N.C. Appeals Court rules no compensation for posthumous pardons of innocence in Wilmington 10 case

There will be no state government compensation to the estates of four dead members of the so-called “Wilmington 10.” A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals has affirmed the N.C. Industrial Commission’s ruling that compensation is not required in cases of pardons of innocence granted after a person has died.

The case involved Jerry Jacobs, Ann Shepard, Connie Tindall, and Joe Wright, each of whom received a posthumous pardon of innocence in connection with the 1971 firebombing of a Wilmington grocery store. But the appeals judges agreed that the four  estates involved were not entitled to seek compensation for the pardons then-Gov. Beverly Perdue issued on her way out of office in December 2012.

Among other opinions released this morning from the N.C. Court of Appeals:

• A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a trial court ruling favoring the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and Cherry Hospital in connection with a wrongful death lawsuit tied to a 2005 incident in which a patient facing involuntary commitment stole a deputy sheriff’s gun, shot a hospital employee, then shot himself to death.
• A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a trial court ruling against a retired N.C. Central University chemistry professor who challenged the university’s decision to deny him “professor emeritus” status.
• A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a trial court ruling against the N.C. Department of Revenue in its attempt to collect two years of income taxes from a couple that relocated from North Carolina to Florida in 2006. The ruling denied the couple’s attempt to extract attorney’s fees from the Revenue Department.
• In an unpublished opinion with limited precedential value, a unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a ruling favoring Pitt County Memorial Hospital over $444,000 in attorney’s fees tied to a frivolous lawsuit from a former doctor at the hospital.
• In another unpublished opinion, a unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a lower court’s ruling favoring the N.C. Department of Transportation in a reverse condemnation suit involving land near U.S. 17 in Beaufort County.
• In another unpublished opinion, a unanimous three-judge panel ruled in favor of the town of Carthage in a dispute over the assessment of water and sewer impact fees.