Radcliffe v. Avenel Homeowners Ass'n, Inc.
| Decision Date | 02 August 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. COA15–884.,COA15–884. |
| Citation | 248 N.C.App. 541,789 S.E.2d 893 |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Virginia RADCLIFFE, Plaintiff, v. AVENEL HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC., Carmelo (Tony) Buccafurri, Stephen Murray, Thomas Dinero, David Hull, Richard Progelhof, and Ron Zanzarella, Defendants. |
Hester, Grady & Hester, P.L.L.C., Elizabethtown, by H. Clifton Hester, for Virginia Radcliffe.
StephensonLaw, LLP, Cary, by James B. Stephenson II and Philip T. Gray, for Avenel Homeowners Association, Inc.
Ennis, Baynard, Morton, & Medlin, PA, by Donald W. Ennis, for Carmelo Buccafurri and Stephen Murray.
Crossley, McIntosh, Collier, Hanley & Edes, PLLC, Wilmington, by Clay Allen Collier, for Thomas Dinero.
Hedrick Gardner Kincheloe & Garofalo, LLP, by Reid Russell, and Brown, Crump, Vanore & Tierney, L.L.P., by Derek M. Crump, Raleigh, for David Hull.
Anderson, Johnson, Lawrence, & Butler, LLP, Fayetteville, by Stacey E. Tally, for Richard Progelhof.
Hedrick Gardner Kincheloe & Garofalo, LLP, Wilmington, by Jeffrey H. Blackwell, for Ron Zanzarella.
Virginia Radcliffe ("Plaintiff") initiated this action alleging a violation of her civil rights and the infliction of various types of tortious conduct against her by the Avenel Homeowners Association, Inc. ("the Association"), Carmelo Buccafurri ("Buccafurri"), Stephen Murray ("Murray"), Thomas Dinero ("Dinero"), David Hull ("Hull"), Richard Progelhof ("Progelhof"), and Ron Zanzarella ("Zanzarella") (collectively "Defendants"). Plaintiff appeals from two orders of the trial court dismissing a number of the claims asserted by her in this action pursuant to Rule 12(b) (6) of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure. After careful review, we (1) affirm the trial court's 21 August 2014 order; (2) reverse the portions of the trial court's 4 February 2015 order dismissing (a) Plaintiff's claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress against Buccafurri, Hull, Dinero, Progelhof, Zanzarella, and Murray; and (b) Plaintiff's tortious interference with prospective economic advantage claims (related to her prospective employment with the United Methodist Church) against Hull, Murray, Progelhof, and Zanzarella; and (3) remand for further proceedings.
We have summarized below the allegations of Plaintiff's second amended complaint,1 which we take as true in reviewing the trial court's Rule 12(b)(6) orders. Feltman v. City of Wilson, 238 N.C.App. 246, 247, 767 S.E.2d 615, 617 (2014).
In March of 2001, Plaintiff moved to the Avenel subdivision ("Avenel") in New Hanover County, North Carolina in order to pursue a career with the United Methodist Church ("the UMC"). Plaintiff had prospects for employment with a local chapter of the UMC and was a certified candidate for ordination as a minister, having recently graduated from Yale Divinity School.
As a resident of Avenel, Plaintiff was required to join the Association and be subject to its covenants and restrictions. In return, Plaintiff was entitled to utilize certain common areas within Avenel, including a pier, a floating dock, a gazebo, an entrance driveway, and several parking lots.
During the time period in which Plaintiff lived in Avenel, the individual Defendants held various positions on the Association's board of directors. Three of the individual Defendants—Buccafurri, Murray, and Hull—were also Plaintiff's neighbors. Beginning in the spring of 2003, Defendants allegedly embarked on a campaign to force Plaintiff to leave Avenel and "engaged in a systemic pattern of harassment, threats, violence, and intimidation" designed to induce Plaintiff to move out of the subdivision.
On 27 March 2003, Plaintiff was walking on the street in front of her house when Zanzarella drove an SUV directly at her while Progelhof sat in the front passenger seat. Buccafurri and Murray confronted Plaintiff at the Avenel gazebo on or about 25 May 2003. They verbally berated her, stating that they (1) "had a plan to get rid of [her] or to cause her to leave Avenel"; (2) "were going to ruin [her] reputation and her career in Christian ministry"; (3) "would turn all of [her] friends against her"; (4) "would fix it so [she] could not walk the streets of Avenel unmolested"; (5) "would drive [her] into a depression so deep that she would commit suicide"; and (6) "would kill [her] to get her out of her house."
