Zuccarello v. Zuccarello

186 S.E.2d 651, 13 N.C. App. 531, 1972 N.C. App. LEXIS 2276
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedFebruary 23, 1972
DocketNo. 7219DC168
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 186 S.E.2d 651 (Zuccarello v. Zuccarello) 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
Zuccarello v. Zuccarello, 186 S.E.2d 651, 13 N.C. App. 531, 1972 N.C. App. LEXIS 2276 (N.C. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

MORRIS, Judge.

The separation agreement between the parties provided that plaintiff had “simultaneously with the execution of this agreement, delivered to Earline Owen Zuccarello a note for the sum of Thirty-six Thousand Dollars ($36,000.00) due and payable at the rate of Four Hundred Dollars ($400.00) per month without interest, which note shall be secured by a second mortgage deed of trust to William L. Mills, Jr., Trustee, covering a one-half (%) undivided interest in Lots Nos. 1 and 2 of the Harry A. Martin and Lee A. Martin Subdivision . . . and the assignment of an insurance policy upon the life of James B. Zuccarello for the sum of not less than Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00).” An additional provision was “That James B. Zuccarello shall pay to Earline Owen Zuccarello on or before the 15th day of each month, beginning with January, 1970, the sum of Six Hundred Dollars ($600.00) [Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00) for each child] for the support of Jan Owen Zuc-carello and James Bennett Zuccarello III, and on the 15th day of the month following each child’s thirteenth (13th) birthday, James B. Zuccarello shall increase the payment for the respective child to Three Hundred Seventy-Five Dollars ($375.00) per month and shall thereafter continue to make such payments in such amount until the child shall have completed her or his education or otherwise become emancipated; and that James B. Zuccarello shall carry hospitalization insurance and shall be responsible for all extraordinary or unusual expenses which may arise in regard to the health and education of his minor chil[533]*533dren, Jan Owen Zuccarello and James Bennett Zuccarello III.” Title to the house in which the parties lived and title to an automobile were transferred to defendant, and she agreed to assume the monthly payments on the indebtedness due on each. The agreement provided that defendant should have the custody and control of the children provided that they might visit with plaintiff at such times as might be mutually agreed between the parties.

At the hearing defendant testified that the children, then 11 and 8 years of age, had been with her since the separation; that she never worked at public work during her marriage with the exception of helping the plaintiff at his dental office for a short period of time; and that “The plaintiff and I contemplated that the monthly expenses for supporting our children on a standard to which they had been accustomed would amount to approximately One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) per month. We contemplated that it would take the money provided for the children in the separation agreement, as well as the money which the plaintiff agreed to pay me on the note in the separation agreement, to provide for our children. ...” Defendant introduced expenses for the months of June, July and August, 1971. Expenses for June were $1,011.89; for July, $599.07; and for August, $1,081.86. She explained that she and the children had spent the month of July with her parents in Tennessee which accounted for the difference in that month and the other months. The plaintiff’s gross income in 1970 was between $70,000 and $75,000. He showed for the year 1969 in a joint return a taxable income of only $17,960 and claimed over $5,000 in depreciation. We note that in December of 1969 he executed the agreement under which he agreed to pay defendant $1,000 per month. Plaintiff is the sole shareholder in P.M.S. Laboratory, Inc., to which he paid $11,000 lab fees in 1969. We note also that the tax return shows a deduction for rent in the amount of $3,245 and that plaintiff’s office was maintained in a building in which he owned one-half interest, and further, that the net taxable income from that building to the owners was $1,134.01 after a depreciation deduction of $1,959.82. Defendant testified that since her separation from plaintiff she had worked on a part-time basis as a kindergarten teacher from which she received an income of between $150 and $160 per month and further “I have no other income.”

[534]*534Plaintiff testified that for the year 1968 his net income was $20,000; for 1969, $17,000; for 1970, $26,000; that he owned one-half undivided interest in the clinic building in which he maintained his office which was encumbered by two deeds of trust, one of which was “to secure the separation agreement” and that payments on the note secured by the other deed of trust were in arrears; that he owned a lot at Beech Mountain but that payments on that were not in arrears; that he had to purchase the lot to maintain his membership in the ski lodge; that he was delinquent in his income tax payments since 1 January 1970 in the total amount of some $15,000; that his monthly obligations totaled $2,620.10; that he had been advised that he was insolvent; that he lived in an apartment in Charlotte for which he paid $150 per month and commuted daily to Concord to his office.

The court made findings of fact, and upon those findings certain conclusions of law, upon which its judgment was based. Those findings and conclusions pertinent to this appeal, renumbered, are as follows:

Findings of Fact:
1. “That there has never been an Order entered in this cause by the court related to the custody and support of the infant children born of the marriage.”
2. “That prior to the institution of this action for divorce, the plaintiff entered into a separation agreement with the defendant whereby the plaintiff, James B. Zuccarello, agreed, among other things:
(a) To pay the defendant, Earline Owen Zuccarello, the sum of Six Hundred Dollars ($600.00) per month for the support and maintenance of Jan Owen Zucca-rello and James Bennett Zuccarello III; and
(b) To execute and deliver to the defendant, Earline Owen Zuccarello, a note for the sum of Thirty-six Thousand Dollars ($36,000.00) due and payable at the rate of Four Hundred Dollars ($400.00) per month.”
3.“That it was contemplated by the parties at the time of the execution of the separation agreement that the monthly [535]*535expenses for supporting the infant children on a standard to which they had been accustomed would take approximately One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) per month.”
4. “That the plaintiff, James B. Zuccarello, paid the defendant, Earline Owen Zuccarello, the total sum of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) per month for the period from December, 1969, through May, 1971, including the payments on the Thirty-six Thousand Dollar ($36,000.00) note; the sum of Six Hundred Dollars ($600.00) from January 1 through August 31; and the sum of Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00) for the month of September.”
5. “That the monthly expenses of the defendant, Earline Owen Zuccarello, for the month of June, 1971, in connection with the support and maintenance of the infant children, including house payments, maintenance on the dwelling occupied by the children, telephone, lights, water, country club expenses, food, medical expenses, drugs; clothing, camping activities, automobile expenses, school materials, sundries and other essential miscellaneous items cost One Thousand Eleven Dollars' Eighty-nine Cents ($1,011.89); that said expenses for the month of July, 1971, amounted to Five Hundred Ninety-nine Dollars Seven Cents ($599.07) and that said expenses for the month of August, 1971, amounted to One Thousand Eighty-one Dollars Eighty-six Cents ($1,081.86).”
6.

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Related

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278 S.E.2d 546 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1981)

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Bluebook (online)
186 S.E.2d 651, 13 N.C. App. 531, 1972 N.C. App. LEXIS 2276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zuccarello-v-zuccarello-ncctapp-1972.