Hurricanes and North Carolina Law

Appeal, Civil Law, Family Law, Spousal Support

The Law and Hurricanes

As you would expect of a state that seems to have a bullseye painted on it for hurricanes, the appellate case law in North Carolina is replete of cases that address legal issues caused by these tropical cyclones. In fact, there are over 130 appellate cases with “hurricane” being mentioned at least once. The earliest reported case is from 1920.

Hurricane Related Lawsuits

Most lawsuits deal with insurance claims, insurance rate changes, negligence (failure to inspect following a hurricane, failure to warn, etc. resulting in personal injury and/or death), worker’s compensation (often related to

injuries caused preparing for a hurricane or in its aftermath cleaning up), fraudulent insurance claims, deceptive trade practices, negligence in caring for property of another during the storm, and the like. Nothing “shocking” about these lawsuits.

But others are more out of the ordinary. One dealt with a lawsuit for a neighbor’s trespass and removal of trees just prior to a hurricane (where the neighbor thought it was his land). Others involve claims for a new trial based on judge’s remarks about an impending hurricane, criminal prosecutions for acts during hurricanes, municipalities increasing taxes for hurricane protection efforts, and fraud claims (selling a house and providing false statements about flooding in prior hurricanes and the like).

Interesting Hurricane Cases

Of the more than 130 reported appellate cases, I found the five below to be unique or of particular interest:

In 1920, a lawsuit was brought by a landowner when a dam collapsed after “the heavier air of the colder regions, north and south, impelled by the force of gravity, rushed in to fill the vacuum. The counter movement of the winds, and the precipitation of the water, caused a hurricane which passed up the Atlantic Coast.” Rector v. N. Carolina Elec. Power Co., 180 N.C. 622, 105 S.E. 422, 423 (1920)

One case in particular, Gregory v. Penland, 179 N.C. App. 505, 507–08, 634 S.E.2d 625, 627–28 (2006), involved a National Guardsman who took a group joy riding on the beach in Oak Island in a Humvee resulting in his death and injuries to all three passengers.

In another, Innovative 55, LLC v. Robeson Cty., ___ N.C. App. ___, 801 S.E.2d 671, 678 (2017), the Court of Appeals overturned a Robeson County judge who allowed County Board of Commissioners to deny conditional use permit for a solar farm based on “unsupported and highly speculative claims about their unsubstantiated fears of solar farm

s and their possible dangers” including that it “might be hit by hurricanes or tornadoes.” Surprisingly, solar farms and hurricanes appears at least twice in the appellate record. See Ecoplexus Inc. v. Cty. of Currituck, Bd. of Commissioners, ___ N.C. App. ___, 809 S.E.2d 148, 152 (2017).

Alimony award did not include Defendant’s greater income working for Progress Energy to restore electrical power following hurricanes. See Brown v. Brown, 192 N.C. App. 734, 666 S.E.2d 217 (2008).

Funds granted by federal government to board to cover cost of educating students displaced by Hurricane Katrina who entered city-county school system constituted moneys that had to be shared with charter schools. Sugar Creek Charter Sch., Inc. v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ., 195 N.C. App. 348, 360, 673 S.E.2d 667, 676 (2009).

In Lea v. Grier, 156 N.C. App. 503, 506, 577 S.E.2d 411, 414 (2003), teachers sued county school board alleging new school calendar, restructured in the aftermath of hurricane increased their work load without additional pay.