Hull and Progelhof on several occasions told Plaintiff that "they did not want a ‘helpless female’ living in the neighborhood." On 20 December 2003, Zanzarella yelled at her: "Hey you fat pig, you better get out of the neighborhood." On another occasion, Zanzarella, Dinero, Murray, and Buccafurri told Plaintiff to " ‘[e]at s* * * and die[.]’ " At one point, Hull also said to Plaintiff that "he could fix it so he could legally take her house away from her and there would be nothing she could do to stop him[.]" In addition, he uttered racial epithets towards her.
At one point in December of 2003, Buccafurri and Dinero shouted disparaging remarks at Plaintiff based on her religious beliefs while she was washing her car in her driveway. That same day, Buccafurri, Dinero, and Murray strung Christmas lights on the bushes outside of Murray's and Buccafurri's home (facing Plaintiff's house) that "[w]hen illuminated ... [were] about 20 feet long and 8 feet high and read WWJD (standing for What Would Jesus Do)." On one or more occasions, Plaintiff was told by various Defendants that "she was one of those ‘born again’ Christians who would bring other undesirable people into the Avenel community."
On 31 December 2003, Buccafurri accosted Plaintiff while she was walking in Avenel and chased her, yelling "I'm gonna kill you, you Christian B* * * *." Plaintiff ran to a nearby neighbor's house and called the police.
On 24 February 2004, the Association held a meeting, which Plaintiff and some or all of the individual Defendants attended. During the meeting, Zanzarella shouted that "[Plaintiff] doesn't deserve to live in Avenel[.]" He and Murray then both yelled "[e]veryone thinks you are crazy" at Plaintiff. Murray shouted "[l]et's get rid of her" to the other attendees of the meeting. At that point, Zanzarella approached Plaintiff with clenched fists and had to be physically removed from the meeting space and taken to the parking lot.
On 8 April 2004, Murray cornered Plaintiff as she was walking on the pier by the Avenel boat facility. He made "crude, sexual, and violent gestures toward [her] while making threats." Murray proceeded to "beat [Plaintiff and] then shouted at [her] ‘You'll never be a minister now’ after he battered [her]." Murray threw Plaintiff to the ground, kicked her, and jumped on her. Plaintiff was transported to a local hospital via ambulance where she was informed she needed surgery for broken
ribs, torn knee ligaments, deep bruising, bone contusions, and other related injuries. That same day, Murray filed a lawsuit against her in which he falsely claimed she had assaulted and battered him.
On 29 May 2004, Buccafurri and Zanzarella accosted Plaintiff and a friend of hers at the Avenel gazebo, shouting obscenities and threats. They followed Plaintiff and her friend as they were walking back to her house, continuing to shout at and threaten her along the way.
On 23 June 2004, while Plaintiff was at the Avenel gazebo, Hull, Zanzarella, and Progelhof surrounded her and "physically prevented" her from leaving while shouting disparaging and threatening remarks at her. Plaintiff called 911 and received an escort home from law enforcement officers. The following day, Progelhof and Zanzarella instituted criminal proceedings against Plaintiff in which they falsely accused her of communicating threats. That same day, Buccafurri filed false charges against Plaintiff for trespass.
On 18 October 2004, Buccafurri and Murray shouted loudly at Plaintiff and her friend as they stood in Plaintiff's driveway. They "began waving their arms wildly and chased [Plaintiff] and her friend from [her] yard."
At some point in time, Buccafurri sent a packet of documents to UMC representatives containing false information about Plaintiff that was damaging to her reputation "in order to prevent [Plaintiff's] ordination[.]" The UMC did, in fact, revoke Plaintiff's ordination candidate certification on 2 February 2005.2
Plaintiff was also denied employment by the Boys and Girls Home of North Carolina ("Boys and Girls Home")—an organization that was a "local Christian ministry." Plaintiff had sought a position as a "mentor supervisor" at the Boys and Girls Home but was denied a job offer on 1 July 2005 due to the false criminal charges previously filed against her by Buccafurri, Progelhof, and Zanzarella. On 18 July 2005, Buccafurri accosted Plaintiff at a local grocery store and stated "that he would make sure she never got a job anywhere."
On 14 June 2006, the North Carolina Human Relations Commission ("the NCHRC") brought a lawsuit ("the NCHRC Lawsuit") on Plaintiff's behalf in Wake County Superior Court asserting a cause of action against Defendants for interference with Plaintiff's civil rights in violation of N.C. Gen.Stat. § 99D–1. On 4 January 2007, the NCHRC lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed.
On 26 March 2007, Plaintiff filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina ("the Federal Action") against all of the same individuals and entities named as Defendants in the present action. In her federal complaint, Plaintiff alleged claims for (1) violation of the Fair Housing Act ("FHA") against all Defendants; (2) interference with Plaintiff's civil rights pursuant to N.C. Gen.Stat. § 99D–1 against all Defendants; (3) assault and battery against Murray relating to the 8 April 2004 incident at the pier in which he physically beat her; (4) false imprisonment against Hull, Zanzarella, and...
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