ESTATE OF CHARLES MICHAEL
EPLEY, BY JOSHUA G. EPLEY,
ADMINISTRATOR,
Petitioner,
v
.
Ashe County
No. 05 CVS 226
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE
TEACHERS' AND STATE EMPLOYEES'
RETIREMENT SYSTEM DIVISION,
Respondent.
Todd, Vanderbloeman & Brady, PA, by Charles A. Brady, III, for
petitioner-appellant.
Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General
Robert M. Curran, for respondent-appellee.
GEER, Judge.
Petitioner Joshua G. Epley, administrator of the Estate of
Charles Michael Epley, purports to appeal an order of the superior
court affirming a final decision of respondent Board of Trustees of
the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System. The Board
has filed a motion to dismiss petitioner's appeal, arguing in part
that petitioner failed to include the notice of appeal in the
record on appeal.
Under the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure, an
appellant must "fil[e] notice of appeal with the clerk of superiorcourt . . . ." N.C.R. App. P. 3(a). In order to establish this
Court's jurisdiction, a copy of that notice of appeal must be
included in the record on appeal. N.C.R. App. P. 9(a)(2)(g). "It
is the duty of the appellant to ensure that the record is
complete." Hicks v. Alford, 156 N.C. App. 384, 389, 576 S.E.2d
410, 414 (2003).
It is well established that "[w]hen the record does not
include a notice of appeal, the appellate courts are without
jurisdiction." In re Hudson, 165 N.C. App. 894, 898, 600 S.E.2d
25, 28, appeal dismissed and disc. review denied and cert. denied,
359 N.C. 189, 607 S.E.2d 271 (2004). See also Crowell
Constructors, Inc. v. State ex rel. Cobey, 328 N.C. 563, 563-64,
402 S.E.2d 407, 408 (1991) ("The notice of appeal must be contained
in the record. Since the record does not contain a notice of
appeal in compliance with Rule 3, the Court of Appeals had no
jurisdiction of the appeal. The appeal should have been
dismissed." (internal citations omitted)). As respondent points
out and petitioner concedes, the record on appeal in this case does
not include the notice of appeal.
Further, petitioner has not moved to amend the record, and
nothing in his response to the motion to dismiss can be construed
to be a request that we amend the record on appeal. See In re
Baker, 158 N.C. App. 491, 492, 581 S.E.2d 144, 145 (2003) (granting
motion to amend record on appeal to include notice of appeal so
that this Court had jurisdiction). Petitioner simply argues that
the cases cited by respondent are distinguishable. Becausepetitioner neither included the notice of appeal in the record on
appeal nor moved to amend the record to achieve compliance, we are
compelled to dismiss his appeal.
Dismissed.
Judges CALABRIA and JACKSON concur.
Report per Rule 30(e).
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