In re Regan

48 A.3d 920, 164 N.H. 1
CourtSupreme Court of New Hampshire
DecidedJuly 18, 2012
DocketNo. 2011-701
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 48 A.3d 920 (In re Regan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Regan, 48 A.3d 920, 164 N.H. 1 (N.H. 2012).

Opinion

Dalianis, C.J.

The respondent, Steven S. Regan (father), appeals an order recommended by a Marital Master (Lemire, M.) and approved by the 9th Circuit — Manchester Family Division {Emery, J.) that, among other things: (1) declined to modify his obligations to carry life insurance and pay half of his minor daughter’s uninsured medical expenses even though paying these amounts reduced his monthly income below the statutory self-support reserve, see RSA458-C:3, IV(b) (2004); and (2) required him to exchange custody of his daughter' at a police station, rather than at the parties’ homes. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

The record contains the following facts. The father and the petitioner, Susan J. Regan (mother), have been divorced since 2008. They have four [3]*3daughters. When the parties divorced, they agreed in a permanent stipulation that each would carry life insurance for their children’s benefit. Their uniform support order also required each to pay half of the children’s uninsured medical expenses.

In March 2011, the mother moved to modify the parties’ parenting plan. Among other things, she requested that exchanges of custody occur at a police station, arguing that this arrangement would resolve misunderstandings that had complicated exchanges.

The father objected and also moved to reduce his child support obligation. He alleged that, since the divorce, his base pay (subject to the possibility of commissions) had dropped from $30,000 per year to $24,000 per year. As a result of this decrease, he argued that he was unable to pay: (1) his full child support obligation; (2) life insurance premiums; and (3) his half of orthodontic expenses that the couple expected to incur on behalf of their youngest child.

The trial court found that the father’s reduction in income constituted a “substantial change of circumstances” and it recalculated his child support obligation using the child support guidelines. RSA 458-C:7, 1(a) (Supp. 2011); see RSA ch. 458-C (Supp. 2011). Based upon the number of children to be supported and the ratio of the father’s gross income to the mother’s, the trial court found that the father’s new support obligation should have been $359.13 per month. Payment of this amount, however, would have reduced the father’s income below the statutory self-support reserve, in violation of RSA 458-C:3, IV(b). Thus, to comply with the statute, the court reduced the father’s monthly child support obligation by $3.13, which allowed him to retain a monthly base income equal to the $1,044 self-support reserve.

Although the court found that the father’s reduction in income required reducing his child support obligation, it found “no basis to modify” the father’s obligation to pay for half of his daughter’s orthodontic expenses, and similarly declined to reduce the amount of life insurance he was obliged to carry. The court also granted the mother’s motion that future custody exchanges take place at a police station. After unsuccessfully moving for reconsideration, the father appealed.

On appeal, we will affirm the findings and rulings of the trial court unless they are unsupported by the evidence or legally erroneous. In the Matter of Cole & Ford, 156 N.H. 609, 610 (2007). We will set aside a modification order only if it clearly appears from the evidence that the trial court’s exercise of discretion was unsustainable. Id.

[4]*4 I. Effect of Statutory Self-Support Reserve

In arguing that the trial court erred by declining to modify his obligation to pay half of the children’s uninsured medical expenses and maintain life insurance for their benefit, the father relies primarily upon the self-support reserve statute. See RSA 458-C:3, IV(b). That statute forbids imposing child support obligations that reduce a parent’s income below a statutory self-support reserve. See id. The father argues that the trial court either violated RSA 458-C:3, IV(b) by ordering him to pay additional amounts for insurance and orthodontic treatment, or, alternatively, that its order constitutes an unsustainable exercise of discretion given his limited income.

To address these arguments, we must construe RSA 458-C:3, IV(b) and other relevant portions of the child support guidelines. We are the final arbiter of the legislature’s intent as expressed in the words of the statute considered as a whole. In the Matter of Coderre & Coderre, 148 N.H. 401, 403 (2002). We interpret legislative intent from the statute as written, and, therefore, we will not consider what the legislature might have said or add words that the legislature did not include. Id. Furthermore, we interpret statutes in the context of the overall statutory scheme and not in isolation. Id. Addressing the parties’ arguments also requires us to interpret their permanent stipulation approved and ordered in their divorce decree. In interpreting the meaning of a divorce decree, we review the decree de novo. In the Matter of Georgakilas & Georgakilas, 157 N.H. 662, 664 (2008). We consider the intent of the parties as expressed in the language of the stipulation. Id.

Under RSA 458-C:3, IV(b):

If the obligor parent’s gross income is greater than the self-support reserve but payment of the order as calculated under this chapter would reduce the obligor parent’s income below the self-support reserve, the obligor parent’s share of the total support obligation shall be presumed to be the difference between the self-support reserve and that parent’s adjusted gross income, but in any event shall be no less than [fifty dollars,] the amount of a minimum support order.

(Emphasis added.) See RSA 458-C:2, V (defining “[m]inimum support order”).

The language “as calculated under this chapter” effectively limits the scope of the self-support reserve’s protection to orders made pursuant to the child support guidelines in RSA chapter 458-C. RSA 458-C:3, IV(b). Thus, although income is a proper consideration for support orders not [5]*5governed by the child support guidelines, the self-support reserve’s terms make clear that its bright-line limitations do not apply to such awards. See, e.g., RSA 458:19, 1(b) (2004) (making alimony available only when the obligor is able to “meet reasonable needs,” but not establishing a specific minimum income that may not be used to pay alimony). Therefore, to the extent the father argues that RSA 458-C:3, IV(b) extends to “non-child support obligations,” the statute’s plain language forecloses his argument.

As a result, to determine whether preservation of the father’s self-support reserve requires vacating the orders to pay orthodontic expenses and life insurance premiums, we must first determine whether these payments are calculated “under [the child support] chapter.” RSA 458-C:3, IV(b). If the payments are child support, then the father’s total child support obligation reduced his monthly income below the self-support reserve in violation of RSA 458-C:3, IV(b). If the payments are not child support, then RSA 458-C:3, IV(b), by its terms, does not govern them.

We conclude that payments for “medical costs not covered by insurance” constitute child support for purposes of calculating the self-support reserve. RSA 458-C:2, IV-a; see RSA 458-C:3.

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Bluebook (online)
48 A.3d 920, 164 N.H. 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-regan-nh-2012.