State v. Manning Where the letter sent to defendant by the Department of Correction informed defendant of both the hearing date and the specific category of G.S. § 14-208.40(a) under which he fell, the letter adequately protected defendant’s due process rights.

Tagged with: Constitutional Criminal Practice Due Process notice Satellite-Based Monitoring

Leardini v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education The defendant-school board’s director of employee relations conceded that she had “no idea” whether plaintiff would have been terminated if he had been allowed a hearing. Additionally, school board policy states, “Any form of unwelcome or inappropriate physical contact with a student … is grounds for discipline, up to and including immediate termination.”

Tagged with: Constitutional Due Process Labor & Employment Public Employees Schools & School Boards Tort/Negligence

Patterson v. City of Gastonia The owners of six demolished mobile homes had adequate alternative remedies for redress of their claim. Someone who is not a property’s owner of record cannot claim that his due process rights were violated because the city failed to investigate his ownership. Finally, mobile home owners cannot bring inverse condemnation claims because mobile homes are personal, not real property.

Tagged with: Constitutional Due Process Municipal Real Property

Sansotta v. Town of Nags Head After the ocean breached Seagull Drive and a hole developed in the roadway, the defendant-town’s decision to erect a barricade blocking access to Seagull Drive (and plaintiffs’ cottages) was substantially related to public safety and was not arbitrary or irrational. Likewise, the police chief’s instruction to plaintiffs’ contractors to move to the safe side of the barricade was also substantially related to public safety and was not arbitrary or irrational. The town did not violate plaintiffs’ right to substantive due process.

Tagged with: Constitutional Due Process Municipal Real Property

Town of Nags Head v. Toloczko The plaintiff-town no longer seeks removal of defendants’ beachfront cottage and has invited defendants to apply for a building permit to repair storm damage to their property. Nevertheless, the town maintains that the cottage sits in a “public trust area” and seeks civil penalties for defendants’ refusal to comply with the town’s declaration that the damaged cottage is a nuisance. Resolution of the town’s claim and defendants’ numerous counterclaims would require this federal court to delve into important and unresolved issues of N.C. law, including the definition of “public trust area.”

Tagged with: Constitutional Due Process Municipal Real Property

North Carolina State Bar v. Barrett The complaint alleged a single false representation by the defendant-attorney in violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct: the entry of a $7,400 loan from the seller to the buyer as a “down payment” on a HUD-1 statement, which defendant contended was approved by the lender’s loan officer Paul Johnson. However, at the hearing, the State Bar presented evidence of different alleged acts of fraud and additional alleged misrepresentations: that defendant had produced and submitted to the lender a different HUD-1 statement, which contained different financial information and included a forged signature purporting to be the seller’s. The failure to give defendant notice of the misconduct with which she was charged violated her right to due process.

Tagged with: Attorneys Constitutional Disbarment discipline Due Process Real Property

Northrup v. Albert Where defendant Deputy Goudelock had the impression that plaintiff was speeding, this was sufficient to warrant the deputy’s initial stop of plaintiff. In addition, Deputy Goudelock began to follow plaintiff (and only observed the alleged speeding) following what he believed to be plaintiff leaving the scene of an accident in which plaintiff was involved.

Tagged with: Constitutional Due Process search & seizure

Hatley v. City of Charlotte Where (1) defendant’s police department used a competitive process to select 39 staff sergeants; (2) when plaintiff was selected, the police department put on what it called a “promotion ceremony”; (3) the police department provided plaintiff with a memorandum entitled “Your New Rank”;

Tagged with: Constitutional Due Process Labor & Employment Municipal Public Employees

Amward Homes, Inc. v. Town of Cary Our Court of Appeals held that the defendant-town was not responsible for setting up or funding schools, and it lacked statutory authority to charge developers and/or builders a fee designed to ensure adequate funding for area schools. With Justice Jackson not participating, the remaining members of the court are equally divided, with three members voting to reverse and three members voting to affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals.

Tagged with: appeals Civil Practice Constitutional developer & builder fees Due Process equal protection interlocutory mootness Municipal Schools & School Boards standing Statute of Limitations

Shaner v. Shaner The trial court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction over a husband in a divorce case would violate his due process rights since he could not reasonably anticipate being haled into court on the basis of his limited contacts with the state. Reversed.

Tagged with: Civil Practice Divorce Domestic Relations Due Process Minimum Contacts personal jurisdiction