Marriage of Bareket and Marcus

Filed 4/18/06 Marriage of Bareket and Marcus CA6

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

I. Introduction

In this family law matter, the trial court's judgment requires petitioner Ittai Bareket to pay $1,244 per month plus a percentage of his sales commissions as child support for his daughter Sydney. The judgment also requires additional payments to cover Sydney's school tuition and other expenses. Stacy Lynn Marcus, Sydney's mother, appeals from the judgment. She argues that, for several reasons, the trial court erred in not ordering more than it did.

The only error we detect is the trial court's failure to give reasons for allowing Ittai[1] a hardship deduction (Fam. Code, § 4059, subd. (g))[2] in his calculation of the base child support payment. (§ 4072.) Accordingly, we reverse the judgment with directions to the trial court to recalculate the base child support payment, omitting the hardship deduction.

Stacy also challenges an order that modifies the schedule for briefing the issue of attorneys' fees. Although the order is contained in the form of judgment, it is not an appealable order. We, therefore, dismiss the portion of the appeal pertaining to this order.

II. Procedural Background

The parties were married in 1992 and separated in May 2000. Their only child, Sydney, was born in 1997. A status-only judgment was filed on December 19, 2001. All other issues were reserved for future determination.

By the time of trial on May 20, 2004, Stacy and Sydney were living in New York City where Stacy was employed as a strategic and financial planner. Ittai had remarried and was living in California with his new wife, their baby daughter, and his wife's eight-year-old son. Ittai was co-president and chief operating officer of the privately held technology company, Netformx. Stacy and Ittai had joint physical and legal custody of Sydney. Stacy had custody during the school year and Ittai had the right to extended weekend visits once per month and sole custody during Christmas, spring break, and over the summer.

In April 2004, the parties entered into a stipulation by which they settled a number of property issues and agreed that retired Justice Donald King would â€