Smith v. Smith

In Smith v. Smith, 895 P.2d 37, 42 (Wyo.1995), the parties reached an "agreement" to forego the application of the child support guidelines. 895 P.2d at 38-39. In Smith, Mr. Smith initially entered into an agreement with Mrs. Smith to pay $ 5,000 per month in child support, even though that was an amount many times greater than the presumptive level of support. Later, the Smiths reached a second agreement which reduced Mr. Smith's child support obligation to $ 3,000 per month, an amount which was still many times greater than the presumptive support level. Mr. Smith then sought an adjustment of his child support obligations to bring them into line with the statutory level of presumptive child support. Based on those facts, we held that Wyo. Stat. Ann. 20-6-302: "invokes the discretion of the trial judge, in the modification hearing, to weigh the enumerated thirteen factors and also the presence or absence of an agreement in the light of the policy favoring finality. In instances in which the parties have arrived at an agreement as to child support previously, even when the support agreed to deviates by more than twenty percent from the presumptive guidelines, the petitioner must introduce other evidence of a material change in circumstances in order to justify a modification." (Smith, 895 P.2d at 42.)