—In an action for a divorce and ancillary relief, the defendant appeals, as limited by his brief, from stated portions of a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Satterfield, J.), dated September 9, 1998, which, inter alia, granted the plaintiff a divorce based upon cruel and inhuman treatment, denied his counterclaim for the same relief, granted sole custody of the parties’ child to the plaintiff, imputed $150,000 in annual income to him, directed him to pay $456 per week in child support, child support arrears in the sum of $73,416 at the rate of $44 per week, and 44% of the reasonable health care expenses for the child which are not covered by insurance, and denied his applications for counsel and expert fees, and for equitable distribution.
Ordered that the judgment is modified, on the law and the facts, by (1) deleting so much of the fifth decretal paragraph thereof as imputed $150,000 in annual income to the defendant and substituting therefor a provision imputing $80,000 in annual income to him; (2) deleting so much of the sixth decretal
The trial court’s determination that the plaintiff was entitled to a divorce on the ground of cruel and inhuman treatment was based upon its evaluation of the parties’ credibility and should not be disturbed (see, Elkind v Berger,
The record provides a sound and substantial basis for the court’s custody determination (see, Eschbach v Eschbach,
The trial court did not err in imputing income to the defendant in this case. In determining a party’s child support obligation, a court need not rely on the party’s own account of his or her finances, but may impute income based upon the party’s past income or demonstrated earning potential (see, Matter of Diamond v Diamond,
The court erred in treating all of the funds held in the plaintiffs name as separate property since the plaintiffs earnings during the marriage were marital property (see, Domestic Relations Law § 236 [B] [1] [c]). Accordingly, the defendant is entitled to a distributive award in the sum of $33,192.50.
