Nzewunwah v. Nzewunwah

CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedDecember 17, 2025
Docket25-590
StatusPublished

This text of Nzewunwah v. Nzewunwah (Nzewunwah v. Nzewunwah) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nzewunwah v. Nzewunwah, (N.C. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF NORTH CAROLINA

No. COA25-590

Filed 17 December 2025

Forsyth County, No. 23CVD002992-330

JOE-PHILIP O. NZEWUNWAH, Plaintiff,

v.

RODALYN GONZALEZ NZEWUNWAH, Defendant.

Appeal by plaintiff from order entered 11 March 2025 by Judge George M.

Cleland IV in Forsyth County District Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 19

November 2025.

Harvey W. Barbee, Jr., for plaintiff-appellant.

Jackson Family Law, by Jill Schnabel Jackson, for defendant-appellee.

FLOOD, Judge.

Plaintiff-Father Joe-Philip O. Nzewunwah appeals from the trial court’s order

requiring Father to pay child support. On appeal, Father argues the trial court erred:

first, in calculating his income; second, by including certain work-related child care

expenses in the calculation of his child support obligation; and third, by reducing his

child support arrears to a judgment and placing a lien on any real property owned by

him, when the trial court failed to comply with N.C.G.S. § 50-13.4(f)(8). Upon careful

review, we conclude the trial court erred in calculating Father’s income, by including

certain work-related child care expenses that were not supported by competent NZEWUNWAH V. NZEWUNWAH

Opinion of the Court

evidence in the child support calculation, and by failing to adequately describe the

real property affected as required by N.C.G.S. §50-13.4(f)(8).

I. Factual and Procedural Background

Father and Defendant-Mother Rodalyn Nzewunwah were married in 2017,

separated in 2022, and subsequently divorced. Father and Mother are the biological

parents of one minor child, Luke,1 born in 2020. Following their separation, on 16

June 2023, Father filed an action against Mother seeking, inter alia, child custody

and child support. On 1 September 2023, Mother filed an answer and counterclaims

seeking, inter alia, child custody and both retroactive and prospective child support.

Prior to the parties’ separation, and until August 2023, Father worked for a

Nigerian-based company that was an affiliate of ExxonMobil (“Exxon-Nigeria”),

which required Father to primarily reside in Nigeria. In August 2023, Father quit his

job; became “self-employed”; moved to Atlanta, Georgia; and rented an apartment for

approximately $2,183.19 per month. Mother worked as a full-time physician’s

assistant in emergency medicine; after the separation, she hired “in-home nanny

care[,]” given her emergency department work schedule. Mother also applied for Luke

to attend Montessori School, which Luke was supposed to begin on 1 August 2024.

On 12 April 2024, the trial court entered a child custody order, granting Mother

sole legal and physical custody of Luke. Father was awarded visitation with Luke;

1 A pseudonym is used to protect the identity of the juvenile. See N.C.R. App. P. 42(b).

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however, none of Father’s visitations were allowed to take place outside of the United

States. The trial court subsequently held a hearing on child support on 25 June 2024,

and entered an order on 11 March 2025, requiring Father to pay child support in the

amount of “$3,902.00 per month[.]” Further, the trial court reduced Father’s child

support arrears—which was an amount of $84,790—to a judgment, and placed a lien

on any real property owned by him.

In computing the child support amount, the trial court found, regarding

Father’s income, that: Father had acted in “bad faith,” such that quitting his job

“reflect[ed] a deliberate disregard of his financial responsibility to support his child”;

Father “alleged he had no earned income”; “[Father’s] testimony was not credible”;

and Father’s income to be “$15,935.00 per month based upon his prior actual income

and his current income-earning abilities.” Additionally, regarding Mother’s expenses,

the trial court found the live-in nanny care of $2,800 per month to be a necessary

work-related expense, given Mother’s emergency department schedule, and found the

Montessori school to be a work-related child care expense, thus increasing “work-

related child[]care expenses to $3,626.80 per month.”

Father timely appealed.

II. Jurisdiction

This Court has jurisdiction to review this appeal from a final judgment of child

support from a district court, pursuant to N.C.G.S. §§ 7A-27(b) and 50-19.1 (2023).

III. Standard of Review

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“Child support orders entered by a trial court are accorded substantial

deference by appellate courts and our review is limited to a determination of whether

there was a clear abuse of discretion.” Jonna v. Yaramada, 273 N.C. App. 93, 100

(2020) (citation omitted). “Under this standard of review, the trial court’s ruling will

be upset only upon a showing that it was so arbitrary that it could not have been the

result of a reasoned decision.” Biggs v. Greer, 136 N.C. App. 294, 296–97 (2000)

(citation and internal quotation marks omitted). “The trial court must, however,

make sufficient findings of fact and conclusions of law to allow the reviewing court to

determine whether a judgment, and the legal conclusions that underlie it, represent

a correct application of the law.” Spicer v. Spicer, 168 N.C. App. 283, 287 (2005). “This

Court’s review of a trial court’s child support order is limited to whether there is

competent evidence to support the findings of fact, despite the fact that different

inferences may be drawn from the evidence.” Hodges v. Hodges, 147 N.C. App. 478,

482–83 (2001). “If unchallenged on appeal, findings of fact are deemed supported by

competent evidence and are binding upon this Court.” In re M.J.S.M., 257 N.C. App.

633, 636 (2018) (citation omitted).

“Where a party asserts an error of law occurred, we apply a de novo standard

of review.” Jonna, 273 N.C. App. at 100 (citation omitted). “Under a de novo review,

the court considers the matter anew and freely substitutes its own judgment for that

of the lower tribunal.” In re S.W., 298 N.C. App. 39, 44 (2025) (citation omitted).

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Additionally, this Court reviews de novo questions of statutory interpretation. See

State v. Williams, 297 N.C. App. 512, 522 (2024).

IV. Analysis

On appeal, Father argues the trial court erred (A) in calculating his income;

(B) by including certain work-related child care expenses in the child support

calculation; and (C) by reducing Father’s child support arrears to a judgment and

placing a lien on any real property owned by Father, when the trial court failed to

comply with N.C.G.S. § 50-13.4(f)(8). We address each argument, in turn.

A. Father’s Income

Father first argues the trial court erred in calculating his income. Specifically,

Father argues the trial court erred by (1) imputing income to Father where the

evidence did not support a finding that he acted in bad faith, and (2) converting

Father’s Nigerian salary into American dollars by utilizing the exchange rate on the

date of separation for the entire child support amount, rather than using two different

exchange rates for retroactive and prospective child support. We disagree.

1. Bad Faith

Although “[i]t is well established that child support obligations are ordinarily

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