NO. COA04-1651
NORTH CAROLINA COURT OF APPEALS
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Filed: 1 November 2005
PETER M. WENDT,
Plaintiff,
v
.
Carteret County
No. 03 CVS 1370
RALPH THOMAS, JR., Sheriff
of Carteret County, Respondent
Superior of ROY GITTINGS, Deputy
Sheriff of Carteret County; BILL
O'BRIEN, (former) Deputy Sheriff
of Carteret County; TRAVELERS BOND,
a/k/a Travelers Casualty and Surety
Company of America, Surety,
Defendants.
Appeal by plaintiff from judgment entered 28 June 2004 by
Judge Kenneth F. Crow in Carteret County Superior Court. Heard in
the Court of Appeals 20 September 2005.
Peter Wendt, plaintiff-appellant, pro se.
Claud R. Wheatly, III for defendants-appellees.
LEVINSON, Judge.
Plaintiff Peter Wendt appeals from entry of summary judgment
in favor of defendants. We dismiss the appeal.
Plaintiff filed suit against defendants in December 2003. His
complaint alleged misconduct by Carteret County Deputy Sheriffs Roy
Gittings and Bill O'Brien, and respondeat superior liability of
Sheriff Ralph Thomas, Jr. He sought certain declarations by the
court, as well as $10,000 from defendant Travelers Bond, the suretyon Sheriff Thomas's bond. On 15 April 2004 defendants filed a
motion for summary judgment, which was granted on 28 June 2004.
Plaintiff appeals from this order.
We first review several pertinent Rules from the North
Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure. N.C.R. App. P. 10 provides
in relevant part that:
(a) [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 this Rule 10. . . .
(c) (1) A listing of the assignments of error
upon which an appeal is predicated shall be
stated at the conclusion of the record on
appeal, in short form without argument, and
shall be separately numbered.
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. An assignment of error is
sufficient if it directs the attention of the
appellate court to the particular error about
which the question is made, with
clear and
specific record or transcript references. . .
.
(emphasis added). And N.C.R. App. P. 28(b)(6) requires that
[i]mmediately following each question shall be a reference to the
assignments of error pertinent to the question, identified by their
numbers and by the pages at which they appear in the printed record
on appeal.
Plaintiff herein set out two assignments of error:
1. The trial court committed reversible error in
granting Appellees Summary Judgment as the
facts, evidence, exhibits, affidavits,
pleadings and other matters of record Appellee
relies upon is [sic] legally and factuallyinsufficient to support summary judgment, as a
matter of law, as a genuine question of law on
the indisputable facts is in controversy and
as material facts are in dispute.
2. The trial court committed reversible error in
granting Appellees Summary Judgment as North
Carolina law does not sanction Trespass.
Plaintiff's assignments of error are in substantial violation
of N.C.R. App. P. 10(c)(1). They are not confined to a single
issue of law; do not state plainly, concisely and without
argumentation the legal basis upon which error is assigned; and do
not include record or transcript references.
Plaintiff's first assignment of error purports to assign error
to almost every aspect of the case in a single assignment of error.
Such an assignment of error is designed to allow counsel to argue
anything and everything they desire in their brief on appeal.
'This assignment - like a hoopskirt - covers everything and touches
nothing.'
Wetchin v. Ocean Side Corp., 167 N.C. App. 756, 759,
606 S.E.2d 407, 409 (2005) (quoting
State v. Kirby, 276 N.C. 123,
131, 171 S.E.2d 416, 422 (1970)). In addition, plaintiff's second
assignment of error fails to allege any legal
error. Plaintiff's
statement that North Carolina law does not sanction Trespass
simply alleges a state policy, but does not set out any error by
the trial court.
Plaintiff also violated N.C.R. App. P. 28(b)(6), in that the
questions presented in his brief are not followed by reference to
the assignments of error pertinent to the question, identified by
their numbers and by the pages at which they appear in the printed
record on appeal. The North Carolina Supreme Court recently addressed the issue
of an appellant's violation of the Rules of Appellate Procedure:
The North Carolina Rules of Appellate
Procedure are mandatory and failure to follow
these rules will subject an appeal to
dismissal. In the instant case, plaintiff
has failed to comply with Rule 10 and Rule
28(b). . . . [T]he Rules of Appellate
Procedure must be consistently applied;
otherwise, the Rules become meaningless, and
an appellee is left without notice of the
basis upon which an appellate court might
rule.
Viar v. N.C. Dep't of Transp., 359 N.C. 400, 401, 402, 610 S.E.2d
360, 360-61 (2005) (quoting
Steingress v. Steingress, 350 N.C. 64,
65, 511 S.E.2d 298, 299 (1999), and citing
Bradshaw v. Stansberry,
164 N.C. 356, 79 S.E. 302 (1913)).
Because plaintiff's appeal is in substantial violation of the
North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure, his appeal is
Dismissed.
Judges WYNN and CALABRIA concur.
Report per Rule 30(e).
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