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North Carolina

North Carolina Banking & Finance Estate Law Personal Injury & Tort

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Underwood — Constructive-fraud verdict upheld over withdrawals from vulnerable friend’s joint accounts

/ August 5, 2026

The Court of Appeals held that the Estate presented sufficient evidence of a confidential or fiduciary relationship and the resulting benefit needed for constructive fraud. O’Neil’s vulnerability, Lynch’s assistance and influence, and the scale and use of the withdrawals allowed a reasonable jury to find the required relationship and abuse. The court therefore left the jury’s verdict intact rather than reweighing com

North Carolina Civil Procedure Criminal Evidence

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Lofton — Ambiguous dismissal did not eliminate assault conviction before sentencing

/ August 5, 2026

The Court of Appeals read the form and surrounding record as showing an effective dismissal only of the habitual-felon matter, not the jury’s assault verdict. The trial court had expressly held sentencing open, so it retained authority to enter judgment on the assault conviction. Evidence that Lofton took a route requiring him to jump a fence and discarded clothing while officers pursued him supported the flight inst

North Carolina Appellate Procedure Civil Rights Criminal

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Lindsay — Obstruction convictions upheld over sufficiency, instruction, and indictment attacks

/ August 5, 2026

The Court of Appeals allowed review but rejected the merits challenges. Viewed in the State’s favor, the evidence supported the obstruction charges and the theory submitted to the jury. The indictments alleged facts supporting the essential elements. Under recent North Carolina Supreme Court precedent, an asserted omission concerning factual detail did not automatically create a jurisdictional defect; Lindsay also fa

North Carolina Appellate Procedure Criminal Evidence

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Johnson — Court rejects evidentiary and trial-management challenges to statutory-rape conviction

/ August 5, 2026

The Court of Appeals found no reversible error. The trial judge acted within the broad discretion used to manage voir dire and questioning, including limited leading questions to a minor testifying about sexual abuse. The panel found no plain error in the challenged evidence and no gross impropriety requiring intervention during argument. Because evidence admitted without reversible error could be discussed in closin

North Carolina Constitutional Criminal Evidence

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Howze — Secondary DNA comparison did not require a new warrant after lawful seizure

/ August 5, 2026

The Court of Appeals upheld denial of suppression. Evidence in plain view could be seized where officers were lawfully present and its evidentiary significance was immediately apparent in the violent-crime investigation then underway. Relying on North Carolina precedent involving later comparison of lawfully obtained genetic material, the panel also held that secondary DNA analysis imposed no new physical intrusion a

North Carolina Civil Procedure Employment Personal Injury & Tort

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Saunders — Workers’ compensation lien order vacated because settlement was not yet unconditional

/ August 5, 2026

In a per curiam opinion, the Court of Appeals followed binding precedent and held that the trial court lacked authority to distribute or eliminate the lien on the record presented. Arguments of counsel were not evidence of an unconditional agreement, and a condition precedent remained disputed. The panel vacated and remanded, explaining that the trial court may act under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-10.2(j) if evidence later

North Carolina Contract Interpretation Insurance Coverage Personal Injury & Tort

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

MESA Underwriters — Completed-operations exclusion defeats defense and indemnity duties

/ August 5, 2026

Applying North Carolina’s comparison test, the Court of Appeals compared the complaint’s allegations with the policy language and held that the completed-operations exclusion independently barred coverage. The duty-to-defend inquiry ordinarily looks to facts actually alleged, not an insured’s competing version of events outside the pleadings. Because the exclusion eliminated the broader duty to defend, the narrower d

North Carolina Civil Procedure Contract Interpretation Legal Ethics

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Limage — Rule 11 sanctions upheld for materially misleading contract quotation

/ August 5, 2026

The Court of Appeals held that Rule 11 expressly permits a trial court to act on its own initiative and that courts also possess inherent authority to protect the integrity of proceedings. Reviewing the sanction decision de novo, the panel agreed that the complaint misrepresented the contract and that the discrepancy was material to the requested relief. The show-cause process supplied notice and an opportunity to re

