LAURA E. MATURO v. FRANK A. MATURO, SC 17776

Judicial District of Stamford

Dissolution of Marriage; Financial Orders; Whether Court Properly Ordered Defendant to pay Percentage of his Annual Employment Bonus as Child Support; Whether Court Properly Ordered Defendant to pay Percentage of his Annual Tax Refunds as Alimony and Child Support.  In 2006, the trial court dissolved the parties' marriage and ordered the defendant to pay a set amount of alimony and child support per week.  The court also ordered the defendant to pay twenty percent of his yearly employment bonus, after tax, to the plaintiff as additional child support, and another twenty percent of his bonus as additional alimony.  Moreover, it stated that if the defendant receives a state or federal tax refund for any year that child support and alimony are owed, the defendant shall pay twenty percent of that refund to the plaintiff as child support and another twenty percent as alimony.  In rendering these financial orders, the court noted that the child support award represented a deviation from the child support guidelines and that such deviation was due to the defendant's substantial assets, his superior earning capacity, the extraordinary disparity in parental income and the significant and essential needs of the plaintiff.  The court further noted that it ordered the defendant to pay a percentage of his tax refund to the plaintiff to discourage him from withholding an excessive amount of taxes in an attempt to reduce his support payments.  With respect to the parties' marital property, the court did not ascribe any particular percentages in its division of the assets but, instead, awarded certain assets entirely to either the plaintiff or the defendant with one exception.  It split the defendant's Fidelity IRA.  In this appeal, the Supreme Court will determine whether the trial court properly ordered the defendant to pay a percentage of his yearly bonus as child support where the defendant argues that the child support award grossly exceeds the financial needs of his children and amounts to a misapplication of the child support guidelines.  The Supreme Court will also determine whether the trial court properly ordered the defendant to pay a percentage of his tax refunds as alimony and child support and properly divided the parties' martial assets.