North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
Plaintiffs sought to depose defendant, but defendant said he was medically unavailable for several months, and he provided a note from his doctor excusing him from work due to health conditions related to job stress. When plaintiffs subpoenaed defendant’s doctor ...
Read More »Civil Practice — Subpoena Duces Tecum – Medical Records – Discovery – Deposition – Medical Excuse
Civil Practice — Involuntary Commitment – Impartial Tribunal – No State Representation 
As part of what is apparently a new policy in Durham County, the state did not send a representative to the hearing on a petition to involuntarily commit respondent, filed by his interim guardian. The trial court called the state’s ...
Read More »Civil Practice — Involuntary Commitment – Constitutional – Due Process – Judges
Doctors from a private hospital petitioned to have respondent involuntarily committed as a danger to herself. At the hearing on the petition, neither the state nor the hospital was represented by counsel. The trial judge called a hospital psychiatrist as ...
Read More »Civil Practice — Involuntary Commitment – Future Behavior – Insufficient Findings
The trial court did not check the box on its involuntary commitment order indicating that it relied on the medical report by the doctor who filed the petition; however, the order does recite that report. Though many of the order’s ...
Read More »Civil Practice — Judgments – Finds Deposited with Clerk – Determination of Ownership – Iowa Judgment – Contract – Forum Selection Clause
Defendants obtained a judgment against plaintiff Sullivan. Sullivan (1) deposited the amount of the judgment with the clerk of court (“the Funds”), (2) obtained assignments of third parties’ judgments against defendants, and (3) filed, among other things, a petition pursuant ...
Read More »Civil Practice — Insurance Department – Subpoena – Confidential Documents
Plaintiffs subpoenaed documents from the North Carolina Department of Insurance. Documents that are provided to the Insurance Commissioner under G.S. § 58-10-430 “are confidential, and are not subject to subpoena…”, so the trial court incorrectly ruled that the Insurance Commissioner ...
Read More »Civil Practice — Involuntary Commitment – Constitutional – No State Representation – Danger to Self
When the district attorney and attorney general declined to send an attorney to represent the interests of the state in respondent’s involuntary commitment proceeding, the trial court could call and question witnesses to determine whether respondent posed a danger to ...
Read More »Civil Practice — Involuntary Commitment – Constitutional – No State Representation – Doctors’ Reports
When the district attorney and attorney general declined to send an attorney to represent the interests of the state in respondent’s involuntary commitment proceeding, the trial court could call and question witnesses in this inquisitorial proceeding. We affirm the trial ...
Read More »Civil Practice — Res Judicata – Default Judgment – Small Claims – Punitive Damages
Plaintiffs filed small claims against the defendant-motel, seeking actual and punitive damages for bed bug bites. The motel failed to respond, and the magistrate awarded plaintiffs only actual damages. Plaintiffs did not appeal but instead brought these separate actions seeking ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Amended complaint supplied basis for removal
Where the original complaint filed by a landowner alleging her house was damaged when a railroad diverted water asserted only state-law claims for negligence, nuisance and trespass, but her amended complaint included new claims for adverse possession and prescriptive easement ...
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