Martinez v. Agostini

This case involves the issues of paternity and a father’s obligation to pay support for his child born out-of-wedlock. The child’s mother died of cancer after final judgment was entered. While we find no error in the trial court’s finding of paternity, we reverse the child support award and remand for further proceedings based on the following analysis.

*281First, it was error for the trial judge to rely exclusively on the statutorily set child support guidelines, § 61.30, Fla.Stat. (1989), in determining the amount of the support award because the guidelines were not yet in effect when the…