Budrawich v. Budrawich

32 A.3d 328, 132 Conn. App. 291, 2011 Conn. App. LEXIS 569
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedNovember 29, 2011
DocketAC 32215
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 32 A.3d 328 (Budrawich v. Budrawich) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Budrawich v. Budrawich, 32 A.3d 328, 132 Conn. App. 291, 2011 Conn. App. LEXIS 569 (Colo. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

Opinion

BEAR, J.

The defendant, Edward Budrawich, Jr., appeals from the postdissolution judgment of the trial court, modifying certain financial orders in favor of the plaintiff, Kathleen M. Budrawich. On appeal, the [293]*293defendant claims that the court improperly (1) modified child support and ordered him to pay, in addition to $100 in weekly child support, a specific dollar amount each week for anticipated expenses related to the children, (2) modified the personal property award and (3) ordered him to pay a definite amount as satisfaction of an order that he transfer to the plaintiff 55 percent of restricted stock that was not vested at the time of the judgment of dissolution. We reverse the judgment of the trial court.

The following facts are relevant to our resolution of the issues on appeal. The parties were married in 1982, and three children were bom of the marriage — the first in March, 1989, the second in April, 1992, and the third in June, 1995. The plaintiff filed an action seeking dissolution of the parties’ marriage in June, 2004. In June, 2006, the parties reached an agreement regarding a parenting plan, which the court found to be in the best interests of the children. Accordingly, it approved and incorporated the agreement by reference into the judgment of dissolution. The parties had agreed, in part, that neither of them would be responsible for child support payments to the other because they were sharing physical custody of the children. They also agreed, however, that they would share equally in the expenses of the children, including such things as sports expenses, dance expenses, college application and preparation expenses and additional identified categories of expenses. Each party was to submit proof of the payment of these expenses to the other party on the first day of the month following the occurrence of such expenses, and the other party was to reimburse 50 percent of those costs by the fifteenth of the month. The parties also entered into a binding arbitration agreement in November, 2006, and a corrected decision and award was issued on May 30, 2007, which the court approved at the time of dissolution. The arbitrator [294]*294decided, in part, that the defendant would have first choice of any items located in the plaintiffs garage or cellar and that the plaintiff could have or dispose of the items that were remaining thereafter. After approving the parties’ agreement and the decision of the arbitrator, on November 28, 2007, the court rendered judgment dissolving the parties’ twenty-five year marriage.

Subsequently, each of the parties filed motions for contempt alleging that the other was not in compliance -with the orders of the court, including the plaintiffs May 21, 2009 motion alleging that the defendant was in contempt for failing to transfer stock options to the plaintiff and the defendant’s July 30, 2009 motion alleging that the plaintiff was in contempt for failing to comply with the arbitration decision incorporated in the judgment. On November 18, 2008, the plaintiff also filed a motion for modification of child support, which included a requested modification as to the method of payment of the additional expenses on behalf of the minor children, on the ground that the defendant’s income had increased significantly and that he had failed to reimburse the plaintiff his 50 percent of the additional expenses of the children. On December 31, 2009, the court rendered its decision on these motions. On January 13, 2010, the plaintiff filed a motion for clarification of the court’s decision. On January 19, 2010, the defendant also filed a motion for clarification. Despite denying both motions, on March 23, 2010, the court issued an order clarifying its December 31, 2009 decision. This appeal followed. Additional facts will be set forth as necessary.

I

The defendant first claims that the court improperly modified the parties’ agreement as to child support, ordering him to pay $100 per week, and further erred [295]*295in ordering him to pay, in addition to $100 per week for child support, the specific dollar amount of $363 weekly as his contribution toward the children’s expenses. He argues, inter alia, that the parties had agreed to deviate from the child support guidelines because they were sharing physical custody of the children and that the shared custody arrangement had not changed. He explains that with the court’s modification, his total support now is $463, which exceeds the child support guidelines, fails to take into consideration the parties’ shared custody arrangement and is not based on evidence found in the record. He also contests the court’s finding that the plaintiffs income had decreased substantially since the dissolution.1 We agree that the court’s order was improper.

“General Statutes § 46b-86 governs the modification of a child support order after the date of a dissolution judgment. . . . Section 46b-86 (a) permits the court to modify child support orders in two alternative circumstances. Pursuant to this statute, a court may not modify a child support order unless there is first either (1) a showing of a substantial change in the circumstances of either party or (2) a showing that the final order for child support substantially deviates from the child [296]*296support guidelines. . . . Both the substantial change of circumstances and the substantial deviation from child support guidelines’ provision establish the authority of the trial court to modify existing child support orders to respond to changed economic conditions. The first allows the court to modify a support order when the financial circumstances of the individual parties have changed, regardless of their prior contemplation of such changes. The second allows the court to modify child support orders that were once deemed appropriate but no longer seem equitable in the light of changed social or economic circumstances in the society as a whole. . . .

“As to the substantial change of circumstances provision of § 46b-86 (a), [w]hen presented with a motion for modification, a court must first determine whether there has been a substantial change in the financial circumstances of one or both of the parties. . . . Second, if the court finds a substantial change in circumstances, it may properly consider the motion and . . . make an order for modification. ... A party moving for a modification of a child support order must clearly and definitely establish the occurrence of a substantial change in the circumstances of either party that makes the continuation of the prior order unfair and improper. . . . The power of the trial court to modify the existing order does not, however, include the power to retry issues already decided ... or to allow the parties to use a motion to modify as an appeal. . . . Rather, [t]he court has the authority to issue a modification only if it conforms the order to the distinct and definite changes in the circumstances of the parties. . . . The inquiry, then, is limited to a comparison between the current conditions and the last court order. . . . The party seeking modification bears the burden of showing the existence of a substantial change in the circumstances.” (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks [297]*297omitted.) Weinstein v. Weinstein, 104 Conn. App. 482, 491-93, 934 A.2d 306 (2007), cert. denied, 285 Conn. 911, 943 A.2d 472 (2008).

The following additional facts are relevant to our analysis.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
32 A.3d 328, 132 Conn. App. 291, 2011 Conn. App. LEXIS 569, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/budrawich-v-budrawich-connappct-2011.