The principal issue in this appeal is whether trial courts have the authority under the current version of the child support guidelines statute, OCGA § 19-6-15, to order lump-sum payment of child support obligations. We hold that trial courts do have such discretion, and we also find appellant’s other claims to be meritless. Accordingly, we affirm. 1. Appellant Scott J. Mullin husband and appellee Lacey E. Roy wife married on December 21, 2004. They have two children. Husband was a senior systems engineer for Cox Newspapers making approximately $80,000 a year, while wife was a full-time homemaker. They separated on June 14, 2007, and on October 2, 2007, wife filed a complaint for divorce. Shortly thereafter, husband was arrested for possession of child pornography. He lost his job with Cox Newspapers and began living off a $422,000 inheritance he received in May 2007. In March 2009, husband pled guilty in federal court to receipt and possession of child pornography, and sentencing was set for mid-May. Prior to the sentencing hearing, husband and wife signed a partial settlement agreementresolving all issues in the divorce except for child support. A bench trial on child support was conducted on May 13, 2009, and the following day husband was sentenced in federal court to serve five years in prison.
The divorce decree was entered on May 20, 2009. The trial court acknowledged husband’s argument that when he is released from prison in five years, he will be a registered sex offender with seriously impaired earning capacity in his chosen field due to restrictions on his ability to use computers. However, the court was “inclined to believe that husband’s future lies somewhere between his historical abilities and the bleakness he predicts for his future.” The court settled on an amount halfway between husband’s and wife’s projections for his future earnings as the basis for calculating his monthly child support obligation to be $1,122. Given the circumstances, the trial court ordered husband to pay within 60 days his entire child support obligation for the next 13 years in a single payment of $175,163.
