In re Moler (Kansas 2019)

A Kansas Court didn’t have jurisdiction to modify the definition of income contained in a settlement agreement. The father was a high earner. When the parents divorced, they agreed to a base amount of child support, calculated pursuant to the guidelines, plus a supplemental amount if the father earned over $275,000. For the supplemental support calculation, the parties specifically defined “earned income”. The parents ended up in post-divorce litigation to modify base child support and to determine the amount of supplemental support due for 2015. The district court entered an order, finding that the parents should have used the guideline definition of income for the supplemental child support calculation. Both parents appealed. The appellate court found that a court had no authority to modify the definition of income for the supplemental child support calculation. The base support amount was calculated pursuant to the guidelines. This was support above and beyond that, and the father knew he was agreed to pay more support.