A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals has affirmed this morning a lower-court ruling against the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles in a dispute over payment linked to a business’s storage of items seized in the investigation of a motorcycle theft ring. An Iredell County jury had found that DMV owed the plaintiff in this case $575,725.
In other opinions released this morning:
- A unanimous three-judge panel upheld a lower-court ruling in favor of Charlotte in a dispute over records linked to a dispute over odor from a farm’s composting facility. The farm had sought access to 225 city documents, but the lower court had determined that those documents were “trial preparation” materials not subject to be turned over as public records.
- A three-judge panel ruled in favor of Cary in a dispute with Cary Creek Limited Partnership in a dispute over town ordinances requiring preservation of “riparian buffers.” Though all three judges voted for the same outcome, a concurring opinion suggests the “Town?s ordinance is not in compliance with this Court?s precedent that clearly requires a zoning ordinance to include an independent map controlled by the municipality.”
- A unanimous three-judge panel ruled against the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services in a complicated dispute involving a Catawba County medical malpractice case dating from 2003.
