Court entered judgment of dissolution and marital settlement agreement (MSA) by which Respondent husband agreed to pay petitioner a percentage of his net income as monthly child support. MSA provided that each year the parties would conduct a "true-up", based on Respondent's tax documents, to determine if he paid proper amount of support in the prior year. True-up provisions of MSA were irreconcilable with "net income" concept in Section 505(a)(3) of Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, and thus court should have struck them without conducting the true-ups. Petitioner wife's loss of the safeguard/windfall of these true-up provisions was itself a substantial change in circumstances that warranted revisitation of support. It was Petitioner's burden to request that trial court depart from default rule that each party bear his or her own litigation costs, but Petitioner failed to file a contribution petition. (SCHOSTOK and BRENNAN, concurring.)
Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Child Support