North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
Where an arbitration clause both incorporates American Arbitration Association rules – which reserve questions of arbitrability to the arbitrator – and exempts certain claims from arbitration, and where all of plaintiff’s causes of action relate to the carved-out claims, it ...
Read More »Home / Opinion Digests (page 5) /
Arbitration – Arbitrability – AAA Rules – Carve-out Issues – Judicial Decision
Civil Practice – Statutes of Limitations – Contract – Tort/Negligence – Professional Negligence – Accounting Consultants 
Where plaintiff alleges an accountant-client or auditor-client relationship with defendant, and where plaintiff’s claim arises from alleged negligence in defendant’s provision of professional services (i.e., allowing two of plaintiff’s four employees to loot $4 million from the company), G.S. § ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Discovery – Contract – Franchises – Lost Profits – Tax Returns – Sales Data
Where the plaintiff-franchisees allege that the defendant-franchisors overcharged them for goods, but where plaintiffs do not seek damages for lost profits, defendants are not entitled to discovery related to plaintiffs’ lost profits. Regardless of whether plaintiffs passed on the ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – DWI – Evidence – Probation – License Revocation
Even if the trial court should have excluded State Trooper Jamie Bullard’s testimony that, while en route to the Pitt County Detention Center, defendant asked Trooper Bullard “not to charge him with DWI, because he was on probation and Judge ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Constitutional – Due Process – In-Court Identification – Newspaper Photo – Murder & Attempted Robbery
An eyewitness could not identify defendant in a non-suggestive police photo line-up the same day as the shooting, but when he saw a photo of defendant in the newspaper a day later, he was sure defendant was the shooter. The ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Statutory Rape – Victim’s Credibility – Jury & Jurors – Transcript Request
On direct examination, the mother of the victim, “Kayla,” testified about her “concerns” about Kayla’s credibility. Such testimony did not open the door to cross-examination of what the mother thought Kayla may have been doing, and such testimony was ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Interest on reinstated punitives award runs from original judgment
Where a punitive damages jury verdict set aside by the district court is reinstated by the appellate court, the postjudgment interest on the award runs from the date of the original district court judgment. Background On Aug. 2, 2018, this ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Anders Brief – Pro Se Arguments – Guilty Plea – Waiver
Because defendant pleaded guilty, he waived any arguments regarding an allegedly illegal search. We affirm the trial court’s judgment and sentence entered upon defendant’s guilty plea. Our ruling is without prejudice to defendant’s right to file a motion ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Direct Contempt – Notice & Opportunity to Respond – Assault – Lay Testimony – Jury Charge Conference – Defendant’s Absence
Although the trial court gave defendant notice that his conduct was unacceptable, the court failed to give defendant an opportunity to explain why contempt sanctions should not be imposed. We find no error in defendant’s conviction for assault with a ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence –Breach of Fiduciary Duty – Corporate – Majority LLC Member – Plaintiff’s Competence
When the business partnership between plaintiff Emily Preiss and defendant Harriet Mills ran into trouble, plaintiffs allege that Harriet coerced Emily into agreeing to give up most of her ownership interest in their franchise company in return for sole ownership ...
Read More »