Facts
A. (born 2012) and B. (born 2014) are the common children of D. (born 1979) and C. (born 1973). The parents of the children were and are not married; the separation took place in 2015, with the children living with the mother since that time. On August 24, 2016, A. and B. filed a maintenance claim with the District Court of See-Gaster.
In a decision dated July 7, 2017, the single judge of the District Court, among other things, ruled on the child maintenance contributions to be made by C. and determined the income circumstances underlying the decision. On appeal by C., the Cantonal Court of St. Gallen, in a decision dated September 10, 2019, set aside the corresponding dispositif paragraphs of the District Court's decision and, in particular, newly determined the monthly maintenance contributions to be made by C. from January 1, 2017.
With a civil law appeal dated October 14, 2019, A. and B. (the appellants) appeal to the Federal Supreme Court. They request the annulment of the corresponding dispositif paragraph of the Cantonal Court's decision and the remand to the Cantonal Court for a new assessment.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court upholds the appeal and remands the case to the Cantonal Court for a new decision in the sense of the considerations.
The Cantonal Court had not taken into account any tax share in the children's needs without justifying this. If the financial circumstances allow for going beyond the existential minimum under debt enforcement law in the calculation of maintenance, a tax share is to be included in the family law existential minimum of the child - as with the parents. The recipient parent is the taxpayer,…