Appeals panel blocks law’s use in campaign case
RALEIGH. N.C. (AP) — A federal appeals court has blocked a local North Carolina district attorney from prosecuting state Attorney General Josh Stein or anyone else for his 2020 campaign ad through a criminal libel law. The majority on a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the request by Stein’s […]
Civil Practice – Appeals – Rule 59 Motion – Available Evidence – Real Property – Condemnation – Private Purpose – Municipal
The plaintiff-town disagreed with the trial court’s ruling that its condemnation of defendant’s land was for a private purpose, so the town filed a motion under N.C. R. Civ. P. 59, seeking the trial court’s consideration of evidence that had been available to the town at the time of the original hearing under G.S. § […]
Criminal Practice – Appeals – Gap in Transcript – Prosecuting Witness
As a result of a recording malfunction, there is a 98-minute gap in defendant’s trial transcript. Despite appellate counsel’s efforts – attempting to contact the trial judge, repeatedly attempting to contact trial counsel and the court reporter, and speaking to the prosecutor by phone – appellate counsel was only able to reconstruct the missing transcript […]
Civil Practice – Appeals – Interlocutory – Different Negligent Entrustment Theories – Tort/Negligence – Wrongful Death
Plaintiff alleges negligent entrustment against both a car dealership and the purchaser of a car whose driver caused an accident that resulted in the death of plaintiff’s decedent. Nevertheless, she has not shown that she is entitled to an immediate appeal of the trial court’s dismissal of her claims against the dealership defendants because whether […]
Civil Practice – Appeals – Stay Pending Appeal – Bond – Collected Rents – Costs & Fees
An order for a stay pending appeal found that defendant had posted a $30,000 bond, but the order only required defendant to pay rents collected from the disputed properties to the clerk of court. Therefore, after plaintiffs succeeded on appeal, they were entitled to release of the $42,000 in collected rents but not the $30,000 […]
Civil Practice – Appeals – Taxation – Real Property – Property Tax Commission
An attorney instructed her paralegal to hand-deliver and file notices of appeal with the Property Tax Commission and to mail copies to the county revenue director and the county attorney; nevertheless the paralegal mistakenly hand-delivered, filed and mailed the papers only to the county revenue director and the county attorney. Since the commission did not […]
Civil Practice – Appeals – Rules 59 & 60 – Requested Relief – Settlor’s Mental Capacity
In the same order, the trial court denied plaintiffs’ motion for a stay and granted defendants’ motion to dismiss. Since plaintiffs’ motion under N.C. R. Civ. P. 59 only sought relief from the trial court’s denial of their motion for a stay – “without disturbing the finality of the dismissal order” – the Rule 59 […]
Criminal Practice – Appeals – SBM – No Written Notice – Constitutional – Ineffective Assistance Claim
Defendant gave oral notice – but not the required written notice – that he wished to appeal the trial court’s satellite-based monitoring (SBM) order. In the past, this court has issued a writ of certiorari to hear SBM appeals; however, defendant had full knowledge of the procedure necessary to give notice of appeal concerning SBM […]
Domestic Relations – Equitable Distribution – Appeals – Equal Division
On a prior appeal, we held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by granting defendant a distributive award; nevertheless, that award was based on a net valuation that was altered by our directives in that appeal. Since we mandated that the trial court reconsider classification and valuation of certain assets, we necessarily […]
Administrative – Appeals – Labor & Employment – Public Employees
Where G.S. §§ 7A-29(a) and 126-34.02(a) provided petitioner a legally sufficient method for obtaining judicial review of the administrative law judge’s decision – by direct appeal to this court – the plain language of G.S. § 150B-43 prohibited petitioner from seeking judicial review in superior court under G.S. Chapter 150B, Article 4. We affirm the […]
Civil Practice – Appeals – Appellate Court Designation
Appeals from the Business Court must be taken to the N.C. Supreme Court, yet plaintiff’s notice of appeal designated the N.C. Court of Appeals rather than the Supreme Court. Even though this court’s judgment addressed significant issues that would present matters of first impression before the Supreme Court, the court concludes that it does not […]
Criminal Practice – Lifetime SBM – Grady Hearing – Appeals – Issue Preservation
Although defendant did not clearly and directly reference the Fourth Amendment when objecting to the state’s application for satellite-based monitoring nor specifically argue that imposing SBM without a proper determination under Grady v. North Carolina, 135 S. Ct. 1368 (2015), would violate his constitutional rights, it is readily apparent from the context that his objection […]
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