Civil Practice – Sanctions – Interlocutory Appeal – Discovery Order – Physician-Patient Privilege

Plaintiff did not file a timely notice of appeal as to the motion to compel, and failed to adequately allege the sanctions order affected a substantial right.

Plaintiff’s appeal is not properly before this Court.

Plaintiff appealed from the trial court’s order compelling discovery and an order imposing sanctions against him for failure to comply with the discovery order. On appeal, Plaintiff argued the trial court erred in granting Defendants Brave Quest Corp. and eloghomes.com’s motion to compel discovery and ordering sanctions against Plaintiff.

Plaintiff asserted that, while these orders are interlocutory, they affect a substantial right of Plaintiff, namely the physician-patient privilege. The physician-patient privilege, however, is irrelevant to the sanctions order, and Plaintiff has not provided any case citation to support the proposition that a sanctions order is interlocutory or that it affects a substantial right.

Even if the discovery order impacted a physician-patient privilege and was immediately appealable, Plaintiff did not file a notice of appeal until four months after the order was entered, and his appeal was therefore untimely. Further, Plaintiff did not meet his burden of showing the order imposing sanctions was appealable because it affected a substantial right, and this Court will not construct arguments for or find support for Plaintiff’s appeal. Accordingly, as Plaintiff’s appeal of the discovery order was not filed within 30 days of its entry, and he failed to show how the sanctions order was appealable as an interlocutory order that affected a substantial right, we dismissed Plaintiff’s appeal.

Plaintiff’s appeal from the order granting Defendants’ motion to compel discovery was untimely, and we therefore dismiss that issue. We further conclude that the order imposing sanctions is not properly before us as it is an interlocutory order and Plaintiff failed to show the order imposing sanctions affected a substantial right.

Dismissed.

White v. Brave Quest Corp. (Lawyers’ Weekly No. 011-134-24, 9 pp.) (Julee Flood, J.) Appealed from Nash County Superior Court (Brenda G. Branch, J.) Walker Kiger, PLLC, by David Steven Walker, II, for plaintiff-appellant; Teague Campbell Dennis & Gorham, by Daniel T. Strong, for defendants-appellees. North Carolina Court of Appeals