North Carolina Contract Interpretation Family Law

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Jordan — Premarital agreement survives voluntariness and disclosure challenge

/ August 5, 2026

The Court of Appeals affirmed because the trial court’s findings supported its legal conclusions under North Carolina’s Uniform Premarital Agreement Act. The record supported voluntary execution, and a party’s failure to read or understand an agreement does not by itself avoid a signed contract absent fraud or another recognized defense. The written agreement also stated that each party had separate counsel or an opp

North Carolina Business Law Civil Procedure Judgment Enforcement

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Joint Entities — Charging order could reach LLC interests but not cap the debtor’s salary

/ August 5, 2026

The Court of Appeals separated the permissible collection devices from the overreach. Cobham could not assert another entity’s personal-jurisdiction defense, and a nonparty entity could not prosecute an appeal in its own name. North Carolina’s LLC charging-order statute allowed the court to charge Cobham’s economic interest in the entities, but it did not authorize a $2,500 monthly cap on salary. Salary paid for serv

North Carolina Civil Procedure Constitutional Family Law

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Brincefield — Court reverses refusal to reopen equitable-distribution judgment entered without proven notice

/ August 5, 2026

The Court of Appeals held that the trial court abused its discretion by denying relief. The lower court relied on its belief that a continuance order would ordinarily have been mailed and on the absence of returned mail, but it did not examine proof showing that notice was actually sent. That assumption could not support a decision depriving a litigant of the opportunity to be heard. The panel distinguished cases in

North Carolina Evidence

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

State v. Fair — Guilty-Knowledge Instruction for Drug Trafficking Required Only When Defendant Contends Ignorance of Substance’s Identity

/ July 1, 2026

The North Carolina Court of Appeals found no plain error in a heroin trafficking trial, holding that the additional guilty-knowledge jury instruction is triggered only when the defendant affirmatively contends he did not know the substance’s identity, and that evidence showing no drug terminology appeared in intercepted communications does not constitute such a contention absent any indication the defendant believed the substance to be something other than heroin.

North Carolina Child Welfare

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

State v. Sandi — AOC Interpreter Standards Create No Binding Legal Rights; Trapping Victim in Corner With Knife Supports Kidnapping Separate from Assault

/ July 1, 2026

The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed convictions for attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping, and multiple assault charges arising from a domestic violence attack, holding that the AOC’s interpreter Standards create no binding legal rights and that violations warrant only an abuse-of-discretion review; that trapping a victim in a corner with a knife constitutes confinement separate from the accompanying assault offenses; and that a parent’s armed attack on another adult in a young child’s presence creates a substantial risk of physical injury supporting misdemeanor child abuse.

North Carolina Restitution

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

State v. Thompson — Civil Settlement Does Not Offset Criminal Restitution; “Person Within the State” Is Not an Element of False Pretenses

/ July 1, 2026

The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed convictions for obtaining property by false pretenses and uttering forged instruments, holding that a victim’s prior civil settlement does not reduce the criminal restitution award, that a pending Wake County scheme involving the same TSA funds was properly admitted under Rule 404(b), and that “person within the State” is not an essential element of the offense because the Supreme Court’s longstanding four-element framework controls over Court of Appeals dicta.

North Carolina Evidence

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Biddle v. Biddle — Pretrial Stipulations Bind the Court in Equitable Distribution; Burden to Prove Investment Gains Were Passive Falls on the Spouse Claiming Separate Property

/ July 1, 2026

The North Carolina Court of Appeals vacated portions of an equitable distribution order, holding that a trial court is bound by the parties’ pretrial stipulation classifying the townhome as fully marital property and may not carve out a separate component, and that once the non-owning spouse shows marital-period gains in a premarital investment account (triggering a presumption of marital property), the burden shifts to the owning spouse to prove those gains were passive, not to the non-owner to prove they were active.

