Hoffman v. Hoffman

423 S.W.3d 869, 2014 WL 929007, 2014 Mo. App. LEXIS 265
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 11, 2014
DocketNo. ED 99057
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 423 S.W.3d 869 (Hoffman v. Hoffman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoffman v. Hoffman, 423 S.W.3d 869, 2014 WL 929007, 2014 Mo. App. LEXIS 265 (Mo. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Introduction

PATRICIA L. COHEN, Judge.

Richard Hoffman (Father) appeals and Anastasia Hoffman (Mother) cross-appeals from the trial court’s judgment modifying the judgment of dissolution of marriage to increase Father’s child support obligation. Father contends that the trial court erred in imputing income to him for the purposes of calculating child support because the evidence did not support the trial court’s findings that Father was underemployed and, even if imputation of income was appropriate, the trial court’s Form 14 calculation was against the manifest weight of the evidence. Father also argues that the trial court erred in failing to average Mother’s previous five years of gross income for purposes of calculating child support. In her cross-appeal, Mother asserts that the trial court erred in failing to impute to Father a substantially higher income and in calculating the parties’ work-related childcare costs in the Form 14. We affirm.

Factual and Procedural Background

Father and Mother married in 1997 and had three children together. In 2005, Mother filed a petition for dissolution of marriage, and the parties tried the matter. The trial court entered a judgment of dissolution on July 24, 2006.1

In the judgment of dissolution, the trial court made the following factual findings relating to the parties’ employment and income: Father was self-employed in engineering sales; Father was not underemployed and, based on the average of his previous five years of income, Father earned $2,832 per month; Mother was self-employed and earned $13,758 per month. The trial court awarded the parties joint physical and legal custody and ordered them to comply with the parenting plan, incorporated into the judgment, pursuant to which Father enjoyed custody Wednesdays overnight, every other weekend, and specified holidays. The trial court ordered Father to pay Mother child support for the three children in the amount of $357 per month. In addition, the trial court ordered Father to pay 17% of work-related childcare costs.

Mother filed a motion to modify in March 2010 and an amended motion to modify in May 2011. In her amended motion, Mother requested the trial court increase Father’s child support obligation because, since the date of dissolution, “circumstances have changed so substantially and continuing so as to make the terms of the original decree unreasonable.” Specifically, Mother alleged that: Mother’s income decreased through no fault of her own; Father “has had sufficient time to earn income greater than the income [attributed] to him” by the trial court in its judgment of dissolution; and “the children are older, and therefore are incurring greater expenses.” Father filed a cross-[874]*874motion to modify requesting, among other things, a reduction in the amount of his child support obligation to Mother on the grounds that Father’s “income has substantially decreased.”2

The trial court held a hearing on Mother’s amended motion to modify and Father’s cross-motion to modify on October 17 and 21, 2011. Mother called as a witness Dr. Max Lorenz, a career and executive coach. Dr. Lorenz performed an employability evaluation to determine Father’s income potential based on his work history and education.3 Dr. Lorenz testified that, in 1992, Father graduated surnma cum laude from University of Missouri-Rolla with a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering. After graduation, Father worked approximately six or seven years for Exxon Corporation as a design engineer and later as a sales engineer. Father later worked as a sales engineer for Van Pak Corporation for approximately two years. At Van Pak, Father earned over $100,000 per year. In 1997, Father started his company, Hoffman Packaging Services, Inc. Dr. Lorenz testified that Father’s yearly income at Hoffman Packaging averaged $58,000.

Dr. Lorenz performed a salary survey for sales engineers and sales representa-fives in the St. Louis and Midwest regions. He concluded that, based on Father’s educational background and fifteen years’ experience in engineering sales, an annual salary of between $80,000 and $100,000 per year “would be a reasonable expectation” for Father. On cross-examination, Dr. Lorenz acknowledged that he did not interview Father.

Mother testified that she was a chemical engineer and, at the time of dissolution, she was operating her own company and “had a big project with Monsanto.” After “the 2007 tax year,” Mother lost her largest clients because they reduced their “contractor budgets.” In 2009 and 2010, Mother’s company operated at a loss. In 2011, Mother accepted a job at Gallus Bio-pharmaceutical, where she earned about $7,333 per month.

Mother stated that Father was paying her $357 per month in child support for the parties’ three children. Mother testified to various expenses she paid for the children, including, but not limited to: $319 per month for the children’s medical insurance; over $997 per month for work-related childcare; and $332 per month for the parties’ youngest daughter’s full-day kindergarten. Mother explained that she was seeking an increase in Father’s child support obligation because:

[875]*875My income has gone down since the divorce decree and I feel that the children’s father has more potential and ability to make more money than what was determined at the divorce decree, and from what his income tax records have been the last few years, I feel like he should be contributing more. I feel a lot of pressure to provide for my family, and $357 for three children is really tough.

Mother requested that the trial court increase Father’s child support obligation to $1,835 per month.

Father testified that he had been living rent-free with his parents since he and Mother separated in February 2005. Father continued to operate Hoffman Packaging Systems, even though, since 2007, the company’s revenues have been “[f]lat, zero.” Father explained that he “continue[d] the endeavor of working for Hoffman Packing Systems ... with those type[s] of results” because “I have not found other alternatives — to do any better. And I have a 14-year investment in Hoffman Packaging Systems. I know that business quite well, so you know, my hope is that the marketplace will come back strong enough that the business will also come back with it.” From January 2010 to May 2010, Father worked for Radiation Oncology Systems, Inc. (ROS) selling linear accelerators. When his counsel questioned Father about his efforts to secure employment, Father responded, “I don’t know that I’m particularly seeking other employment.” Father later explained that, “[u]pon separation” from Mother, his “life career goal” ceased to be “maximizing income. ...”

On cross-examination, Father testified that, since the dissolution in 2006: he gave his friend $1,000 as a wedding present; gifted his parents a GMC Yukon worth between $7,000 and $10,000; and paid the down payment on a $48,000 Cadillac Esca-lade, which he drove on a daily basis but his parents owned. Father also acknowledged that he had applied for “ten different credit cards” and, in completing the applications, he listed his income as $100,000. Father testified that, since his divorce, his parents had purchased condominiums in the Lake of the Ozarks and Florida, and he had loaned his parents $100,000 to purchase the condominium in Florida.

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Bluebook (online)
423 S.W.3d 869, 2014 WL 929007, 2014 Mo. App. LEXIS 265, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoffman-v-hoffman-moctapp-2014.