State v. Nguyen

When determining whether a father has access to resources outside of his regular income, the court must make findings based on facts supported by evidence in the record and not merely on the testimony of the mother.

Father was ordered to pay eight hundred dollars a month in child support. Father contested this and the matter was referred to an administrative law judge who also required him to pay an amount that he felt was based on an inflated estimate of his income. Father appealed this judgment to the trial court which found, among other things, that Father had access to resources from Mother and Mother spent one-hundred fifty dollars a month in medical expenses for their child. The trial court found Father owed $8,140 in past due support and eight-hundred fourteen dollars a month from then on. Father appealed, assigning five errors. The Court held the calculation of his earnings were incorrect because of inadequate evidence and his access to his ex-wife’s resources stemmed from an error in the application of rebuttable factors that were not supported by evidence in the record. Reversed and remanded.