Young v. Young, 1342-85

• Citation: 348 S.E.2d 46,3 Va.App. 80
• Decision Date: 02 September 1986
• Docket Number: No. 1342-85,1342-85
• Parties: Thompson Steven YOUNG v. Deborah Overstreet YOUNG. Record
• Court: Virginia Court of Appeals

Page 46

348 S.E.2d 46

3 Va.App. 80

Thompson Steven YOUNG v. Deborah Overstreet YOUNG.

Record No. 1342-85.

Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Sept. 2, 1986.

John H. Kennett, Jr., Roanoke, for appellant.

William H. Cleaveland, (Clifford R. Weckstein, Lichtenstein, Weckstein & Thomas, Roanoke, on brief), for appellee.

Present: KOONTZ, C.J., and COLEMAN and MOON, JJ.

MOON, Judge.

Thomas Steven Young seeks reversal of a judgment in the Circuit Court for the County of Roanoke increasing the amount of his child support payments from $175 to $275 per month. We reverse because the increase was not related to any evidence of actual expenses that the mother will incur on behalf of the child in the immediate or reasonably foreseeable future.

Plaintiff and defendant were divorced on July 11, 1978. Mrs. Young was awarded custody of their only child and began receiving child support payments of $150 per month which were increased to $175 per month in January, 1980, while Mr. Young was a college student. This current proceeding began with Mrs. Young's petition in the juvenile and domestic relations court for an increase in child support. That court awarded Mrs. Young $225 per month in child support. After a de novo hearing on Mr. Young's appeal, the trial judge set Mr. Young's monthly payment at $275 per month plus one-half of the cost of any medical expenses not reimbursed by insurance.

Code § 20-107.2(2) vests discretion in the trial court in awarding child support and such awards will not be reversed on appeal unless plainly wrong or unsupported by the evidence. See Thomas v. Thomas, 217 Va. 502, 505, 229 S.E.2d 887, 889-90 (1976). Any award must be based upon the evidence relating to the factors contained in the statute, and the award must be related to the actual needs and expenditures made or to be made on behalf of the child "within the immediate or reasonably foreseeable future." See Thomas, 217 Va. at 505, 229 S.E.2d at 889-90.

When this case was heard in the circuit court, Mrs. Young and her ten-year old child were living with Mrs. Young's mother and paying her $225 a month for food and rent for both Mrs. Young and the child. Mrs. Young testified that she spent about $600 a year on vacations and planned to spend about $500 a year for the child's school clothes. School lunches would cost $20 per month. If she purchased a home, it would cost about $47,000 and her payments would be almost $500 a month.

The judge found that it would cost about $200 to feed the child plus $100 a month for clothing and school expenses, including piano lessons, $50 a month for gifts, recreation, and vacation expenses, and approximately $200 for the child's portion of housing cost. Based upon all the evidence, the trial judge concluded that the average cost of maintaining the child in separate housing from Mrs. Young's mother would be about $550 per month. The trial judge expressed the opinion that each parent was responsible for one half of the child's expenses and fixed Mr. Young's payments at $275 per month.

Mrs. Young introduced evidence to prove what it would cost to live in a separate home from her mother. However, Mrs. Young did not testify that she would, in fact, obtain separate housing and there was insufficient evidence to prove that if she were awarded the increased child support, she would spend it on separate housing and expenses in the reasonably foreseeable future. See Thomas, 217 Va. at 505, 229 S.E.2d at 890. Therefore, we reverse the...