In its latest batch of new opinions this morning, the N.C. Court of Appeals:

  • affirmed unanimously a lower-court order throwing out a lawsuit involving a pedestrian hit by a passing truck while standing at a crosswalk near the Harrah’s Cherokee Hotel and Casino in western North Carolina. At issue in the appeal was the proper link between the state court system and the Cherokee tribal court. Appellate judges admitted the law was unclear but suggested the proceedings in the case forced them to deny the pedestrian’s attempt to continue his suit in Durham County Superior Court.
  • ordered a new trial in a Robeson County robbery case that dates back more than a decade. Appellate judges ruled the defendant had been blocked improperly from having his right to the final closing argument in his previous trial.
  • offered mixed news to a nurse pursuing disability claims against the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. A three-judge panel upheld part of the N.C. Industrial Commission’s favorable ruling for the nurse, injured when a patient backed a wheelchair into her and caused her to injure her hand. Appellate judges sent the case back to to the Industrial Commission to address other issues linked to the nurse’s temporary disability.
  • affirmed in a unanimous ruling a lower-court order against the Southeast Brunswick Sanitary District. The district had tried to force developers of an 88-unit townhome subdivision to pay nearly $650,000 in new fees, in addition to $264,000 in fees that had been paid in connection with the original permits for the subdivision’s wastewater treatment and collection. The appeals court agreed with a trial judge that the sanitary district was wrong to assess the new fees.