Tentative Ruling

Judge Thomas Anderle
Department 3 SB-Anacapa
1100 Anacapa Street P.O. Box 21107 Santa Barbara, CA 93121-1107

FAMILY LAW
Adriana Layman and Jared F. Layman
Case No: 19FL02168
Hearing Date: Tue Mar 03, 2020 10:30

Nature of Proceedings: Req. for Order: Child Support/Spousal Support and Attorney Fees and Costs

Petitioner’s Req. for Order: Child Support/Spousal Support and Attorney Fees & Costs

Attorneys:

Petitioner [“mother”] in pro per;

Paul A. Capritto for Respondent [“father”]

Ruling:

1. At the outset the Court points out the obvious; there are experienced lawyers on each side of this modest case that should have been able to fashion the support calculations. The Court has, in the end, put an extraordinary amount of time understanding and weighing the competing multiple choices provided.

2. Each side will pay his or attorney fees pending trial; the Court will reserve jurisdiction to award attorney fees at trial.

3. Total support is $543/mo. (Spousal support $260/mo.) and (child support $283mo.). The Court’s DissoMaster will be in the courtroom.

The Court has assumed the following

One child; Joint legal and physical custody with 50/50 time sharing arrangement; Tax Status: Father Head of Household; Mother Single.

For father: He received $88,118 in income in the year 2019; amounts to a total of $7,343 per month; $76 union dues; $751 mandatory retirement; $359/mo. health insurance; ignored the additional income attributed to father by mother from Fix It All for now.

For mother: This year she has made $9,036.83 gross in income over the course of four pay periods; gets paid bi-weekly and should receive 22 additional paychecks; if you take $9,036.83 and divide it by the four paychecks received thus far, then multiply it by the total of 26 paychecks expected for the year, and then divide it by 12 to get a gross monthly income the result is $4,895 before deductions; current healthcare costs have increased to $619 per month before tax; the Court ignored the $200 per month out of pocket on healthcare or any alleged rental income, for now.

4. The case needs to be tried. The Trial Date is October 27, 2020; the MSC date is October 2, 2020.

Analysis:

This case was just filed in 10/2019 and seeks dissolution of a 16 year marriage with one child, Jayden, DOB 1/2007; it was set for CMC on 12/3/19; mother appeared and the case was continued to 1/14/20; the Court suggested that mother meet with the Family Law Facilitator; no one appeared on 1/14.

Father filed his answer and request for dissolution on 1/31/20.

On 1/17/20 mother filed a RFO seeking child support, spousal support and attorney’s fees; set the hearing for 3/3/20; seeks joint legal and physical custody of Jayden; mother to take custody of minor at the end of school on Monday; father to take custody of minor at the end of school on Wednesday; mother to take custody of minor at the end of school on Friday; the arrangement is to alternate on a weekly basis and is already in place; requests $850/mo. in spousal support; guideline child support; $7,945 in attorney fees and costs; she has hired attorney H. Frederick Seigenfeld, under a limited scope agreement to advise and prepare court documents for an uncontested dissolution of marriage and associated requests for orders. Mr. Seigenfeld has been practicing in family law since 2016 and charges $300/hr. Father is employed by the City of Santa Barbara.

Mother’s I&E

Age 42; works for Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital; estimates father’s income at $8,500/mo.; her “last 12 months” income was $2,100/mo. but her “last month’s” income was $4,660; explains the change in income as on 9/9/19 she started a new better paying job; reports $200 for health insurance; and zero cash and zero assets/debts; living expenses $5,000/mo.; $4,000 in installment debt; has paid attorney $4,000 and owes $945; one child with 50/50 timeshare.

Father’s I&E

42 years old; works for City; estimates mother’s income at $5,200; last 12 month’s average income $6,352/mo. with overtime “varies” (sic) and last month’s income $5,229 with $641 in overtime; $76 union dues; $751 mandatory retirement; $359/mo. health insurance; no assets; $4,881/mo. living expenses; $35,000 installment debt; has paid his attorney $0 and reports the fees and costs to his attorney owed is TBD (sic); reports 50/50 time share.

Father’s Response to RFO filed 2/19/20

Father’s Attorney guideline calculations

Attached 4 DissoMaster Guideline child support calculations; input data for Exhibits “A” and “B” are the same, except “Exhibit “A” includes the $1,500 monthly rental income mother receives from her renters, and Exhibit “B” does not. Otherwise, both Exhibits include all of the same input data as follows:

a. Children: There is one child, a son, now age 12 years.

b. Time share: Equal time sharing arrangement, 50/50.

c. Tax Status:

Petitioner, Adriana Layman, Head of Household;

Respondent, Jared Layman; Single;

Mother’s Income: Earns $29.00 an hour and works 40 hours a week. Her monthly gross earnings, $5,026.66. Exhibit A also includes the $1,500.00 in monthly rental income she receives from her tenants. Exhibit B does not.

Father’s Income: Earns $36.65 an hour, which is $6,353 .00 per month; included $604.00 per month in overtime.

Health Insurance: For mother $200.00 per month; for father – his combined monthly health, dental and vision insurance is $359.00 per month.

Mortgage Interest and Property Taxes: Neither party owns a home.

Dependency Exemptions:

Motheris assigned the dependency exemption for the child.

Father is assigned no dependency exemption.

