Wood v. Wood

In Wood v. Wood, 964 P.2d 1259 (Wyo. 1998), the Court found that the district court was correct in not including social security benefits paid for the benefit of the children in the support calculation. In Wood the mother had two daughters from a previous marriage. The daughters were eligible for, and the wife received on their behalf, monthly social security benefits because their biological father had passed away. Id. at 1263. The mother's second husband adopted the girls, and the couple also had two more children. When the parties divorced, it was argued that the social security benefits for the two girls should be attributed to the mother as income. The Court stated: "The social security benefits belonged to the two girls and, therefore, were not income for the mother. Accordingly, they cannot be included as a part of the mother's monthly net income." Id. at 1264.