Benjamin John Jass
v.
Carrie Marie Atkinson n/k/a Carrie Marie Van Hugten
Appellant
Benjamin John Jass
Appellee
Carrie Marie Atkinson n/k/a Carrie Marie Van Hugten
Attorney for the Appellant
Christy R. Liss and Joshua L. Christensen
Attorney for the Appellee
Reyne L. See
Court of Appeals
Court of Appeals Opinion
Opinion Number:
Date Published:
Summary
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Hardin County, James C. Ellefson, Judge. AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED. Considered by Potterfield, P.J., and Tabor and Bower, JJ. Opinion by Tabor, J. (20 pages)
A father appeals the district court’s decree granting joint legal custody and placing physical care with the child’s mother. On appeal, the father seeks to change the child’s surname to his own, expand visitation, share transportation, decrease child support, and alternate tax benefits. OPINION HOLDS: Our de novo review leads us to most of the same conclusions as the district court: we affirm the district court’s resolution of the child’s name, its visitation schedule, allocation of transportation, the amount of child support, and the award of tax benefits to the mother. But we agree with the father’s contention there should be an end date to the upward deviation in child support resulting from elevated childcare expenses when the mother removes the child from daycare. Accordingly, we modify the decree to order the mother to notify the father when she stops paying for daycare at which time the child support payment will be reduced to align with the child support guidelines.
