Edison v. Edison

Citations

• 2024 ND 196

Syllabus

An amended divorce judgment is affirmed. Adverse rulings alone are not evidence of judicial bias or partiality. A district court misapplies N.D. Admin. Code § 75-02-04.1-05 when it fails to make a finding on whether two self-employment activities are related. The plain language of N.D. Admin. Code § 75-02-04.1-05(6) and (7) does not preclude using a loss to reduce income that is related to the self-employment activity that produced the loss. On the other hand, if two self-employment activities are unrelated, then under N.D. Admin. Code § 75-02-04.1-05(6), a loss resulting from the unrelated self-employment activity could be applied to reduce income from the other self-employment activity only if the monthly gross income, reduced by one-twelfth of the self-employment loss, equals or exceeds the greatest of subsections (a), (b) or (c). If the district court erred in its application of the child support guidelines, then we must examine whether the error was harmless. An error is harmless if it does not affect the outcome of the case or a party's substantial rights. See N.D.R.Civ.P. 61.