A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower-court ruling against a for-profit Guilford County private club that had challenged the state’s smoking ban as unconstitutional. At issue was whether the ban’s exemption for nonprofit private clubs violated the for-profit Gates City Billiards Country Club’s equal protection rights. Judges rejected the for-profit club’s legal arguments.

In other opinions released this morning:

  • A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a ruling from the N.C. Industrial Commission allowing the family of Peyton Brooks Strickland to pursue a wrongful death suit against UNC-Wilmington and the school’s police department. A law enforcement officer shot and killed Strickland in 2006 while serving an arrest warrant.
  • A unanimous three-judge panel found no error in the first-degree murder conviction of Alvaro Castillo, the Orange County teen who killed his father and then attacked students at Orange High School in 2006.
  • A unanimous three-judge panel reversed a lower court ruling and allowed felony theft charges to proceed against a public works director for the Town of Coats who was alleged to have profited from town sales of old appliances, metal scrap, and other “white goods.”
  • A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a lower court ruling allowing a Mecklenburg County couple to keep its Nigerian dwarf goats as pets, despite objections from their homeowners’ association.
  • The N.C. Highway Patrol’s legal fight with Haywood County companies over the patrol’s wrecker rotation program will head back to trial, based on a unanimous ruling this morning from a three-judge Appeals Court panel. Appellate judges have ordered the trial court to determine whether the Highway Patrol is applying its wrecker rotation services rules in an arbitrary manner.
  • In a split 2-1 opinion, the Appeals Court reversed a lower court ruling in a Brunswick County case and supported an alternative school student who challenged a search called a “bra lift” that led to evidence of drugs and drug paraphernalia. The majority labeled the search unconstitutional.
  • A unanimous three-judge panel reversed a lower court ruling and ruled against the Town of Matthews in a sign dispute with a local business.
  • A unanimous three-judge panel dismissed multiple appeals of condemnations involving the Town of Apex.
  • A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a lower court ruling in a dispute between a Brunswick County mobile home park and its sewer provider over late fees.