Civil Practice — Subject Matter Jurisdiction – Insufficient Verification – Stalking – No Contact Order

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Sims v. Becknell (Lawyers Weekly No. 15-16-0184, 7 pp.) (Lucy Inman, J.) Appealed from Mecklenburg County District Court (Ty Hands, J.) N.C. App. Unpub.

Holding: Even though the verification section of plaintiff’s complaint for a no-contact order contains a date, plaintiff’s signature, and a signature of the person before whom the complaint was verified, since the block containing boxes for the title of the person with whom the complaint was executed was left blank, we are precluded by Fansler v. Honeycutt, 221 N.C. App. 226, 728 S.E.2d 6 (2012), from determining that plaintiff’s verification was executed before an individual authorized to administer an oath. Under G.S. § 50C-2, the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over plaintiff’s unverified complaint.

The no-contact order is vacated, and plaintiff’s action is dismissed.