North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Holding: Given sparse evidence supporting the plaintiff-father’s assertion that he earned $1,500 a month, as well as evidence that he maintained multiple accounts and moved money around in order to avoid his creditors, the trial court should have made more ...

Tagged with: parent & child

Holding: Where plaintiff and her late husband entered into a post-marriage agreement pursuant to which they agreed to keep their property – including the husband’s Ashe County property – separate, plaintiff’s claim for the $397,872 that she contributed to building ...

Tagged with: Trusts and Estates

Holding: The trial court’s 2015 custody order said it was temporary, but it (1) was not entered “without prejudice” to either party, (2) said, “Either party, or the Court, may place this order on the calendar for review after 6 ...

Tagged with: custody

Holding: Plaintiff’s post-separation interest-only payments on the parties’ mortgage were payments on “financing charges and interest related to marital debt”; as such, a strict reading of G.S. § 50-20(b)(4)(d)’s plain language reveals them to be divisible payments. We affirm the ...

Tagged with: equitable distribution

Holding: The Cabarrus County Department of Human Services presented evidence that infant “Sam’s” mother had neglected him and that respondent had recently been discovered to be Sam’s father. With no evidence about respondent – other than paternity – the trial ...

Tagged with: Parent and Child

Holding: Despite this court’s previous reversal of a 2015 order terminating respondent’s parental rights on the basis of abandonment – which essentially gave respondent a second chance to assert her rights as a parent – she still did not have ...

Tagged with: Parent and Child

Holding: Where the trial court held the adjudication, dispositional, and permanency planning hearings on the same day, reunification was required to be part of the initial permanent plan under G.S. § 7B-906.2(b). The trial court’s order is affirmed in part, ...

Tagged with: Parent and Child

Holding: While the trial court’s order may not have explicitly ceased reunification efforts, since the order eliminated reunification as a goal of juvenile D.A.’s permanent plan, established a permanent plan of full legal and physical custody with the foster parents, ...

Tagged with: Parent and Child

Holding: Even though the respondent-mother vaguely acknowledged “making bad decisions” and “bad choices” in the past, without offering specific examples except for giving “men benefits of the doubts,” there was evidence that (1) respondent had a long history of violent ...

Tagged with: Parent and Child

Holding: We affirm the Court of Appeals’ decision (The petitioner-grandparents sought termination of the respondent-mother’s parental rights based on willful abandonment during a six-month period when a prior termination-of-parental-rights order was on appeal to this court. Although the mother’s options ...

Tagged with: Parent and Child