Modification of Child Custody Decision Rendered by North Carolina Court of Appeals

The North Carolina Court of Appeals rendered an opinion in a North Carolina child custody case. In this case, Mother and Father were parties to a separation agreement. This separation agreement was incorporated into the Court’s Decree of Absolute Divorce which terminated the parties’ marriage and turned the child custody terms of the separation agreement into an order of the Court.

Only a month after the entry of the Decree of Absolute Divorce, Mother filed a motion to modify child custody. Mother asked that Father have no visitation. At the hearing on Mother’s motion to modify child custody, Mother alleged that Father had physically and sexually abused the minor child.

The trial Court found that neither Father nor Mother had proved that there had been a substantial change in circumstances which would support a modification of child custody and dismissed both motions to modify child custody. Mother appealed and took the position that some of the trial Court’s findings of fact were not supported by competent evidence.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals denied the appeal and held that there was competent evidence to support the trial Court’s ruling. The North Carolina Court of Appeals acknowledged that there was competing evidence at trial, but this does not mean that there was inadequate evidence to support the trial Court’s ruling.

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