Summerville v. Summerville (North Carolina 2018)

A child support order cannot be modified sua sponte. The father appealed a district court order modifying his child support obligation, arguing that neither party had requested a modification of support. The appellate court agreed and found that there was no request to modify child support before the court. There is a line of North Carolina cases that have upheld modifying the support order in the absence of a specific request. However, in these cases, the court had a substitute for a motion in the cause or a consent agreement. That was not the case in this situation.