In this action the district court dissolved the marriage of the parties and, among other things, awarded custody of their three minor boys to the petitioner-appellee husband, Philip M. Kelly, and alimony to the respondent-appellant wife, Linda E Kelly. The wife thereafter appealed to the Nebraska Court of Appeals, and the husband cross-appealed. That court reduced the amount of alimony, but otherwise affirmed the decree of the district court. Kelly v. Kelly, 2 Neb. App. 399, 510 N.W.2d 90 (1993). As a consequence, the wife petitioned this court for further review.
Obviously, in reviewing a party's income for child support purposes, alimony cannot be factored into income if alimony has not yet been determined. See Kelly v. Kelly, 2 Neb. App. 399, 510 N.W.2d 90 (1993), reversed on other grounds 246 Neb. 55, 516 N.W.2d 612 (1994). It logically follows that because alimony is not properly considered as income when child support is established, the cessation of alimony cannot be considered a diminution in income when determining whether there has been a material change of circumstances justifying a modification of child support.
This court has interpreted paragraph M to mean that alimony paid to the noncustodial parent by the custodial parent is not income for purposes of calculating the child support obligation of the noncustodial parent. Kelly v. Kelly, 2 Neb. App. 399, 510 N.W.2d 90 (1993), reversed on other grounds 246 Neb. 55, 516 N.W.2d 612 (1994). The Nebraska Supreme Court recently considered a similar issue in Gallner v. Hoffman, 264 Neb. 995, 653 N.W.2d 838 (2002).