A father with sole legal custody but equal physical custody was wrongly awarded child support because his income far exceeds that of his ex-wife, an appellate panel in Rochester has held. In Leonard v. Leonard, 11-01596, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, reversed the lower court and awarded the mother child support. It acknowledged that under settled case law, the noncustodial parent is typically liable for support in matters of shared physical and joint legal custody. Here, however, it ordered a man who had sole legal custody and 50 percent physical custody to pay support to the mother.
"Although the award of sole legal custody to plaintiff allows him to make important decisions in the children's lives, that decision-making authority does not increase his child-related costs," Justice Stephen Lindley wrote for a unanimous panel. "A parent's child-related costs are dictated by the amount of time he or she spends with the children, and, here, [the father] spends no more time with the children than does [the mother]."
