North Carolina Case Summaries
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North Carolina

North CarolinaEvidence
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

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

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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 CarolinaChild Welfare
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

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

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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 CarolinaRestitution
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

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

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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 CarolinaEvidence
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

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

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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 CarolinaChild WelfareEvidenceJuvenile
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

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

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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 CarolinaJurisdictionJuvenileParental Rights
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

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

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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 CarolinaChild WelfareIndian Child Welfare ActJuvenile
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

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

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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 CarolinaConstitutionalCriminalCriminal Procedure
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

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

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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 CarolinaCriminalDouble JeopardyEvidence
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

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

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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 CarolinaAdministrative LawReal EstateTax
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

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

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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 CarolinaBreach of ContractConstruction LawLien Law
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

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

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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.

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