North Carolina Case Summaries
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North Carolina

North CarolinaProbateStatutory InterpretationTrusts & Estates
North Carolina Court of Appeals
Uncategorized

In re Greenamyer — Attesting Witnesses Must Sign Wills Personally; Third-Party Proxy Signatures Barred Under N.C.G.S. § 31-3.3

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In a first-impression decision, the North Carolina Court of Appeals held that N.C.G.S. § 31-3.3 bars attesting witnesses from having a third party write their signatures on a will, applying the expressio unius canon to the statute’s express testator proxy-signing provision and affirming summary judgment invalidating a revised will whose two witnesses never physically touched the pen.

North CarolinaCivil RightsConstitutionalParental Rights
North Carolina Court of Appeals
Uncategorized

Happel v. Guilford County Board of Education — State Constitutional Claims Over Unconsented COVID Vaccine Survive PREP Act; Medical Non-Profit Adequately Alleged as State Actor

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On remand from the North Carolina Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals held that Plaintiffs’ state constitutional claims arising from an unconsented COVID-19 vaccination administered to a minor at a school-based clinic may proceed: the private medical non-profit operating the clinic was adequately alleged to be a state actor under a joint-engagement theory, and the PREP Act’s immunity over tort claims leaves no adequate state remedy, satisfying all elements of a Corum claim.

North CarolinaFamily LawJuvenile Law
North Carolina Court of Appeals
Uncategorized

In re: J.E.S., P.K.S., P.E.S. — Termination of Parental Rights Affirmed Where Psychological Evaluation Shows Persistent Incapacity and Prior History Predicts Future Neglect

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The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed termination of parental rights on neglect grounds as to three children removed after a nighttime car accident left two infants with traumatic brain injuries, holding that the mother’s extensive CPS history, prior criminal conviction for a child’s death, psychological diagnosis showing parenting incapacity, and continued unsafe conduct during supervised visits established the likelihood of future neglect required by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7B-1111(a)(1).

North CarolinaFamily Law
North Carolina Court of Appeals
Uncategorized

Raburn v. Cook — Trial Court Has Discretion to Award Primary Custody to One Fit Parent Without Finding the Other Unfit

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The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed a custody modification that maintained primary physical custody with the mother during the school year and equal summer custody, holding that a trial court has broad discretion to award primary custody to one fit parent without finding the other unfit, and that findings linking communication difficulties and the children’s need for a stable school-year routine rationally supported the arrangement.

North CarolinaBreach of ContractCivil ProcedureMunicipal Law
North Carolina Court of Appeals
Uncategorized

Outer Banks Ventures, Inc. v. Currituck County — Developer’s 1986 Water and Sewer Reimbursement Agreement Not an Installment Contract; Claims Against County Time-Barred

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The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment dismissing a developer’s twelve-year-old breach-of-contract claim against Currituck County under an assumed water and sewer reimbursement agreement, holding that the 1986 developer agreement was not an installment contract because the county’s payment obligation was contingent on its own decision to connect customers, making the consideration unified and all claims time-barred under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-53(1)’s two-year limitations period.

North CarolinaAdministrative LawEvidenceMunicipal Law
North Carolina Court of Appeals
Uncategorized

Hall v. Henderson County — Board of Adjustment Properly Permitted Addiction-Recovery Facility as Assisted Living Residence; Quasi-Judicial Body Not Bound by Rules of Evidence

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The North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed the superior court and reinstated Henderson County’s grant of a special use permit for a residential addiction-recovery facility, holding that the Board of Adjustment properly classified the facility as an Assisted Living Residence because the county code’s use table enumerated ALR but not Mental Health Facility, and clarifying that a quasi-judicial body’s evidentiary rulings are reviewed for due process violation (on exclusion) or competent-evidence support (on admission)—not as errors of law under the Rules of Evidence.

North CarolinaCivil ProcedureCivil RightsConstitutional
North Carolina Court of Appeals
Uncategorized

Doe v. Fulton — SAFE Child Act Revival Window Applies to School Board Sexual Abuse Claims; Ten-Year Repose Period in § 1-52(16) Limited to Latent Injuries

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The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed denial of a school board’s motion to dismiss a SAFE Child Act revival claim, holding that the ten-year repose period in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-52(16) applies only to latent injuries (not sexual assault) and that governmental immunity is not established at the pleading stage when the record leaves an unexplained gap in insurance coverage for any year in which the alleged abuse occurred.

North CarolinaMunicipal LawReal EstateStanding
North Carolina Court of Appeals
Uncategorized

Daedalus, LLC v. Mecklenburg County — County Cannot Sue for Homeowner Damages, Owners Who Never Pleaded Their Own Claims Lose Damages Award

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The North Carolina Court of Appeals vacated a trebled-damages award in a Mecklenburg County building-code enforcement suit, holding that a county lacks standing under Dillon’s Rule to recover monetary damages on behalf of private homeowners and that intervenors who never pleaded their own claims cannot collect from the county’s judgment, while remanding the underlying duplex-vs.-townhouse liability issue for re-evaluation under the 2012 and 2018 code editions that governed at the time of construction.

North CarolinaAppellate ProcedureReal EstateReal Property
North Carolina Court of Appeals
Uncategorized

Alston v. Jacox — Prescriptive Easement Over Decades-Old Pathway Upheld Even After Third-Party Permission Grant

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The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed a prescriptive easement over a rural pathway that had been used for ingress and egress since the 1950s, holding that the required twenty-year period need not immediately precede the dispute and that an easement already vested by adverse use cannot be destroyed by a later permission grant to a third party.

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