State ex rel. Employment Sec. Commission, In re, 609

• Decision Date: 12 December 1951
• Docket Number: No. 609,609
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: In re STATE ex rel. EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION et al.

Page 311

68 S.E.2d 311

234 N.C. 651

In re STATE ex rel. EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION et al.

No. 609

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Dec. 12, 1951

Robert S. Cahoon, Atlanta, Ga., for appellants.

W. D. Holoman, R. B. Billings, R. B. Overton, and D. G. Ball, Raleigh, for Employment Security Commission, appellee.

Thomas H. Leath, Rockingham, for Pee Dee Textile Co., Inc., appellee.

BARNHILL, Justice.

There is no inherent or inalienable right of appeal from an inferior court to a Superior Court or from a Superior Court to the Supreme Court. Cox v. City of Kinston, 217 N.C. 391, 8 S.E.2d 252; State v. Miller, 225 N.C. 213, 34 S.E.2d 143; 2 A.J. 847.

A fortiori, no appeal lies from an order or decision of an administrative agency of the State or from the judgments of special statutory tribunals whose proceedings are not according to the course of the common law, unless the right is granted by statute. 2 A.J. 858, § 19. If the right exists, it is brought into being, and is a right granted, by legislative enactment. Cox v. City of Kinston, supra; Pue v. Hood, Com'r of Banks, 222 N.C. 310, 22 S.E.2d 896; Utilities Comm. v. Carolina Scenic Coach Co., 218 N.C. 233, 10 S.E.2d 824; Veazey v. City of Durham, 231 N.C. 357, 57 S.E.2d 377.

'There can be no appeal from the decision of an administrative agency except pursuant to specific statutory provision therefor.' 42 A.J. 670, sec. 232.

Obviously then, the appeal must conform to the statute granting the right and regulating the procedure. Caudle v. Morris, 158 N.C. 594, 74 S.E. 98.

The statutory requirements are mandatory and not directory. Brown v. S. H. Kress & Co., 207 N.C. 722, 178 S.E. 248. They are conditions precedent to obtaining a review by the courts and must be observed. Vivian v. Mitchell, 144 N.C. 472, 57 S.E. 167. Noncompliance therewith requires dismissal. Lindsey v. Supreme Lodge of Knights of Honor, 172 N.C. 818, 90 S.E. 1013.

G.S. § 96-15(h) permits a party aggrieved by a ruling or decision of the Employment Security Commission to appeal to the Superior Court, and G.S. § 96-15(i) prescribes the procedure to be followed in the exercise of this right. In the latter section, it is provided that 'In every case in which appeal is demanded, the appealing party shall file a statement with the Commission within the time allowed for appeal, in which shall be plainly stated the grounds upon which a review is sought and the particulars in which it is claimed the Commission is in error with respect to its decision.'

This statement of the grounds of the appeal must be filed within the time allowed for appeal. Its purpose is to give notice to the Commission and adverse parties of the alleged errors committed by the Commission and limit the scope of the hearing in the Superior Court to the specific...