In the latest stage of an eight-year court battle between Oak Island and property owners affected by proposed changes at the dead end of Oak Island Drive, a unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals has reversed a lower-court ruling and ruled in the town’s favor. The appellate judges say the latest version of the dispute, linked to development plans the town unveiled in 2008, should be hashed out with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
In other opinions released this morning:
- A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a lower-court ruling favoring Mecklenburg County in a dispute with the Simply Fashion store in Freedom Mall linked to the county’s plans to convert the entire mall property into county offices.
- A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a ruling in favor of Moore County government in a workers’ compensation dispute with seven employees who claimed injuries in connection with their work in a county building that had once housed an electrical wiring assembly manufacturer.
- A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a ruling against New Hanover Regional Medical Center in a workers’ compensation dispute involving a nurse.
- A unanimous three-judge panel rejected the argument from a convicted murderer in Cleveland County that his conviction should be overturned because jurors learned that he had been handcuffed and shackled when he was initially arrested.
- A unanimous three-judge panel ruled that a lawsuit stemming from a go-kart accident at a Wake County amusement park that led to the amputation of a 9-year-old girl’s toes must proceed in Wake County, not in Durham County where it was initially filed.
- A unanimous three-judge panel granted a new trial to a defendant in a Mecklenburg County drug case who objected to the prosecution relying on the arresting officer ? rather than a chemical analyst ? to identify substance taken from the defendant as cocaine.
