Lukasik v. Kopinska

Citations

• 231 Conn. App. 245

Syllabus

The plaintiff father appealed from the judgment of the trial court, which had awarded him joint legal and physical custody of the parties' minor child, with respect to its award of child support. The plaintiff claimed, inter alia, that the court's child support award was arbitrary and not in accordance with the state child support guidelines (§ 46b-215a-1 et seq.) because the court's application of the deviation criteria set forth in the applicable state regulation (§ 46b-215a-5c (b)) was improper. Held: The trial court improperly deviated from the child support guidelines in its award of child support, as it failed to provide an explanation as to why the presumptive amount of child support as determined under the guidelines was inequitable or inappropriate and why a deviation was necessary to meet the needs of the minor child, and, accordingly, the judgment was reversed with respect to the child support order and the case was remanded for further proceedings. The trial court improperly deviated from the child support guidelines on the basis of the coordination of total family support criterion in § 46b-215a- 5c (b) because, in the present case, the parties were never married, and, accordingly, there was no alimony or division of property addressed in the court's decision. The trial court improperly used the best interest of the minor child and the disparity of the parties' incomes as bases for its deviation from the presumptive amount of child support in the child support guidelines, as it failed to provide any reasons why a deviation on these bases was necessary to meet the needs of the minor child. Argued September 19, 2024—officially released March 11, 2025