COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA 

Present: Chief Judge Felton, Judges Clements and Beales 

ONDRAKE HAYWOOD NERO 

 MEMORANDUM OPINION* BY 

v. Record No. 0505-06-2 JUDGE RANDOLPH A. BEALES 

 JANUARY 16, 2007 

SHERRI C. WILLIAMS 

 FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF HOPEWELL 

Robert G. O’Hara, Jr., Judge Designate 

 (C. James Williams, III, on brief), for appellant. Appellant 

submitting on brief. 

 No brief or argument for appellee. 

 The sole issue in this appeal is whether appellant (father), who sought review in the circuit 

court of a juvenile and domestic relations district court order that increased his child support 

obligation, was required to post an appeal bond. We hold he was not. 

BACKGROUND

 Appellee (mother) filed a motion to increase child support in the Juvenile and Domestic 

Relations District Court for the City of Hopewell. That court entered an order on November 18, 

2005, which increased father’s child support obligation to $646.56 per month starting on November 

25, 2005.1 That order made no mention of any child support arrearage that existed as of November 

 *

 Pursuant to Code § 17.1-413, this opinion is not designated for publication. 

1

 The November 18, 2005 order, while contained in the record, was not made part of the 

appendix. A typewritten November 30, 2005 order of support was included in the appendix; this 

order included the same information as the handwritten November 18, 2005 order. 
- 2 -

18, 2005,2

 nor did that order establish an arrearage. Father filed a notice of appeal on the same day 

the order was entered, seeking review in the Hopewell Circuit Court of the juvenile and domestic 

relations district court order. According to father, the district court clerk’s office informed him that 

an appeal bond was not required. A hearing in the circuit court was set for January 27, 2006. 

 On that date, the circuit court entered an order dismissing the case, “finding that the appeal 

had not properly been perfected as no appeal bond had been posted as required by law.” That order 

also established an arrearage of $216 as of January 25, 2006, and remanded the matter to the 

juvenile and domestic relations district court “for all future matters.” 

 Father filed a timely notice of appeal to this Court, whereupon he posted an appeal bond in 

the amount of $500. 

ANALYSIS

 Code § 16.1-296(H) reads, in pertinent part3: 

No appeal bond shall be required of a party appealing from 

an order of a juvenile and domestic relations district court except 

for that portion of any order or judgment establishing a support 

arrearage or suspending payment of support during pendency of 

an appeal. . . . An appeal will not be perfected unless such appeal 

bond as may be required is filed within 30 days from the entry of 

the final judgment or order. 

(Emphasis added.) Thus, “an appeal bond is required only for [the appeal of] ‘that portion of any 

order . . . establishing a support arrearage.’” Sharma v. Sharma, 46 Va. App. 584, 591, 620 S.E.2d 

553, 557 (2005) (quoting Avery v. Commonwealth, 22 Va. App. 698, 700, 472 S.E.2d 675, 676 

(1996)). 

 2

 The November 30, 2005 order of support also does not indicate that an arrearage existed 

on November 18, 2005, when the notice of appeal to circuit court was filed. 

3

 There is no indication from the record that father’s support obligation was suspended 

pending the appeal. 
- 3 -

 As both the plain language of Code § 16.1-296(H) and our holding in Sharma make clear, 

an appeal bond is not required when the appealed order does not establish an arrearage. Here, 

the juvenile and domestic relations district court order that was appealed to the circuit court only 

increased father’s child support obligation. It did not establish an arrearage. A modification of 

child support is not an order establishing a support arrearage. Accordingly, father was not 

required to post an appeal bond when he appealed the juvenile and domestic relations district 

court order in this case. 

CONCLUSION

 The circuit court erred in dismissing father’s appeal. We reverse and remand for further 

proceedings in the circuit court consistent with this opinion. 

Reversed and remanded.