Presworsky v. Presworsky

• Decision Date: 13 February 1996
• Citation: 637 N.Y.S.2d 487,224 A.D.2d 506
• Parties: Arline PRESWORSKY, Respondent, v. Paul PRESWORSKY, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 487

637 N.Y.S.2d 487

224 A.D.2d 506

Arline PRESWORSKY, Respondent, v. Paul PRESWORSKY, Appellant.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division Second Department.

Feb. 13, 1996.

Berke & Berke, New York City (Jeffrey R. Berke, of counsel), for appellant.

Snitow & Pauley, New York City (Franklyn H. Snitow, Mark M. Holtzer, and Edward J. Phillips, of counsel), for respondent.

Before BALLETTA, J.P., and THOMPSON, JOY and GOLDSTEIN, JJ.

MEMORANDUM BY THE COURT.

In an action for a divorce and ancillary relief, the defendant husband appeals, as limited by his notice of appeal and brief, from so much of a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Turret, J.H.O.), dated February 17, 1994, as (1) granted the plaintiff wife exclusive occupancy of the marital residence, (2) directed him to pay the maintenance charges on the marital residence, and (3) directed him to pay child support in the sum of $11,147 per year and child support arrears.

ORDERED that the judgment is modified, on the law and the facts, by (1) deleting the eleventh and twelfth decretal paragraphs thereof, and (2) deleting from the ninth decretal paragraph thereof the words, "Defendant shall pay the sum of $11,147.00, in fifty-two equal installments, as and for Child Support"; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed from, without costs or disbursements, and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court, Queens County, for a recalculation of child support and child support arrears consistent herewith; and it is further,

ORDERED that the defendant shall continue to pay temporary child support, prospectively, in the sum of $214.37 per week ($11,147 per year), pending a new determination of child support by the Supreme Court, Queens County.

The parties were married in 1969. Their principal marital asset was a house where they resided with their six children. In 1987, the plaintiff wife commenced the instant action for a divorce and ancillary relief. In 1990, while the marital action was pending, the parties appeared before a Beth Din (Jewish religious court) to arbitrate their differences. Pursuant to the arbitration decision of the Beth Din, the defendant husband was awarded custody of one child and the plaintiff wife was awarded custody of the other five.

In 1991 the defendant husband moved to confirm the arbitration award. The Supreme Court directed the defendant husband to pay $11,147 per year in child support plus arrears. At the time, the plaintiff wife's net income was $29,781 while the defendant husband's was $47,940. Of the five children whose custody had been awarded to the plaintiff wife, two had since been emancipated. Although the instant judgment does not articulate the basis for the child support award, the defendant husband's obligation was apparently computed by first calculating his child support obligation for four children pursuant to the Child Support Standards Act, and by then reducing that amount by 25% because he had been awarded custody of one of the four unemancipated children. The plaintiff wife was also awarded exclusive occupancy of the marital residence until the youngest child attained the age of majority or was "sooner...