Gateway Management Services, Inc. v. Advanced Lubrication Technology, Inc., 2008 NCBC 11 (N.C. Super. Ct. May 5, 2008)(Tennille)

When you have an additional three days to respond to a filing served by mail, and the response period ended on a weekend or holiday, do you start counting the three days on the holiday or weekend day, or do you start from the first business day after the expiration of the response period?

The North Carolina Business Court answered this counting question, and another important time calculation question, today in the Gateway Management case.  (You can click on the case name at the top to see the opinion).

The issue was the timeliness of Plaintiff’s Reply to Defendant’s Counterclaim.  The Plaintiff said that the right method of counting was to count first the thirty day response time allowed by Rule 12(a), and that if the thirtieth day fell on a weekend or holiday, to count the three days from the first following business day.  (Note: this is exactly the right way to count under the comment to the 2005 amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(d), which is worded differently than the North Carolina Rule).

The Court disagreed with the Defendant on when to start counting the three days for service by mail.  Here’s what it held:

"The correct formula for the computation of a time period during which a filing is required is as follows: number of days allowed under applicable statute + three days under Rule 6(e) + any weekend or holiday under Rule 6(a). The Court notes that the three days under Rule 6(e) is added to the end of the time period allowed by statute regardless of whether that time period ends on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday. It is at the end of the additional three days that Rule 6(a) applies."

The Court also dealt with another time calculation issue: when to start counting the time for a response when the document to which the response is due is e-filed, but the party who has to respond has not yet registered to e-file and no Order requiring e-filing has yet been entered.   Even though this might be a rare situation, there’s potential danger here, so you might want to keep reading.

Continue Reading Business Court Rules On How To Count Days For Filing A Response

Service of process can be made by leaving the Summons and Complaint at the Defendant’s residence, even though not in literal compliance with Rule 4, if the Defendant has evaded service.

The Defendant will waive an objection to service (and to jurisdiction) by filing a Notice of Designation to the North Carolina Business Court, because "the filing of a Notice of Designation in an action constitutes a general appearance for the purpose of personal jurisdiction."  To keep such objections alive, the Notice of Designation must contain an objection to personal jurisdiction. 

On a covenant not to compete issue, the Court followed the principle it set out in Better Bus. Forms & Prods., Inc. v. Craver, 2007 NCBC 34 (N.C. Super. Ct. Nov. 1, 2007) regarding the right of an asset purchaser to to enforce a non-compete entered into between the seller and an employee. The buyer has the option to enforce the noncompetition agreement or to enter into a new agreement. As the Court held: "a noncompetition agreement that has been sold as part of an asset sale, as opposed to the sale of a business, gives the buyer the right to enforce the noncompetition agreement as of the date of the sale but not to enforce the noncompetition agreement as if it had been entered into originally by the buyer."

Full Opinion

Brief in Support of Motion to Dismiss

Brief in Opposition to Motion to Dismiss

Reply Brief in Support of Motion to Dismiss

A Notice of Designation must be actually filed in the county in which the case originated within thirty days of receipt of service of the Complaint in order to be timely, not just served within that time frame.

N.C. Gen. Stat.Sec. 7A-45.4(b) allows a defendant to designate an action as a complex business case "by filing a Notice of Designation in the Superior Court in which the action has been filed and simultaneously serving the notice" on opposing counsel, the Chief Judge of the Business Court, and the Chief Justice within thirty days after receipt of service of the Complaint.

"Filing" means actual filing within thirty days in the Court in the County in which the case was filed.  In counting the thirty days, a defendant does not get to count an additional three days if the Complaint was served by mail. 

Full Opinion

Motion to Dismiss granted where there were "patent inconsistencies" in the Complaint in Plaintiff’s claims of fraudulent inducement regarding an employment agreement. 

The Court held "it is patently inconsistent for [one of the Plaintiffs] Hittle to allege, on the one hand, that Defendant never intended to pay the wages promised, and on the other, that Defendant in fact performed in part and that it failed to complete performance for reasons unrelated to its intent."  The Court held that partial performance of a contract demonstrates a party’s intention to fulfill the promise at the time it was made, undermining Hittle’s claim on its face.

The fraudulent inducement claim of another Plaintiff (Warren), was allowed to go forward, however.  Warren’s claim was that he had been promised substantial severance pay if he was terminated for reasons other than those specified in his written employment agreement.  Although Warren, like Hittle, had begun employment, the Court found that "the fact that Defendant employed Warren for a period of time before terminating him for financial reasons does not negate Warren’s allegation that Defendant never intended (at the time it made the promise) to pay Warren severance upon his discharge."

The Court denied the Motions to Dismiss the Wage and Hour Act claims made by both Warren and Hittle.  According to her allegations, Hittle was entitled to a guaranteed payment of one year of compensation at the time she began employment, and the Court held that she therefore stated a claim for recovery of wages under the Act.  Warren had a claim under the Act because severance pay is included in the definition of wages.

Full Opinion

Brief in Support of Motion to Dismiss

Brief in Opposition to Motion to Dismiss

Reply Brief in Support of Motion to Dismiss

A party cannot use its own response to an opposing party’s Requests for Admission in order to defeat a Motion for Summary Judgment. 

The Court held that "while admissions of a party-opponent are not hearsay, ‘a party may not utilize his own admissions at trial.’"  Since evidence that would not be admissible at trial may not be considered on a Motion for Summary Judgment, there was no competent evidence contradicting Defendant’s properly supported factual position.  The Court also refused to rely on letters presented by Plaintiff’s counsel containing unsworn facts.

