Background
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services brought a child-support action on behalf of Shaina Matos against Daniel Badea, the father of her minor child. After Badea did not timely respond, the Cook County circuit court entered a temporary order requiring $100 monthly support. Badea later submitted a financial affidavit stating he was unemployed and had earned $21,450 in the prior year, but he supplied no supporting financial documents.
Badea then failed to appear at an evidentiary hearing despite an order warning that income could be imputed if he did not provide financial information. Based on Matos’s testimony that Badea owned a recording studio and had earned about $10,000 monthly while the parties lived together, the circuit court imputed monthly gross income of $2,877 to him. It ordered $533.17 monthly child support, $73.74 monthly medical-insurance support, and $5,906 in retroactive support.
The Court’s Holding
The appellate court affirmed. Badea did not provide a transcript of the evidentiary hearing or an authorized substitute record. As the appellant, he bore the burden to provide a record sufficient to evaluate claimed error; without one, the court presumed that the support order conformed to law and rested on an adequate factual basis.
The court also rejected Badea’s legal arguments. The support order adequately identified the basis for imputing his income: his continuing ownership of the recording studio and his prior earnings from it. The court found Matos’s actual income from her testimony and was not required to make imputation findings as to her. Shared-care calculations did not apply absent a record showing Badea exercised at least 146 overnights, and the governing statute did not require the circuit court to complete a child-support worksheet. Arguments first raised in Badea’s reply brief were forfeited; the asserted $25.21 retroactive-support arithmetic discrepancy was harmless because it favored him.
Key Takeaways
- An appellant challenging a support award must furnish a transcript or acceptable substitute record.
- A court may impute income based on evidence of a parent’s business ownership and earning history when the parent fails to provide financial information or appear.
- Shared-care support rules require proof that each parent exercises at least 146 overnights annually.
Why It Matters
The decision underscores the practical consequences of failing to participate in a support hearing and failing to preserve the hearing record for appeal. In that circumstance, appellate courts will presume the trial court had a sufficient factual basis for its income and support calculations.