North Carolina Child Welfare Evidence Juvenile

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

In re: M.D., Jr. — DSS Cannot Prove Abuse Through Medical Records Alone Without Expert Testimony at Adjudication

/ July 1, 2026

The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed a Rule 41(b) dismissal of a DSS abuse and neglect petition at the close of DSS’s evidence, holding that nearly 1,500 pages of medical records admitted as business records cannot establish non-accidental injury causation without expert medical testimony, and that parental explanations introduced through DSS’s own witnesses that were consistent with accidental injury could not be rebutted by business records alone.

North Carolina Jurisdiction Juvenile Parental Rights

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

In re: D.A.S., E.D.S., U.J.R.S. — Permanency Planning Order Maintaining DSS Custody Confers Standing to File TPR Petition

/ July 1, 2026

The North Carolina Court of Appeals held that a permanency planning order expressly ordering that legal custody of the children “shall remain with” DSS constitutes a “custody order” under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7B-1104(5), giving DSS standing to file termination-of-parental-rights petitions and conferring subject-matter jurisdiction on the district court.

North Carolina Child Welfare Indian Child Welfare Act Juvenile

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

In re: G.A.D., M.L.D. — ICWA Remand: Trial Court Must Inquire of Both Parents on Record

/ July 1, 2026

The North Carolina Court of Appeals remanded a termination of parental rights order for ICWA compliance after finding that the trial court had conducted the required inquiry under 25 C.F.R. § 23.107(a) as to respondent-father only; an on-the-record inquiry of respondent-mother is required regardless of her absence from prior hearings, and the termination order remains in place pending the inquiry.

North Carolina Constitutional Criminal Criminal Procedure

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

State v. Wilder — Defendant Who Refuses to Answer § 15A-1242 Inquiry Cannot Establish Knowing Waiver of Counsel

/ July 1, 2026

The North Carolina Court of Appeals held that a defendant who clearly invokes the right to self-representation but then refuses to answer any of the trial court’s N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1242 questions cannot establish a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary waiver of counsel, and the trial court therefore did not err in denying the request to proceed pro se.

North Carolina Criminal Double Jeopardy Evidence

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

State v. Broadway — AWDWIKISI and AISBI Merge Under Double Jeopardy; Prosecutor’s Breath-Hold Demonstration Not Grossly Improper

/ July 1, 2026

The North Carolina Court of Appeals arrested judgment on an assault-inflicting-serious-bodily-injury conviction as merging with AWDWIKISI under the double jeopardy clause when no distinct interruption in the assault was established, while affirming that a prosecutor’s one-minute breath-holding demonstration during closing argument was not grossly improper and that a lesser-included offense instruction on assault inflicting serious injury was not required where the State’s evidence of deadly-weapon use was uncontradicted.

North Carolina Administrative Law Real Estate Tax

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

In re: Nelson — Comparative Assessment Data Sufficient to Rebut Property Tax Presumption Without Expert Appraisal

/ July 1, 2026

The North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed the Property Tax Commission’s dismissal of a pro se Wake County taxpayer’s appeal, holding that comparative assessment data showing identical land values applied to materially different lots — and a resulting per-acre value more than double neighboring properties — constitutes sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption of assessment correctness under N.C.G.S. § 105-283, without requiring an expert appraisal or formal sales-comparison analysis.

North Carolina Breach of Contract Construction Law Lien Law

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

K. Lee Builders, Inc. v. Barnes — Incorrect Furnishing Dates Render Mechanic’s Lien Fatally Defective

/ July 1, 2026

The North Carolina Court of Appeals held that a mechanic’s lien with incorrect (not merely omitted) dates of first and last furnishing is fatally defective under N.C.G.S. § 44A-12, regardless of actual prejudice, and that the cash bond posted to discharge the defective lien must be returned to the property owner even though the contractor prevailed on its breach-of-contract claim at trial.