As the Court put it, "the bottom line is that neither Plaintiff nor any member of the firm representing Plaintiff have submitted Affidavits refuting the facts set forth" in the Affidavit submitted by Defendant.  On the record before it, the Court granted Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment.

Full Opinion

A counterclaim by a member of a North Carolina LLC against the LLC’s lender for aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty was derivative, not direct.

The Court relied on “[t]he well-established general rule . . . that shareholders cannot pursue individual causes of action against third parties for wrongs or injuries to the corporation that result in the diminution or destruction of the value of their stock.”   That principle applies "equally to suits brought by members of a limited liability company."

The claim that the lender’s actions had resulted in an unlawful distribution to other members of the LLC was "just another way of saying that the Individual Members wrongfully diverted Company assets."  That was a derivative claim belonging to the Company, not to its members.  The Motion to Dismiss the Counterclaim was therefore granted.

The Court did not resolve a parallel ground for the Motion to Dismiss: whether North Carolina still recognizes a claim for aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty in light of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Central Bank of Denver, N.A. v. First Interstate Bank of Denver, N.A., 511 U.S. 164 (1994).  That question has come before the Business Court a number of times in recent years, but has not been resolved by North Carolina’s appellate courts.

Full Opinion

Brief In Support Of Motion To Dismiss

Brief In Opposition To Motion To Dismiss

Supplemental Brief In Support Of Motion To Dismiss

Supplemental Brief In Opposition To Motion To Dismiss

Covenant Equipment Corp. v. Forklift Pro, Inc., 2008 NCBC 10 (N.C. Super. Ct. May 1, 2008)(Tennille)

A service of process issue and a covenant not to compete issue in one decision from the Business Court.  It doesn’t get any more exciting than this.  But, seriously, this is a significant procedural decision from the Court, please read on.  (As always, there is a link to the full opinion above).

On the service issue, the delivery of the Complaint to one of the Defendants, Carnie, had not been made in precise compliance with Rule 4 of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure.  The Sheriff had left the Summons and Complaint at Carnie’s house in South Carolina, but had not delivered it personally to Carnie and had not left it with another person at the residence.  According to Carnie’s Affidavit, the papers had been "left stuck in a crack between my doors" by a Deputy Sheriff with the last name of "Fudge."

The Court overruled the Motion to Dismiss for insufficiency of service of process because it found that Carnie had evaded service.  Looking at federal decisions, Judge Tennille ruled that leaving the Summons and Complaint at Carnie’s residence was adequate service given Carnie’s efforts to evade proper service.

But the groundbreaking part of the the decision on the service issue was the Court’s ruling that Carnie had waived his objection to service because he had filed a Notice of Designation of the case to the North Carolina Business Court.  Judge Tennille held that "the filing of a Notice of Designation in an action constitutes a general appearance for the purpose of personal jurisdiction."  Thus, the objection to the sufficiency of service was waived.

The Court’s decision goes beyond service of process.  Most significantly, if you are representing a Defendant planning to move to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, you will waive that argument by filing a Notice of Designation to the Business Court.  To keep it alive, the Notice of Designation must contain an objection to personal jurisdiction.  Carnie’s Notice did not.

Continue Reading A Notice Of Designation To The Business Court Is A General Appearance For Jurisdictional Purposes

Ikerd v. Greenwood, 2008 NCBC 9 (N.C. Super. Ct. April 30, 2008)(Tennille)

Yesterday, the Business Court provided more clarification on the requirements for making a timely designation of a case to the Business Court. 

It held that a Notice of Designation must be actually filed in the county in which the case originated within thirty days of receipt of service of the Complaint in order to be timely, not just served within that time frame.

One of the defendants in the Ikerd case had faxed his Notice of Designation to the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and to the Chief Judge of the Business Court less than thirty days after he had been served with the Complaint.  But he didn’t file the Notice of Designation with the Clerk of Court of Catawba County until more than thirty days after he’d been served. 

Judge Tennille held that this was not a timely Notice of Designation under the terms of N.C. Gen. Stat.Sec. 7A-45.4(b), which allows a defendant to designate an action as a complex business case "by filing a Notice of Designation in the Superior Court in which the action has been filed and simultaneously serving the notice" on opposing counsel, the Chief Judge of the Business Court, and the Chief Justice within thirty days after receipt of service of the Complaint.

"Filing" means actual filing within thirty days in the Court in the County in which the case was filed.  And in counting the thirty days, the Court also held that a defendant doesn’t get to count an additional three days if the Complaint was served by mail. 

The full procedure for designating a case to the North Carolina Business Court is described here. 

The answer to the question above is probably you, if you are reading this blog.

So, you might be interested in a powerpoint presentation that Judge Jolly and Judge Diaz made at the 2006 Conference of Superior Court Judges, on the Unfair and Deceptive Practices Act. 

It seems like a claim under that statute is part and parcel of nearly every business case filed in North Carolina.

There are some good "Practical Pointers" about the statute at the end of the presentation, including the one in the box at the bottom. (The Meineke case referenced is Broussard v. Meineke Discount Muffler Shops, Inc., 155 F.3d 331 (4th Cir. 1998), in which the Fourth Circuit threw out a $590 million unfair and deceptive practices verdict).

Notwithstanding my selection of excerpt from the powerpoint, this is by no means an anti-unfair and deceptive practices presentation.  It outlines a number of fact patterns that make out a UDPA claim, and has a good discussion of the respective roles of judge and jury in the trial of such claims and other useful information.