,” including the enrollment in private boarding school for one son.

In August 2002, a judgment of modification was entered by the court, increasing the ex-husband’s support from $650 to $800 per week. In an appeal from that judgment, Piela contended that there was no evidence of increased costs to maintaining the children that could not be met out of Brooks’ income, which had also increased. Also at issue in the appeal was whether the Probate Court judge had erred in considering the disparity in the standards of living in each parent’s household resulting from Piela’s increased income.

Though Brooks’ income had increased from $145,000 at the time of divorce to $192,000, Piela’s income had gone from $130,000 to $278,000. The Probate judge had concluded that “[t]he difference between the parties’ salaries at the time of the hearing is itself a material change of circumstance,” and that it was not in the best interests of the children to experience a disparity in the standards of living between the two parents’ households. The Appeals Court upheld that ruling.