North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
LCA Development, LLC v. WMS Management Group, LLC (Lawyers Weekly No. 012-133-16, 8 pp.) (Chris Dillon, J.) Appealed from Pitt County Superior Court (Alma Hinton & Marvin Blount III, JJ.) N.C. App. Unpub.
Holding: Even if the defendant-property manager was in default under its contracts with the plaintiff-property owner, the contract required the owner to give the manager notice and a chance to cure the default. The owner’s unilateral termination of the contracts – without giving the manager notice or an opportunity to cure – was a material breach of the parties’ contracts.
We affirm the trial court’s grants of judgment on the pleadings and summary judgment in favor of the property manager.
With the exception of the 30-day notice and cure provision, the contract did not allow the owner to terminate the contracts until the end of their one-year terms. Therefore, the trial court correctly awarded the property manager damages based on the gross rental collections through the entire remaining contract term – not just the 30-day cure period, as argued by the property owner.
