North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Sometimes it’s not so much what is said as who says it. That was the story in a Sept. 23 order issued by Court of Appeals Chief Judge Gerald Arnold. An appellant’s case was in jeopardy because he had failed ...

A Wilmington pool table retailer who paid $59,000 for an in-store computer system that never worked has been awarded $235,000 in damages by a Wake County jury. A letter the defendant wrote to the retailer guaranteeing the system’s performance and ...

Even though a Wake County woman’s “umbrella” insurance policy did not mention UIM insurance, it entitled her to an additional $750,000 in UIM coverage, Superior Court Judge Wiley Bowen ruled Nov. 4. The reason: the $1 million umbrella policy covered ...

A chemical company that helped a new salesman break a no-compete contract with his former employer must pay both $100,000 in punitive damages and $250,000 in attorneys’ fees, the Supreme Court ruled Dec. 3. In a case of first impression, ...

Tossing out prior cases that drew a line between artificial and natural objects in food, the state Supreme Court has ruled that a restaurant and its meat supplier may be sued by a diner who broke two teeth on a ...

Putting teeth in the state’s environmental code, the N.C. Supreme Court has ruled that a Carteret County landowner must remove an illegal bulkhead and fill material she placed in protected wetlands. The decision reverses a trial judge who ordered only ...

A $20,000 certificate of deposit that a grandfather bought for his six-year-old grandson and placed in a safety deposit box became the child’s property the instant it was purchased, the N.C. Supreme Court ruled Dec. 18. As a result, the ...

About 110 landowners who live near the Raleigh-Durham Airport have settled their inverse condemnation claims for noise damage from overflying aircraft. The landowners brought suit against the Airport Authority in 1989, two years after a second runway was opened and ...

Drafting an arbitration agreement? If you want to require the losing party to pay attorneys’ fees, then you’d better make that an express provision in the document. Otherwise, each side will have to foot its own counsel fees. That’s the ...

Blending modern science with ancient inheritance law, the state Appeals Court has ruled that a corpse may be exhumed and submitted to DNA testing to resolve a battle between would-be heirs. Despite longstanding common law principles, the appeals panel said ...