Opinion ID: 1249965
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: jurisdiction and extent of review

Text: We elect to address a single issue on this appeal: Whether surcharges are rates within the meaning of our insurance laws. Other issues were addressed by the Court of Appeals and others have been presented to us by the briefs of the parties. We elect not to address any of them. We have accelerated our efforts to file this opinion in order that it might be promptly available to our legislators who, we understand, are presently considering legislation in this controversial area of our law. To address the peripheral issues would serve no positive purpose and would, as will later be demonstrated, produce no different result. Unquestionably, the above issue is at the core of the controversy and the other issues raised pale in comparison. It would serve little purpose for us to extensively discuss whether the Governor had standing to sue. Moreover, whether the appeal should be dismissed as interlocutory since it is from the denial of a preliminary injunction, as discussed in the Court of Appeals' dissent, is irrelevant in light of our election to answer the substantive question involved. We also will not address the Court of Appeals' treatment of our preliminary injunction laws. With respect to these, and all other issues noted by the Court of Appeals and the parties in brief, we express no opinion. Suffice it to say that pursuant to our supervisory and discretionary power we find the procedural context of the matter before us to be such that we can adequately deal with the substantive issue presented in a controversy which is obviously demanding of prompt resolution. It is an issue crucial to the people of North Carolina.