North Carolina Divorce Lawyers Blog

Articles Tagged with divorce judgment

Published on:

By

ADJEI V. MAYORKAS, _____F.4d _____ (4th Cir. 2023). 

Facts: Plaintiff and Defendant were before the Fourth Circuit on a citizenship and naturalization issue. Plaintiff and Boateng were a married couple, and Plaintiff sought to become a naturalized citizen of the US. Before Boateng was married to Plaintiff, she was married to Gyasi in Ghana. Boateng and Gyasi obtained a Ghanaian divorce through a ceremonial divorce, wherein neither party was domiciled or residing in Ghana. Ghanaian law allows the head of households to perform to ceremonial divorce. A Ghanaian court subsequently certified the divorce. Later, Plaintiff and Boateng married, and Plaintiff became a permanent resident. Plaintiff then applied for citizenship and was denied because immigration believed that Virginia would not recognize the Ghanaian divorce.  Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Hicks v. Hicks, 2022-NCCOA-139.

Facts: Plaintiff and Defendant attended a mediation to attempt to settle the Equitable Distribution and alimony parts of their case. In mediation, they reached a settlement and memorialized their terms in a consent order, entered in September of 2018. Among those terms, Defendant received a parcel of land with a requirement to refinance the loan to remove Plaintiff’s name and debt. Defendant also received another parcel of land, with a similar refinance provision. Finally, the consent order provided that Plaintiff shall pay a distributive award to Defendant for $87,500, on or before January 1, 2019. Defendant was having difficulty refinancing the loans on the parcels he received. Plaintiff’s counsel reached out the Defendant’s new counsel to discuss the issue of the loans, but then noticed that “Plaintiff” and “Defendant” on the distributive award provision were interchanged (the parties agreed that Plaintiff would be receiving the award). Plaintiff thus filed a Rule 60 motion on April 15, 2020, requesting that the court correct a clerical mistake under 60(a) or such other justifiable relief under 60(b)(6). Plaintiff and her attorney testified that it was the mutual agreement that Plaintiff receive the award, and Defendant pay it. The trial court granted relief under 60(b)(6) and amended the typo. Defendant appeals. Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Scott v. Scott, 2021-NCCOA-636 (unpublished).

In North Carolina, contempt is the avenue to enforce many domestic court orders, including those that were part of a separation agreement, but only if the agreement is later incorporated into a court order/judgment. That is the situation in the case below, where the father had agreed to pay $2000 a year toward a college fund for the minor child, but later ceased payment. He was found in contempt, and later appealed. Continue reading →