Landlord/Tenant – Tenant Default – Fee Collection – Retroactive Statute

Although North Carolina’s General Assembly may not retroactively revoke or amend a cause of action that rests upon or grows out of the principles of common law, the prohibition on landlords charging a tenant default-related fees was purely statutory. The defendant-landlord had already violated the statutory prohibition when the General Assembly amended the statute to allow – retroactively – for the collection of such fees, but the plaintiff-tenants had not obtained a judgment on their claims before the statute was enacted. Consequently, the retroactive application of the statute did not violate their rights.

We affirm the district court’s grant of defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings.

Bass v. Weinstein Management Co. (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-127-22, 17 pp.) (Henry Floyd, S.J.) No. 21-2101. Appealed from USDC at Greensboro, N.C. (Catherine Eagles, J.) Edward Maginnis, Scott Harris, Patrick Wallace and Karl Gwaltney for appellants; Mark Henriques, Matthew Tilley and Michael Ingersoll for appellees; Nicole Strickler for amici curiae. 4^th Cir.