Joel Trojan v. Denise Trojan

Citations

• 208 A.3d 221

Syllabus

The defendant appealed a judgment of the Family Court ordering the plaintiff, her former husband, to pay child support for their minor child. The defendant argued that the trial justice erred when he did not order the plaintiff to pay interim and retroactive child support while their divorce proceeding was ongoing. The defendant also contended that the trial justice erred in determining the plaintiff's gross income for the purpose of calculating his child support obligation because he did not include 2015 net income and distributions from an \S\ corporation of which he was the sole shareholder. According to the defendant, the 2015 distributions from the corporation to the plaintiff were used to pay for income taxes, the plaintiff's sole ownership in the corporation, and personal expenses, including a personal life insurance premium. The Supreme Court first held that the trial justice did not abuse his discretion in denying interim child support at the beginning of the divorce trial because there was evidence presented to the trial justice that the defendant had access to ample funds during that time. The Court also held that the defendant waived her argument that such an award should have been granted at a subsequent hearing, because the defendant had failed to raise that argument at that hearing. The Court additionally noted that the parties had agreed to interim child support while the divorce proceeding was pending. Furthermore, the Court held that the trial justice ruled within the bounds of his discretion when he found that the corporation's 2015 net income, which had been retained within the corporation, should not have been included in the plaintiff's gross income calculation. According to the Court, this was so because, although the net income was reported on the plaintiff's tax returns due to the corporation's structure as an S corporation for income tax purposes, the net income had been retained for a legitimate business purpose because the corporation was