Guideline Child Support: Guideline child support pursuant to the DissoMaster

Exhibit A: Child Support: $218 payable by mother; Spousal Support: $119

Exhibit B: Child Support: $9 payable by father; Spousal Support: $0

Mother’s Reply

Attaches 6 DissoMaster Guideline child support and spousal support calculations including a proposed tactic 9 calculation; attaches Exhibits A, B and C; the input data for Exhibits “A”, “B” and “C” are the same, except

Exhibit “A” includes an additional $1,293 in monthly income that father receives from unreported self-employment income that he failed to incorporate into his disclosures or calculations as well as a more true representation of his income from his main employer of $7,577 per month before deductions.

Exhibit “B” does the same, but represents his income from his main employer as $7,343 per month before deductions.

Exhibit “C” is the same as Exhibit “B” except that it does not include $1,293 a month in additional income from his unreported self-employment income.

Otherwise, all Exhibits include all of the same input data; one child; equal time-sharing arrangement, 50/50; father Head of Household; mother Single;

Health Insurance for mother $200 per month outside of the $619 per month paid pre-tax by employer and father’s reported $359 per month

This year she has made $9,036.83 gross in income over the course of four pay periods; gets paid bi-weekly and should receive 22 additional paychecks; if you take $9,036.83 and divide it by the 4 paychecks received thus far, then multiply it by the total of 26 paychecks expected for the year, and then divide it by 12 to get a gross monthly income the result is $4,895 before deductions. According to Exhibit “D” and “E” over the course of 9 pay period she worked a total of 644.75 and received 33.9 hours in paid time off, which averages out to 37.7 hours per week or 75.4 hours per pay period; of that time a total of 4.1 hours was worked as overtime netting her an additional 50% per hour in pay, which equates to a total of less than .25 hours of pay per pay period; also received a discretionary bonus last year in the amount of $216.31.

Her current rate of pay of $30.17 per hour, average of 75.4 hours of work and paid time off per pay period, 4.1 hours per 9 pay periods in overtime, and an annual bonus of $216.31; average monthly income before deductions is $4,961 per month.

Her current healthcare costs have increased to $619 per month before tax; she also spends $200 per month out of pocket on healthcare.

She has previously received funds to cover the costs of utilities and food provided to three international language school students, but no longer participate in the program; did not make any income from this participation; payments simply covered the costs of taking care of the students and was less than $1,500 per month; even at $500 per month per student that is barely enough money to cover the cost of food for the average young male in the City of Santa Barbara, not to mention the additional utilities used by each of the students.

Father has misrepresented his income in his Response to mother’s Request for Order to Establish Child Support and Spousal Support; according to the proof of income provided by him in the form of a paystub dated 12/20/2019, he received $88,118 in income in the year 2019; amounts to a total of $7,343 per month before deductions for last year.

Father’s Response to the RFO states that his income is $6,957 per month, a full $386 per month less than what his Exhibit “F” shows. The most recent paystub father provided dated 1/31/2020, shows even more monthly income for the current calendar year; it reports a total of $10,492 for three pay periods paid out at a bi-weekly rate. At a bi-weekly rate of pay there are 26 pay periods in a year. This means father has averaged $3,497 per pay period, which translates to $7,577 per month this year.

Father has further failed to include any of the income he receives from JJ’s Fix It All; she can only guestimate the additional income he receives; she attached four invoices from Fix It All in a hope to illustrate to the Court what father has been withholding from the record; first invoice dated May 21, 2017, and titled Invoice #667, shows a bill for his services in the amount of $1,100 in labor.

The second invoice dated January 14, 2018, and titled Invoice #697 shows a bill for his services in the amount of $160 in labor.

The third invoice dated February 7, 2018, and titled Invoice #699 shows a bill for his services in the amount of $240 in labor.

The fourth invoice dated March 20, 2018, and titled Invoice #706 shows a bill for his services in the amount of $300 in labor.

Mother has attached copies of checks made out to father and Fix It All to provide more evidence of the existence of father’s unreported self-employment income; the invoices show he commonly accepted partial payment; as a result it is unclear if the checks were partial or complete payments for work; she has refrained from averaging the amounts listed on the checks in Exhibit “L” in to the following estimations of his income from Fix It All.

He earned $1,800 in income from the four invoices provided as Exhibits “H” through “K” and this is an average of $450 per job. The oldest invoice, Exhibit “H”, is a full 307 days prior in issuance to the most recent invoice, Exhibit “K”. The invoice from Exhibit “K” is numbered #706 while the invoice from Exhibit “H” is numbered #677. This reasonably tells us that father invoiced 28 jobs between invoice #677 and invoice #706 or invoiced 29 jobs over a period of 307 days not counting the first invoice from Exhibit “H” on day zero. If we are to use $450 as the average income per job, divide that number by the 307 days took place over those 29 invoices, multiply it by 365 days to calculate the amount earned for the year, and then divide that amount by 12 to calculate the monthly income the result is $1,293 per month in additional income that Respondent has failed to make one mention of on the record.

Guideline child support and spousal support pursuant to the DissoMaster Guideline calculations as well as proposed tactic 9 calculations are:

Exhibit A:

Child Support: $313 payable by father;

Spousal Support: $319 payable by father;

Child Support (Tactic 9): $376 payable by father;

Spousal Support (Tactic 9): $451 payable by father

Exhibit B:

Child Support: $293 payable by father;

Spousal Support: $277 payable by father;

Child Support (Tactic 9): $356 payable by father;

Spousal Support (Tactic 9): $408 payable by father;

Exhibit C:

Child Support: $161 payable by father;

Spousal Support: $19 payable by father;

Child Support (Tactic 9): $228 payable by father;

Spousal Support (Tactic 9): $145 payable by father.