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HomeMy WebLinkAbout972 S 2002 MICHELE A. EGRESITZ, PLAINTIFF IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA V. PACSES NO. 153104991 FRANK R. EGRESITZ, JR., DEFENDANT 972 SUPPORT 2002 IN RE: EXCEPTIONS OF MICHELE A. EGRESITZ TO SUPPORT MASTER'S RECOMMENDATION OF SUPPORT ORDER OPINION AND ORDER OF COURT Bayley, J., January 4, 2006:-- On October 19, 2005, an interim order was entered upon the recommendation of the Cumberland County Support Master providing, inter alia, that Frank R. Egresitz, Jr., pay support in the amount of $320 per month effective June 28, 2005, to Michele A. Egresitz for Brittany N. Egresitz, born April 11 , 1994. The mother filed exceptions. The Master found that in February 2004, the mother was on public assistance. She obtained employment in July 2004, working twenty-five hours per week at $8.00 per hour as a manager at Rita's Italian Ice. The father is a driver for Overnight Transportation Company with net monthly income for support purposes of $2,897. The Master calculated the mother's income for support purposes as follows: The [mother] has gross monthly income from employment at Rita's of $867.00. Filing her federal income tax return as head-of-household and claiming her oldest child as a dependency exemption, she has a net monthly income due to the earned income credit of $1,112.00.1 Answering the following questions "No," the mother raises the following issues: 1 The Master stated that, "A calculation of [the father's] support obligation will be performed based upon [the mother's] income at the time she filed her petition." 972 SUPPORT 2002 Should the Plaintiff be held to an earning capacity, when that employment ends due to no fault of her own and the Plaintiff has taken such steps as necessary to obtain other employment? Does the inclusion of the earned income credit for tax year 2005 (not payable until 2006) in the Plaintiff's current income, create additional income for the Plaintiff for child support purposes? The hearing before the Master was conducted on October 18, 2005. The mother testified that her employment with Rita's was seasonal, and had ended just two days earlier. She will return to Rita's when it reopens on March 10,2006. The mother testified that she had already secured an interim job at Dollar Tree, working the same part-time hours at $6.74 per hour.2 Pa. Rule of Civil Procedure 1910.16-2(d)(3) provides: Seasonal Employees. Support orders for seasonal employees, such as construction workers, shall ordinarily be based upon a yearly average. This is not an ordinary situation because the money that the mother was able to earn in her interim job is not equal to the pay of her seasonal employment at Rita's. The mother is working at her earning capacity. The best evidence of her earning capacity for support purposes is her combined income from Rita's and Dollar Tree on a yearlyaverage.3 The Support Master must make this calculation and appropriately deal 2 The plaintiff works part-time to better care for Brittany and her fourteen-year-old daughter whose father is not Frank Egresitz. She and Frank Egresitz have another child Evan, born May 15, 1992, who lives with him. 3 A calculation based on a yearly average for seasonal employees does not conflict with Rule 191 0.16-2(a) that provides: "Monthly gross income is ordinarily based upon at least a six-month average of all of a party's income." -2- 972 SUPPORT 2002 with any earned income credit. Accordingly, the following order is entered. ORDER OF COURT AND NOW, this day of January, 2006, the case is remanded to the Support Master to recalculate plaintiff's earned income capacity consistent with this opinion, and forward to this court an appropriate order of support effective June 28, 2005, to replace the interim order of October 19, 2005. By the Court, Edgar B. Bayley, J. Derek R. Clepper, Esquire For Plaintiff Frank R. Egresitz, Jr., Pro se 60 Paradise Park New Bloomfield, PA 17068 Michael Rundle, Esquire Support Master :sal -3- MICHELE A. EGRESITZ, PLAINTIFF IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA V. PACSES NO. 153104991 FRANK R. EGRESITZ, JR., DEFENDANT 972 SUPPORT 2002 IN RE: EXCEPTIONS OF MICHELE A. EGRESITZ TO SUPPORT MASTER'S RECOMMENDATION OF SUPPORT ORDER ORDER OF COURT AND NOW, this day of January, 2006, the case is remanded to the Support Master to recalculate plaintiff's earned income capacity consistent with this opinion, and forward to this court an appropriate order of support effective June 28, 2005, to replace the interim order of October 19, 2005. By the Court, Edgar B. Bayley, J. Derek R. Clepper, Esquire For Plaintiff Frank R. Egresitz, Jr., Pro se 60 Paradise Park New Bloomfield, PA 17068 Michael Rundle, Esquire Support Master :sal