## Facts

- Rosemarie Welsher and Paul Rager divorced in New York in 1980.
- In January 1985, the parties executed a written support agreement, and in February 1985 a New York court entered a child-support order requiring Rager to pay $45 per week for their two sons.
- Rager signed the New York order and waived the right to counsel and to object in family court.
- Rager later moved to North Carolina; Welsher remained in New York.
- Rager stopped paying after July 6, 1995, when one child was 21 and the other was 18 and had recently graduated high school.
- New York law sets emancipation at age 21, while North Carolina generally terminates child support at age 18 (with limited high-school extensions).
- Welsher petitioned in Forsyth County, North Carolina to register and enforce the New York order under UIFSA, alleging arrears of $1,789.64 as of April 11, 1996, and filed the New York order and New York emancipation statute.
- Rager filed an unverified response claiming a prior divorce decree ended support at age 18 and asserting he did not knowingly agree to pay until age 21; he produced no supporting documentation and did not seek modification in New York.
- The North Carolina trial court granted Rager’s motion to dismiss and denied enforcement; Welsher appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether, under UIFSA, a North Carolina registering tribunal must enforce the issuing state’s child-support order according to its terms, including duration of support to age 21 under New York law.
2. Whether the trial court erred by dismissing the registration/enforcement petition based on North Carolina’s age-of-emancipation rule and Rager’s asserted defenses.
3. Whether UIFSA provided any defense or exception permitting North Carolina to decline enforcement or effectively modify the duration of the New York order.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded.
- The New York order was a valid support order entitled to enforcement in North Carolina under UIFSA’s one-order system.
- UIFSA required North Carolina to enforce the issuing state’s law governing the nature, extent, amount, and duration of support, including support to age 21.
- Rager failed to prove any UIFSA-recognized defense to registration or enforcement; unverified assertions and fairness arguments were insufficient.
- The trial court improperly substituted North Carolina’s age-18 cutoff for New York’s duration term, which functioned as an unauthorized modification.

## Legal Principles

- UIFSA is designed to ensure a single controlling support order; tribunals in other states generally must enforce that order once properly registered.
- After the obligee submits required registration materials, the obligor bears the burden to establish an enumerated statutory defense to enforcement.
- For enforcement of an out-of-state order, the issuing state’s law governs the nature, extent, amount, and duration of current support obligations; the enforcing state applies its own procedural and remedial law.
- A responding state may not modify a foreign support order’s substantive terms, including duration of support, when the issuing state retains continuing, exclusive jurisdiction.

## Conclusion

North Carolina was required to register and enforce the New York child-support order, including its age-21 duration term, and the trial court erred by dismissing the enforcement action based on North Carolina’s age-of-emancipation rule and unsupported defenses.


Welsher v. Rager, 127 N.C. App. 521, 491 S.E.2d 661 (N.C. Ct. App. 1997)