Harte v. Hand
Superior Court of New Jersey
81 A.3d 667 (N.J. Super. 2013)
David Hand (defendant) was ordered to pay child support to his ex-wife T.B. for their daughter, then remarried Susan Harte (plaintiff) and had a son with her; after a workplace injury settlement, Hand consented to imputed annual income of $57,200 for calculating support in both the T.B. and Harte matters. After divorcing Harte as well, Hand sought to reduce support for both children, ultimately submitting vocational-expert evidence of his inability to earn the imputed amount. The trial court instead recalculated support based on each mother's individual financial circumstances under the guidelines, without adjusting for the birth-order effect between the two children.
Whether a trial court calculating child support for children born to different relationships must avoid penalizing the child born later and instead achieve an equitable result across all the children.