In Re Marriage of Chandler

After a trial on reserved issues in a marital dissolution proceeding, the court awarded physical custody of the parties’ five-year-old daughter Ashley to petitioner Lana Chandler (mother), and ordered respondent Bruce Chandler (father) to pay monthly child support of $3,000. In addition, the court ordered father to deposit $4,000 each month into a trust for certain child-related expenses. Mother appeals, challenging the creation of the trust. We conclude the record does not support the use of a trust and reverse that portion of the judgment.

Facts

At the time of trial, father had a gross monthly income of $117,000 and a net monthly disposable income of $71,002. He owned a bayfront home with an adjacent boat dock, a condominium in Las Vegas, Nevada, some property in Hawaii, plus several cars and boats. He supported two college-age sons from a prior marriage who had combined monthly expenses amounting to approximately $3,500.

Mother had a college degree and worked before the marriage earning $25,000 per year. At the time of trial, she was a homemaker, receiving $14,000 per month in temporary spousal support and $1,500 in temporary *127 child support from father. Mother’s…

I respectfully dissent. The interests of a child of a very high income parent are best served by having enough money for the child to go to college, graduate or professional school; or, if the child is not so inclined, to have a tidy nest egg at the beginning of adult life. Under the model of child support law proffered by the majority opinion, however, while Ashley will have enough money to buy a thousand outfits for her Barbie doll, purchase several divisions of toy soldiers, or commission her own Nintendo game, she may have nothing for college. After all, as the majority tell us, it is beyond the jurisdiction of a court to make even the slightest provision for a child’s college education in a child support order, even in a case where a child has a very high income parent and the statutory guidelines yield a number grossly in excess of a child’s current needs.

I cannot believe the Legislature ever intended such an anomalous result. When the income of a supporting parent is so high that it is in substantial *132 excess of a child’s reasonable current needs, true “sharing” in a very high income parent’s standard of living means putting something away for college or adult life,…

Will the time ever come when our judiciary comprehends family law is not a separate and distinct category over which judges may impose their own concepts and value judgments? Certainly the pronouncements of the trial judge and our dissenting colleague are not encouraging. Simply stated, judges in making their decisions must follow the law. And this is true whether the applicable statute falls within the Family Code or the Penal Code and whether we agree the statute represents good public policy.

After a trial on reserved issues in a marital dissolution proceeding, the court awarded physical custody of the parties' five-year-old daughter Ashley to petitioner Lana Chandler (mother), and ordered respondent Bruce Chandler (father) to pay monthly child support of $3,000. In addition, the court ordered father to deposit $4,000 each month into a trust for certain child-related expenses. Mother appeals, challenging the creation of the trust. We conclude the record does not support the use of a trust and reverse that portion of the judgment.

At the time of trial, father had a gross monthly income of $117,000 and a net monthly disposable income of $71,002. He owned a bayfront home with an adjacent boat dock, a condominium in Las Vegas, Nevada, some property in Hawaii, plus several cars and boats. He supported two college-age sons from a prior marriage who had combined monthly expenses amounting to approximately $3,500.

Mother had a college degree and worked before the marriage earning $25,000 per year. At the time of trial, she was a homemaker, receiving $14,000 per month in temporary spousal support and $1,500 in temporary child support from father.…