Civil Practice – Pleadings – Amendment – Party Substitution – Sheriff for Sheriff’s Department

Treadway v. Diez (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-06-1024, 2 pp.) (Per Curiam) (Barbara Jackson, J., not participating) Appealed from Buncombe County Superior Court. (Bradley B. Letts, J.) On appeal & discretionary review from the Court of Appeals. N.C. S. Ct. Click here for the full-text opinion.

Holding: The Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s grant of plaintiff’s motion to amend her complaint to name the sheriff as a defendant in place of the originally-named defendant, the sheriff’s department. We reverse for the reasons stated in Judge Jackson’s dissent: The amendment at issue constitutes more than a simple correction of a misnomer. Plaintiff sought to substitute a new party-defendant over whom she could obtain jurisdiction – the sheriff — in place of an entity that is not subject to suit – the sheriff’s department.

The petition for discretionary review as to additional issues was improvidently allowed.