RUDOLPH LEONARD BAXLEY, JR.,
Plaintiff
v
.
Cumberland County
No. 00 CVS 9671
TIMOTHY O. JACKSON, LEISA S.
JACKSON, and ROSEWOOD
INVESTMENTS, L.L.C.,
Defendants
The Yarborough Law Firm, by Garris Neil Yarborough, for
plaintiff-appellee.
Ward & Smith, P.A., by A. Charles Ellis, Benjamin E.F.B.
Waller, and Lance P. Martin, for defendants-appellants.
CALABRIA, Judge.
Timothy O. Jackson, Leisa S. Jackson, and Rosewood
Investments, L.L.C., (collectively defendants) appeal from a 16
June 2003 order of the Cumberland County Superior Court requiring
them to specifically perform the terms of a settlement agreement
with Rudolph Leonard Baxley, Jr., (plaintiff) and sanctioning
them with attorney fees incurred by plaintiff in enforcing the
agreement. Defendants, however, have not properly assigned errorto the order from which appeal is taken. The record on appeal
includes only one assignment of error:
The Trial Court erred in entering the Order
dated June 16, 2003 awarding relief to
Plaintiff-Appellee in response to his Motion
for Order to Show Cause and Motion in the
Cause. (R p 00054).
Each assignment of error shall, so far as practicable, be
confined to a single issue of law; and shall state plainly,
concisely and without argumentation the legal basis upon which
error is assigned. N.C. R. App. P. 10(c)(1) (emphasis added).
Our Rules of Appellate Procedure include an appendix which
illustrates the proper way to draft an assignment of error,
including the following three examples of assignments of error:
1. The court's admission of the testimony of
the witness E.F., on the ground that the
testimony was hearsay.
2. The court's denial of the defendant's
motion for directed verdict at the conclusion
of all the evidence, on the ground that
plaintiff's evidence as a matter of law
established his contributory negligence.
3. The court's instructions to the jury, R.,
pp. 50-51, as bracketed, explaining the
doctrine of last clear chance, on the ground
that the doctrine was not correctly explained.
N.C. R. App. P. appx. C, tbl. 4, pt. B (emphasis added).
[T]he scope of review on appeal is confined to a
consideration of those assignments of error set out in the record
on appeal in accordance with . . . Rule 10. N.C. R. App. P.
10(a). Our courts have been clear to articulate that absent a
specific legal basis, an assignment of error is deemed abandoned.
The legal basis need not be particularly polished; it need only put
the appellee and this Court on notice of the legal issues that willbe contested on appeal. Collins v. St. George Physical Therapy,
141 N.C. App. 82, 89, 539 S.E.2d 356, 361-62 (2000) (citations
omitted). See, e.g., Clark v. Sanger Clinic, P.A., 142 N.C. App.
350, 359, 542 S.E.2d 668, 674 (2001) (citing N.C. R. App. P.
10(c)(1) and concluding that because appellant's assignment of
error . . . fails to include any reference to the [relevant
statutory authority][,] . . . [appellant's] argument is not
properly before us[,] and [we] decline to address its merits);
Bustle v. Rice, 116 N.C. App. 658, 659, 449 S.E.2d 10, 10-11 (1994)
(dismissing appellants' appeal because, inter alia, their
assignments of error violate . . . N.C.R. App. P. Rule 10(c)(1)
[in that] . . . they are not stated 'without argumentation'; they
do not specify the 'legal basis upon which error is assigned'; and
they do not 'direct the attention of the appellate court to the
particular error about which the question is made, with clear and
specific transcript references').
In the instant case, appellant's assignment of error states no
legal grounds and is bereft of any indication regarding whether the
trial court's purported error was a violation of statute, of common
law, or was an abuse of discretion. [A]lthough [defendants'] sole
assignment of error states [defendants'] dissatisfaction with . .
. the trial court's order, [without a statement of] the legal basis
on which this error is assigned[,] [defendants'] assignment of
error is . . . insufficient under Rule 10. Because our scope of
review is confined to properly presented assignments of error,[defendants'] appeal is dismissed. Rogers v. Colpitts, 129 N.C.
App. 421, 422-23, 499 S.E.2d 789, 790 (1998).
Appeal dismissed.
Judges WYNN and LEVINSON concur.
Report per Rule 30(e).
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