HOOVER VS. HOOVER (CHILD SUPPORT)

Statutes cited

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

The court affirmed the district court's application of the child support formula. Under NRS 125B.070(2)(b), the statutory obligation for two children is 25 percent of the obligor's gross monthly income, and the district court correctly awarded that amount to the custodial parent. The court rejected the obligor's proposed 'per-child rate' methodology - applying the four-children percentage (31 percent) and dividing by four - holding there is no legislative authority for such a calculation. When a custodian seeks support for a defined number of children in her custody, the statute prescribes the percentage. NRS 125B.070(2)(b). The court recognized that NRS 125B.080 requires the court to apply the appropriate formula when determining or changing required support, and that courts retain power under NRS 125B.080 to make equitable adjustments of the formula obligation based on enumerated factors, including 'the responsibility of the parents for the support of others,' but held courts have no power to devise a new formula based on the number of children born to the paying parent. The court expressly identified the treatment of successive families as a matter of public policy for the legislature, not the judiciary.

In plain language

Warren Hoover had four children: two with his former wife Linda, and two more with a later wife. Linda asked the court to set child support for their two children using Nevada's statutory formula. Under that formula, support for two children is 25 percent of the paying parent's gross monthly income. The district court awarded Linda that 25 percent. Warren objected. He argued the court should account for the fact that he also supports two other children. His proposed method was to take the four-children percentage (31 percent), then divide it by four to get a "per-child" rate, which would lower what he paid Linda. The Nevada Supreme Court rejected Warren's math. It held there is no legal authority for that kind of calculation. When a parent seeks support for a specific number of children in her custody, the statute plainly states the percentage - here, 25 percent for two children - and that is what Linda was entitled to. The court acknowledged there are real policy questions about how to treat a parent who has several children across different families - whether all children should be treated equally or whether later families get less. But it said those decisions belong to the legislature, not the courts. The court did note that under the statute, a judge still has power to make equitable adjustments to the formula amount based on listed factors, including a parent's responsibility to support others. What a court cannot do is invent an entirely new formula based on the total number of children the paying parent happens to have. The support award was affirmed.