Meadows v. Iredell County

• Decision Date: 18 December 2007
• Docket Number: No. COA07-596.,COA07-596.
• Citation: 653 S.E.2d 925
• Parties: John Fletcher MEADOWS, et. ux., Kathleen Paige McIlroy Meadows, Plaintiffs, v. IREDELL COUNTY and Rowan County, Defendants.
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals

653 S.E.2d 925

John Fletcher MEADOWS, et. ux., Kathleen Paige McIlroy Meadows, Plaintiffs, v. IREDELL COUNTY and Rowan County, Defendants.

No. COA07-596.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

December 18, 2007.

Appeal by plaintiffs from an order entered 21 February 2007 by Judge Nathaniel J. Poovey in Iredell County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 15 November 2007.

David P. Parker, P.L.L.C., by David P. Parker, Statesville, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, P.L.L.C., by James R. Morgan, Jr. and Robert

T. Numbers, II, Winston-Salem, for defendant-appellee Iredell County.

Templeton & Raynor, P.A., by Kenneth R. Raynor and Daniel DeCicco, Charlotte, for defendant-appellee Rowan County.

JACKSON, Judge.

John Fletcher Meadows and Kathleen Paige McIlroy Meadows ("plaintiffs") appeal the dismissal of their claims against Iredell and Rowan Counties ("defendants") on 21 February 2007. For the following reasons, we affirm.

Defendants' County Commissioners passed a resolution on 7 July 1992 to establish by consent the common boundary of the respective counties. Plaintiffs purchased land along the common county line on 15 February 1999. The Iredell deed book showed the land was situated in both Iredell and Rowan counties. In 2004, plaintiffs were notified that a portion of their property was located in Rowan County.

Plaintiffs filed their complaint in Iredell County on 23 October 2006 alleging the statute allowing counties to fix their own boundaries was unconstitutional on its face and as applied. They also alleged violations of their due process rights and sought class certification, a return of the county line to its 1789 position, and monetary compensation.

Defendant Iredell County filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes, section 1A-1, Rule 12(b)(6) on 28 December 2006. Defendant Rowan County filed a similar motion on 3 January 2007. The motions were heard on or about 19 February 2007 and granted by order filed 21 February 2007. Plaintiffs appealed.

As a preliminary matter, we note that the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure require the appellant's brief to include a nonargumentative statement of the facts, "supported by references to pages in the transcripts of proceedings, the record on appeal, or exhibits, as the case may be." N.C. R.App. P. 28(b)(5) (2007). Plaintiff's brief contains only one such reference in over five pages. In addition, the brief contains no statement of the appropriate standard of review.

The argument shall contain a concise statement of the applicable standard(s) of review for each question presented, which shall appear either at the beginning of the discussion of each question presented or under a separate heading placed before the beginning of the discussion of all the questions presented.

N.C. R.App. P. 28(b)(6) (2007). It is well-established that the Appellate Rules are mandatory, and failure to comply with them subjects the appeal to dismissal. State v. Hart, 361 N.C. 309, 311, 644 S.E.2d 201, 202 (2007). However, as this Court was reminded in Hart, every violation of the rules does not require dismissal; sanctions pursuant to Rules 25(b) or 34 may be appropriate. Id. Pursuant to Rule 34(b)(3), we elect to admonish plaintiff's counsel to exercise more diligence in preparing briefs for this Court.

When reviewing a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure, we must decide "whether, as a matter of law, the allegations of the complaint, treated as true, are sufficient to state a claim upon which relief may be granted under some legal theory[.]" Harris v. NCNB, 85 N.C.App. 669, 670, 355 S.E.2d 838, 840 (1987) (citing Stanback v. Stanback, 297 N.C. 181, 254 S.E.2d 611 (1979)). Rule 12(b)(6) "`generally precludes dismissal except in those instances where the face of the complaint discloses some insurmountable bar to recovery.'" Sutton v. Duke, 277 N.C. 94, 102, 176 S.E.2d 161, 166 (1970) (quoting American Dairy Queen Corp. v. Augustyn, 278 F.Supp. 717, 721 (N.D.Ill. 1967)). One such bar to recovery is a lack of standing, which may be challenged by a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. See, e.g., Krauss v. Wayne County DSS, 347 N.C. 371, 373, 493 S.E.2d 428, 430 (1997) ("The 12(b)(6) motion was made on the basis that plaintiff did not have standing. . . .").

Although North Carolina courts are not bound by the "case or controversy" requirement of the United States Constitution with respect to the jurisdiction of federal courts, similar "standing" requirements apply "to refer generally to a party's right to have a court decide the merits of a dispute." Neuse River Found., Inc. v. Smithfield Foods, Inc., 155 N.C.App. 110, 114, 574 S.E.2d 48, 52 (2002), disc. rev. denied, 356 N.C. 675, 577 S.E.2d 628 (2003). In Neuse River, this Court defined "[t]he `irreducible constitutional minimum' of standing" as:

(1) "injury in fact" — an invasion of a legally protected interest that is (a) concrete and particularized and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical; (2) the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant; and (3) it is likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision.

Id. (citing Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 2136-37, 119 L.Ed.2d 351, 364 (1992)). Parties without standing to bring a claim, cannot invoke the subject matter jurisdiction of the North Carolina courts to hear their claims. Estate of Apple v. Commercial Courier Express, Inc., 168 N.C.App. 175, 177, 607 S.E.2d 14, 16, disc. rev. denied, 359 N.C. 632, 613 S.E.2d 688 (2005). In most cases, the issue of standing depends on whether the party has suffered an "injury in fact." Neuse River, 155 N.C.App. at 114, 574 S.E.2d at 52. See also, Dunn v. Pate, 334 N.C. 115, 119-20, 431 S.E.2d 178, 180-81 (1993); Strates Shows, Inc. v. Amusements of America, Inc., ___ N.C.App. ___, ___, 646 S.E.2d 418, 423 (2007); Coker v. DaimlerChrysler Corp., 172 N.C.App. 386, 391, 617 S.E.2d 306, 310 (2005), aff'd, 360 N.C. 398, 627 S.E.2d 461 (2006) (per curiam).

Paragraph twenty-five of plaintiffs' complaint alleges that the subject resolution was passed on or about 7 July 1992. Paragraph twenty-eight alleges that plaintiffs purchased the subject property on 15 February 1999, and that the deed book indicated the property was situated in both Iredell and Rowan counties. Notwithstanding plaintiffs' allegation that they were not informed of the change in the county line until 2004, the complaint alleges facts which would put plaintiffs on notice that the property was located in both Iredell and Rowan counties. During their ownership, there has been no change to the status of their property. Any change was made long before plaintiffs purchased the subject property. Therefore, plaintiffs...