Hector v. Raymond

692 So. 2d 1284, 1997 WL 149945
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 2, 1997
Docket96-972
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 692 So. 2d 1284 (Hector v. Raymond) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hector v. Raymond, 692 So. 2d 1284, 1997 WL 149945 (La. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

692 So.2d 1284 (1997)

Shermane Marie HECTOR, Plaintiff—Appellee,
v.
Corey Joseph RAYMOND, Defendant—Appellant.

No. 96-972.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

April 2, 1997.
Writ Denied June 13, 1997.

*1285 David John Calogero, Lafayette, for Shermane Marie Hector.

Alan Stuart Fishbein, Baton Rouge, for Corey Joseph Raymond.

Before YELVERTON, SAUNDERS, PETERS and AMY, JJ., and BABINEAUX,[1] J. Pro Tem.

PETERS, Judge.

The plaintiff, Shermane Marie Hector, filed a rule against the defendant, Corey Joseph Raymond, to increase child support, to recover medical expenses paid by her, to have Mr. Raymond held in contempt of court, and to recover attorney fees. After a hearing, the trial court awarded relief to Ms. Hector in all of her requests except that it did not hold Mr. Raymond in contempt of court. Mr. Raymond has appealed, asserting four assignments of error. Ms. Hector has answered the appeal, asking that Mr. Raymond be held in contempt and that she be awarded additional attorney fees.

DISCUSSION OF THE RECORD

Shermane Marie Hector and Corey Joseph Raymond began a dating relationship while they were students at New Iberia Senior High School in New Iberia, Louisiana. During the course of this relationship Ms. Hector became pregnant. The parties chose not to marry, and on December 30, 1987, she gave birth to a son, Cody James Hector.

On July 19, 1993, Ms. Hector filed a petition against Mr. Raymond to establish paternity and to require that he pay child support. By a stipulated consent judgment, Mr. Raymond was declared to be Cody's father and joint custody was awarded with Ms. Hector being the domiciliary parent. Mr. Raymond was ordered to pay $1,200.00 a month in child support and $300.00 a month into a revokable educational trust for Cody and to provide medical and hospitalization insurance for Cody through his employment with the National Football League (NFL). The judgment also allocated visitation rights, gave Mr. Raymond the income tax dependency deduction for Cody, and ordered that Cody's last name be changed to Raymond.

In July of 1993, Mr. Raymond was a professional football player with the New York Giants, earning approximately $150,000.00 per year. He was subsequently traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars and then almost immediately traded to the Detroit Lions. In 1996, after the original contract had expired, Mr. Raymond renegotiated a new contract with the Lions. The new contract awarded him a $1.2 million dollar signing bonus and a salary of $4.5 million dollars to be paid over three years.

On March 7, 1996, Ms. Hector filed a motion for an increase in child support, alleging a change in circumstances based on Mr. Raymond's significantly increased income. Additionally, she alleged that Mr. Raymond had failed to provide medical insurance for Cody, causing her to incur substantial expense.[2]*1286 She asked that the court hold Mr. Raymond in contempt and order him to pay her all of the expenses that she had incurred, plus attorney fees and court costs.

Following a hearing on April 8, 1996, the court ordered Mr. Raymond to pay $6,000.00 per month for the support of Cody.[3] The court ordered that at least $4,000.00 of this amount be placed monthly in a court-supervised investment account for Cody with Ms. Hector as trustee of the account "[i]n order to help insure that money for the child's future support will be available should something happen to Mr. Raymond." Mr. Raymond was also ordered to continue maintaining and paying the premiums on Cody's health and hospitalization insurance policy and to provide continuing proof of such coverage. With respect to the medical expenses arrearages, the court found that Mr. Raymond was not in contempt because Ms. Hector never properly submitted the bills to him for payment. However, the court ordered Mr. Raymond to pay Ms. Hector $1,471.00 in past medical expenses. Additionally, the court granted Ms. Hector the income tax dependency deduction for Cody because it found that she was the only one who had requested it.[4] Finally, the court ordered Mr. Raymond to pay the sum of $1,703.77 to Ms. Hector for attorney fees and to pay all court costs. Mr. Raymond now appeals.

OPINION

By his first two assignments of error, Mr. Raymond contends that the trial court erred in increasing his child support obligation to $6,000.00 without considering the evidence of the needs of the minor child and in exceeding the proper scope of child support by allocating part of the money to be deposited in an account for the child's future benefit.

In order to have a child support award increased, the party seeking the increase must demonstrate to the court that a change in circumstances of one of the parties has occurred between the time the previous award was granted and the time of the motion for the modification of the award. La. R.S. 9:311(A). The trial court is granted much discretion in the modification of support awards, and we should not disturb that determination absent an abuse of discretion. Rosenbloom v. Rosenbloom, 94-1762 (La. App. 4 Cir. 4/26/95); 654 So.2d 877, writ denied, 95-1320 (La.9/1/95); 658 So.2d 1266.

In 1989, to aid in the determination of the proper amount to be awarded for child support, the legislature enacted a schedule setting out the basic child support obligation for parents with combined monthly gross income below $10,000.00. See La.R.S. 9:315.14. When the parents' combined monthly gross income exceeds $10,000.00, the trial judge is given discretion to set the award with the provision that the award may not be less than the highest amount set forth in the schedule. La.R.S. 9:315.10(B). The trial court determined that Mr. Raymond was earning approximately $107,500.00 per month,[5] and thus, the schedule provided it with no guidance as to an appropriate child support award for this child. However, this is not a new issue, and this court has previously addressed the proper method for setting child support when the parents' affluence places their income beyond the scope of the child support schedule. See Preis v. Preis, 93-569 (La.App. 3 Cir. 2/2/94); 631 So.2d 1349. In Preis, the trial court had *1287 merely extrapolated from the child support schedule to determine the proper amount of support. This court pointed out that this approach was erroneous because it failed to take into account the needs and lifestyle of the children.

Parents have an obligation to support, maintain, and educate their children and should maintain their children in the same status as if the parents were not separated or divorced; this support shall be granted in proportion to the needs of the child and the circumstances of the parent who is to pay.

Id. at p. 13; 631 So.2d at 1357 [quoting Krampe v. Krampe, 625 So.2d 383, 386 (La. App. 3 Cir.1993), writ denied, 93-2763 (La.1/7/94); 630 So.2d 781].

Children are entitled to the same standard of living that they would enjoy if they lived with their father if their father's financial circumstances are sufficient to permit this. Hargett v. Hargett, 544 So.2d 705 (La.App. 3 Cir.), writ denied, 548 So.2d 1235 (La.1989).

This case presents an unusual fact situation. Unlike the litigants in the above cited jurisprudence, Ms. Hector and Mr. Raymond were never married to each other and never resided together. Thus, Cody has never enjoyed his father's standard of living because he has never resided with his father. Although Ms.

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Bluebook (online)
692 So. 2d 1284, 1997 WL 149945, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hector-v-raymond-lactapp-1997.