Plaintiff’s notice of appeal in the record has not been file-stamped. This is a jurisdictional defect because this court cannot determine if the notice of appeal was timely filed. Appeal dismissed. In addition, judgment was entered on 7 December 2018, ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Appeals – Missing File Stamp – Service on Defendant
Civil Practice – Personal Jurisdiction – Contract – Hemp Seed & Biomass 
Even though the parties may have entered into their contract outside North Carolina, since (1) plaintiff shipped the Oregon defendant’s hemp seeds to North Carolina and planted the seeds and harvested their produce in North Carolina and (2) the contract ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Summary Judgment – Verified Answer – Scrivener’s Error – Business Loans 
Where the appellant-defendant’s verified answer denied both accepting business loans from plaintiff and a failure to pay any indebtedness in full, appellant’s apparently inadvertent failure to deny paragraph 17 of the complaint – alleging that defendants repaid certain sums to ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Appeals – Interlocutory – Partial New Trial 
Even though G.S. § 7A-27(b)(3) says that an “appeal lies of right directly to the Court of Appeals … from any interlocutory order or judgment of a superior court or district court in a civil action or proceeding that … ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Appeals – Rules Violations – Court & Judge Appealed From 
Defendants’ notice of appeal fails to indicate whether it was properly filed with the Orange County Clerk of Superior Court, preventing us from determining if this court’s jurisdiction has been properly invoked. Appeal dismissed. The record also lacks the entry ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Personal Jurisdiction – N.C. Business – Out of State Members 
Where the third-party plaintiff presented affidavits averring that the third-party defendants were knowingly, actively involved in the management and control of a North Carolina company, to the point that several of them personally and regularly attended meetings held in North ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Discovery – Order’s Timeline – Expert Depositions 
Although the discovery scheduling order in this case might have been construed differently, the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it read the order’s timeline so as to make plaintiff’s request to depose defendants’ experts untimely. We affirm ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Appeals – Summary Judgment Denial – Municipal – Water & Sewer Fees 
The plaintiff-developer seeks refunds of the defendant-county’s water and sewer capacity fees, which were collected before the county established a water and sewer district. Although the county has now established a water and sewer district, and although the county commissioners ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Personal Jurisdiction – Service of Process – Certified Mail – Attorney 
Plaintiff’s affidavit of service shows that process was addressed to an attorney, not defendants, and no evidence in the record indicates that the attorney was authorized to accept service of process on defendants’ behalf. Thus, the district court correctly concluded ...
Read More »Workers’ Compensation – Medical Benefits – 2-Year Gap – Providers’ Billing 
Even though neither plaintiff nor the defendant-workers’ compensation insurance carrier realized that plaintiff’s medical care providers had started billing Medicare and stopped billing defendant for reimbursement, since defendant made no payments for plaintiff’s treatment after October 2013, plaintiff is ...
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