Two brothers who have spent more than seven years in jail for defying a court’s order to abandon what they allege is their family’s land will get a new day in court, thanks to a unanimous Sept. 21 North Carolina ...

Tagged with: Contempt Defiant Ones

We vacate our Court of Appeals’ decision (Regardless of whether defendants have the ability to comply with the trial court’s order – requiring them to remove structures from plaintiff’s land and to attest never to trespass on plaintiff’s land again ...

Tagged with: Contempt

Where the trial court failed to address whether the parties’ consent order remains in force or whether “the purpose of the order may still be served by compliance with the order,” and where the trial court failed to conclude that ...

Tagged with: Contempt

Two brothers who have been jailed for nearly seven years for civil contempt have failed for the third time to convince the North Carolina Court of Appeals to set them free. But the latest decision issued Jan. 16 includes a ...

Tagged with: Contempt

Adams Creek Associates v. Davis (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-011-18, 28 pp.) (Rick Elmore, J.) (Donna Stroud, J., dissenting) Appealed from Carteret County Superior Court (Benjamin Alford, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Regardless of whether defendants have the ability to comply with ...

Tagged with: Contempt

  The North Carolina Court of Appeals took a moment in a recent opinion to caution trial judges throughout the state about the pitfalls of firing off incomplete orders. Judge Donna Stroud stressed that any “written, signed, and filed document ...

Tagged with: Contempt

County of Durham v. Hodges (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-002-18, 18 pp.) (Donna Stroud, J.) Appealed from Durham County District Court (Fred Battaglia, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Even though a form order was only partially filled out, it was signed by ...

Tagged with: Contempt

United States v. Ali (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-194-17, 15 pp.) (Diana Gribbon Motz, J.) No. 16-1655; Nov. 3, 2017; USDC at Greenbelt, Md. (Paul Grimm, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: When defendant waited until the contempt proceedings to raise the issue ...

Tagged with: Contempt

Thompson v. Gerlach (Lawyers Weekly No. 012-126-17, 15 pp.) (Ann Marie Calabria, J.) Appealed from Durham County District Court (Doretta Walker, J.) N.C. App. Unpub. Holding: Even though the purge conditions imposed by the contempt order require defendant to make ...

Tagged with: Contempt

Two brothers who have been jailed for more than six years for defying an order to abandon their family land should stay locked up — even if they die behind bars —  as long as they continue to give the ...

Tagged with: Contempt