 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Ferrero v. Ferrero6/8/1999
ivorce decree shows that the order concerning these three expenses was included as part of the trial court's general order on child support.
The inclusion of the expense order in this aspect of the decree is consistent with the manner in which the Ohio Revised Code handles the issue. R.C. 3113.215, which governs the calculation of child support , contains the following provision:
"The court shall not order an amount of child support for reasonable and ordinary uninsured medical or dental expenses in addition to the amount of the child support obligation determined in accordance with the schedule. The court shall issue a separate order for extraordinary medical or dental expenses, including, but not limited to, orthodontia, psychological, appropriate private education, and other expenses, and may consider the expenses in adjusting a child support order." R.C. 3113.215(B)(5)(f).
Under the second sentence of the foregoing provision, a trial court has a mandatory duty to render an order concerning these types of expenses, similar to its duty to issue the basic child support order. As a result, the expense issue could not be the solely resolved by a negotiated stipulation of the parties. Regardless of any agreement of the parties, the trial court must independently determine whether that agreement is in the best interests of the children. Accordingly, even if the parties had included a provision in their shared parenting plan on the expense issue, the trial court would not be obligated to adopt it. In turn, it follows that the trial court was not required to order the parties to negotiate this issue as part of any amendment of the shared parenting plan. To this extent, appellant's third assignment is not well-taken. Nevertheless, this court is compelled to note that the trial court's order required appellant to pay "all" necessary medical, dental and optical expenses. In contrast, R.C. 3113.215(B)(5)(f) only refers to the payment of "extraordinary" medical expenses.
In turn, R.C. 3113.215(A)(12) defines "extraordinary medical expenses" as any expenses which " * are incurred for a child during a calendar year and * exceed one hundred dollars for that child during that calendar year." Therefore, pursuant to the foregoing provisions, the first one hundred dollars of any uninsured medical expenses for a year must be paid from the basic child support . Stated differently, the non-custodial parent cannot be required to pay both child support and the first one hundred dollars of uninsured expenses.
However, such a parent can be required to pay anything over one hundred dollars for a given year. In the instant case, the trial court acted properly in requiring appellant to pay some medical, dental and optical expenses. However, instead of ordering him to pay "all" of these specific expenses, the court could only require payment of the "extraordinary" expenses. To this limited extent, the final assignment in this appeal has merit.
Consistent with the foregoing analysis, the judgment of the trial court is modified in the following manner: As part of his child support obligation, appellant is hereby ordered to pay any extraordinary medical, dental and optical expenses incurred by the two children of the parties. In all other respects, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed as modified.
JUDGE JUDITH A. CHRISTLEY Eleventh Appellate District, sitting by assignment.
FORD, P.J., Eleventh Appellate District, sitting by assignment,
NADER, J., Eleventh Appellate District, sitting by assignment, concur.
|