Justia Family Law Opinion Summaries

Respondent Alan Cote appealed a family court's garnishment order that directed the Social Security Administration to withhold his Social Security benefits to offset alimony arrearages. On appeal, Respondent contended that the garnishment order violated a provision of the Federal Consumer Credit Protection Act which imposes a cap on the percentage of aggregate disposable earnings that any court, state or federal, may garnish. While the trial court garnished only Respondent's Social Security disability benefits and not his veterans' disability benefits, the court did include the latter in its calculation of aggregate disposable earnings.  This broad calculation of disposable earning increased the percentage of Respondent's Social Security payments subject to garnishment.  Respondent contended that as defined and excluded from such a calculation by federal law, his particular veterans' disability benefits were not to be counted as earnings because they were not paid for a service related disability and are not received in lieu of retirement payments to which he would otherwise be entitled as earnings.  Upon review of the lower court's record and calculations, the Supreme Court agreed, reversed the lower court's order and remanded the case for recalculation of the garnishment.

Petitioner Carlema (Limoggio) Iannarone appealed a family court's order that denied her motion to enforce the property division set forth in her and her ex-husband Robert Limoggio's original divorce decree. She contended the court abused its discretion by failing to enforce a provision requiring payment of $150,000 for the marital home and by failing to exercise its equitable power to impose a constructive trust on the home. Upon review of the lower court record and the divorce decree at issue, the Supreme Court concluded that Ms. Iannarone's claims were precluded by res judicata and affirmed the lower court's decision.

Michael Hazlett (Father) appealed a trial court's award to Michelle Toomin (Mother) of primary legal and physical rights and responsibilities for their daughter.  On appeal he contended that: (1) the court gave insufficient consideration to his superior ability to foster a positive relationship between the daughter and mother as compared to mother's ability to support daughter's relationship with him; (2) the court did not properly weigh an incident of Mother allegedly abusing the daughter in drawing its conclusion to award her custody; and (3) the court gave undue weight to the conclusion that mother was the primary caregiver because it did not consider the quality of her caregiving relationship with the daughter.  Finding no flaw in the trial court's conclusions, the Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's decision.

Husband Lee Herring appealed the family courtâs denial of his motion to terminate spousal maintenance to his ex-wife Kimberly Herring. Eight months after the order of divorce maintenance was entered, Mr. Herring was found guilty of sexual assault. The stateâs first prosecution of Mr. Herring ended in a hung jury, which occurred before the divorce was granted. After the second trial, he was sentenced. Mr. Herring paid maintenance pursuant to the divorce order for the first six months following the divorce, but stopped making payments once he was incarcerated. Mr. Herring petitioned the family court to modify the maintenance award since he would have no means of paying it from jail. The family court reasoned that the incarceration was not an unanticipated change in his situation and denied his motion to modify the maintenance award. The Supreme Court could not conclude that the pendency of the criminal proceedings made his resulting loss of income âanticipatedâ in terms of his ability to pay the maintenance award. The Court reversed the family courtâs decision to deny Mr. Herring a modification to the maintenance award, and remanded the case for further proceedings.