A lease is a contract. It is a contract in which the lessor (think, landlord or tenant/sublandlord) grants to another person or entity, called the lessee (think, tenant/sublandlord or subtenant), the right to possess and use...more
Today, we're looking at Shoeheel Farms v. City of Laurinburg, COA14-1089 (August 4, 2015). The Court of Appeals dismissed as moot property owners' appeal of a trial court's decision denying a temporary restraining order and...more
Impact fees are defined, generally, as a charge on new development to pay for the construction or expansion of off-site capital improvements that are necessitated by and/or benefit the new development. Impact fees have been...more
Today, a three judge panel of the North Carolina state court declared unconstitutional a State law that blocks a municipality -- one municipality -- from exercising its power to create an extraterritorial planning...more
We've blogged in the past about the political saga between the City of Raleigh and the State of North Carolina over the Dorothea Dix property in downtown Raleigh, a 300-plus acre piece of lovely real estate. And you thought...more
In The Times News Publishing Co. v. The Alamance-Burlington Bd. of Education, No. COA15-99 (July 21, 2015), the Court of Appeals considered the intersection between the State's Open Meetings Laws (N.C.G.S. 143-318.9, et seq.)...more
Appellate court dissents are often overlooked by the public, viewed more intently by the litigants as bases for further appeal or other strategic maneuvering. But dissents are an important part of legal doctrine....more
In Murphy v. Hinton, No. COA14-1230 (July 7, 2015), the North Carolina Court of Appeals determined that a complaint dismissed voluntarily cannot benefit from the "one-year refiling" period pursuant to Rule 41(a)(1) of the...more
What are Riparian Buffers? -
Riparian buffers are vegetated areas next to water resources that protect water quality, bank stabilization from erosion, and aquatic and wildlife habitat. The USDA Forest Service defines a...more
6/25/2015
The North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed a trial court decision, rendered in the wake of a bench trial (i.e., tried without a jury), wherein the trial court held that a residential landlord violated the North Carolina...more
The "crossover" period has just ended in the North Carolina General Assembly, which is an inflection point for pending bills in each session. Here with a wonderful explanation of what "crossover" means, both technically and...more
Filed March 17, 2015, Senate Bill 320 proposes significant revisions to State laws governing billboards and outdoor advertising. In this post, we review some of the changes that would result from Senate Bill 320 in its...more
Today, the N.C. Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a takings case filed by a local government. The case is Town of Matthews v. Wright, No. COA14-943 (April 21, 2015)....more
The North Carolina Court of Appeals handed down a decision today that clarifies the rule that a contractual venue/forum selection provision can track, but it cannot vary from, the venue/forum determined by State law....more
This March, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court considered a claim that an "unprofessional" email from a city planner to the city's zoning board of appeals, pleading for a specific outcome on a land use appeal, does not per se...more
A decision on whether and how to rezone property is left to the sound discretion and good judgment of the elected officials. The philosophy behind this thinking is that the decision to rezone or not to rezone is a...more
Last week, the North Carolina State Senate introduced a bill that seeks to extend renewable-energy tax credits applicable to eligible property -- which is defined as specific "machinery and equipment or real property" -- that...more
There is a constant, and I believe growing, tension between the government and the governed as to whether taxes should be used for or user fees should be charged for myriad services....more
The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently reversed an award of attorney fees by the trial court on the basis that the trial court did not render the appropriate findings of fact. We're talking about Brown's Building...more
A recent opinion from the North Carolina Court of Appeals addresses some common borrower defenses within the context of foreclosure and statute of frauds issues: compromise and settlement, accord and satisfaction, the...more
The Map Act -- also known as Chapter 136, Article 2E of the General Statutes of North Carolina -- allows the N.C.D.O.T., local governments or other governing bodies to file with the local register of deeds an official...more
As we've posited in this space before, water will be the oil of the 21st century. In what way? Its value, its scarcity, its requirement for development. It will also be more valuable than oil in that, unlike oil, we have...more
Ask almost any lawyer or law student to name the most esoteric concept addressed in law school, and you're more likely than not to hear "The Rule Against Perpetuities". The Rule Against Perpetuities, or the RAP, exists at...more
The Court of Appeals issued a number of decisions today, while snow and ice ghosted the City of Raleigh. The Court addressed trespass to land, the availability of the "offset" defense to commercial loan guarantors. Let's...more
Last week, the North Carolina Court of Appeals addressed some unique issues with respect to the trial court record in an appeal of a quasi-judicial proceeding....more