California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Marriage of Catalano, In re, 204 Cal.App.3d 543, 251 Cal.Rptr. 370 (Cal. App. 1988):
[204 Cal.App.3d 555] More importantly, a court will not base an award on earning capacity as opposed to actual earnings unless the parent appears to be avoiding his or her responsibilities and it would be in the child's best interests to impute the difference in earnings (In re Marriage of Nolte (1987) 191 Cal.App.3d 966, 973, 236 Cal.Rptr. 706; In re Marriage of Barnert (1978) 85 Cal.App.3d 413, 427, 149 Cal.Rptr. 616; cf. Philbin v. Philbin (1971) 19 Cal.App.3d 115, 121, 96 Cal.Rptr. 408)--conclusions that this record cannot support.
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