A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court decision and sided with the state in a legal dispute over gambling on Indian tribal land.
Back in February, Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning had sided with plaintiffs from The New Vemco Music Company in ruling “that the State is not permitted under federal Indian gaming law to grant the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina … exclusive rights to conduct certain gaming on tribal land while prohibiting it throughout the rest of the State.”
Appellate judges disagreed, reversing Manning’s ruling.
In other rulings issued this morning:
- A unanimous three-judge panel ruled against Wachovia in a dispute the bank has with eight hedge funds.
- An appellate panel ruled against Carrboro in a development dispute. All three judges agreed the trial court erred in its assessment of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen’s findings of fact to justify portions of a conditional use permit. One judge dissented from the majority opinion to contend that the challenged conditions violated Carrboro’s own land-use ordinance.
- A unanimous three-judge panel rejected Wilson Medical Center’s efforts to block a new trial in a case alleging negligence by a health-care provider. Plaintiffs suing the hospital and Wilson Emergency Group contended that the original trial verdict was flawed because of a judge’s “marathon trial schedule,” imposed in order to finish a trial before the July 4 holiday. The plaintiffs said the trial schedule affected both lawyers and jurors in the case.
- A unanimous panel vacated a lower-court ruling that relied on the Hague Convention to force a couple suspected of child abuse to return a child to his native Germany.
- A unanimous panel dismissed an appeal connected with the death of a woman who was injured after colliding with a sewer manhole while riding an inner tube down a snow-covered hill. The woman’s family had sued the Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County and other defendants.
