Constitutional – State Board of Elections – Fruits of Labor

As Plaintiff failed to present facts sufficient to support an alleged violation of her right to the enjoyment of the fruits of her labor, she has not established a colorable constitutional claim.

We affirmed the trial court’s judgment.

This appeal stemmed from a Petition for Judicial Review filed in Wake County Superior Court alleging Plaintiff was improperly terminated as Director of the Swain County Board of Elections. Plaintiff appealed from the Superior Court’s Orders: (1) denying her Motion for partial summary judgment and granting Defendants summary judgment against her on the issue of whether the Superior Court of Wake County had exclusive jurisdiction over her claims and (2) dismissing her constitutional claim for violation of her right to the fruits of her labor. The dispositive issues were whether: (I) N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-22(l) vests jurisdiction for judicial review of the State Board’s final decision in the Superior Court of Wake County rather than the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH); and (II) Plaintiff’s allegations were sufficient to state a claim for violation of her right to the fruits of her labor under the North Carolina State Constitution.

Plaintiff argued the Superior Court erred by dismissing her claim for a declaratory judgment the County Board “unconstitutionally and unjustifiably burdened [her] rights to enjoy the fruits of her labor” by “intentionally failing to comply with its own policies and the relevant law” when it petitioned the State Board to terminate her. Plaintiff alleged the County Board violated her right to the enjoyment of the fruits of her labor, guaranteed under Article I, Section 1 of the North Carolina Constitution. The County Board, as a government entity, is a government actor. However, as Plaintiff has not presented facts sufficient to support an alleged violation of her right to the enjoyment of the fruits of her labor, she has not established a colorable constitutional claim.

Plaintiff failed to allege an element of the constitutional claim by failing to identify any “clear, established rule or policies or statutes” the County Board violated. Because she failed to identify the policy at issue, she likewise necessarily failed to allege such policy furthered a legitimate governmental interest. Simply stated, the complaint is insufficient to put the County Board on notice of any policy or statute it violated and allow it to respond to the litigation. Plaintiff argued she alleged a policy violation by, in a separate section of her complaint, alleging the County Board failed to “comply with open meeting laws, including Article 33 of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes.” Plaintiff has neither alleged the County Board violated any particular internal employment policies or that it violated our open meeting laws. Thus, Plaintiff failed to establish a colorable constitutional claim that Defendants violated her right to enjoy the fruits of her own labor. Therefore, the constitutional claim was properly dismissed.

Affirmed.

Allman v. Swain County Board of Elections (Lawyers’ Weekly No. 011-254-25, 20 pp.) (Tobias Hampson, J.) Appealed from Wake County Superior Court (William R. Pittman, J.) Davis Hartman & Wright, LLP, by R. Daniel Gibson, for Plaintiff-Appellant. Attorney General Jeff Jackson, by Special Deputy Attorney General Terence Steed; and Solicitor General Fellow Kaeli E. Czosek for Defendant-Appellee North Carolina State Board of Elections. Womble Bond Dickinson LLP, by Brian F. Castro, Sean Perrin, and Caitlin T. Augerson, for Defendant-Appellee Swain County Board of Elections. North Carolina Court of Appeals