In a litigator’s nightmare, when old wooden floors creak and the house speaks in sinister tones to its owner, it’s not: “Get Out!” that the lawyer hears. It’s: “Your Responses
Continue Reading A Nightmare on CivPro Street: Unanswered Requests for Admission
After a six-day jury trial including evidence of “no show” jobs, questionable “friends and family” payroll slots, and allegations of fraud and embezzlement, a Mecklenburg County jury returned a $3-million-plus
Continue Reading When Doing the Same Thing Over Again and Expecting Different Results is not Insane, a Court Explains
A dispute between co-owners of a trampoline park in Asheville came before the Business Court, appropriately enough, on defendants’ motion to bounce plaintiffs’ claims regarding misappropriation of funds. In Bivins
Continue Reading Silence as to Some Facts in a Complaint can be Golden
While an insurance carrier “labor[ed] valiantly” to rescue claims over $3.1 million in overpayments to a hospital in its network, the Business Court held it failed because the contract at
Continue Reading Business Court Holds Clause Curbing Limitations Period Means Exactly What Contracting Parties Said it Did
In one of many litigations to arise from alleged contamination at the Fayetteville Works chemical manufacturing plant, the Business Court recently decided that a “been there, done that” motion to
Continue Reading Episode 2: The One Where the Consent Order Didn’t Bring Much in the Way of Finality
By Jeff MacHarg and Sarah Traynor
A few months after successfully settling its lawsuit and obtaining a consent judgment against JUUL, the State of North Carolina doubled down, suing
Continue Reading Not all contacts are created equal: more PJ lessons from the Business Court.
A targeted effort by a New York company and its president to recruit Chinese investors for a marina and hotel project in Wilmington, North Carolina brought an international spin to
Continue Reading Investors in Wilmington Project Lose Bid to Sue Company that Solicited Their Investments through Marketing Efforts in China
A business plan to promote vodka sales in North Carolina, with a particular focus on Duke University sports fans, was key to a North Carolina Business Court decision that GameDay
Continue Reading Vodka Maker’s Hopes for Partnership with Duke University Land Something it Didn’t Seek: a Defendant’s Chair in a North Carolina CourtroomRobert Martin was the president of a medical device company, Vent Tech Corporation, during times that the company alleges he embezzled funds and through lax oversight allowed the company to
Continue Reading Buyer Acquired Claims “of Any Kind,” Including Seller’s Charge that its Own President’s Misconduct Forced a Sale at Suppressed Price
In Oliver v. Brown & Morrison, Ltd., 2022 NCBC 16, the Business Court weighed a challenge to an allegedly “sprawling, 247-paragraph Complaint, largely padded by needless detail” that
Continue Reading Can a Lengthy Complaint Provide Too Much Notice of its Claims?