MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1997

Style: Finley v. Scott, No. 90,071

Facts: The mother of a child born out of wedlock brought an action against theacknowledged father to determine his child support obligation. State child supportguidelines based on the parents' income yielded a figure of $10,000 per month. Theamount required to provide for the needs of the child in line with the custodial parent'sstandard of living was determined to be $2000 per month. The trial court ordered that$2000 per month be paid to the mother as child support and that $3000 per month bepaid into a guardianship account for the future benefit of the child. The district court ofappeal reversed the guardianship provision, holding that the guidelines amount is apresumptive figure subject to adjustment by the court and finding that the award in thiscase should be limited to the amount required to provide for the actual current supportneeds of the child. The mother seeks review.
Issues:
(1) Whether the state guidelines figure should be followed.
(2) Whether a trust fund for future needs is proper based on the paying parent's ability topay.