Court Opinion

ID: 9851455
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:13:00.73385+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:56.687013
License: Public Domain

STROUD, Judge
concurring in separate opinion.
While I concur with the mandate of the majority opinion, I write separately to address other issues the majority opinion has chosen not to address. I reiterate, as the majority opinion notes, that in plaintiffs’ amended complaint plaintiffs requested that the trial court (1) permanently enjoin the defendants “from violating any of the restrictions set forth in the Restriction Agreement^] and (2) “enter an Order requiring the Defendants to remove any improvements on Defendants’ property that are in violation of the Restrictions[.]” Furthermore, on or about 6 August 2007, defendants filed an answer to plaintiffs’ amended complaint which included counterclaims contingent on certain determinations of the trial court. Defendants’ 6 August 2007 answer reads, “In the event that the Court finds and concludes that the Restriction Agreement and the setback restrictions contained therein remains in full force and effect, and that the Brightons are not in violation of that Agreement, the Brightons assert the following Counterclaims against the Hodgins and the Destefanos . . . ,”1 (Emphasis added.)
On 4 January 2008, the trial court entered its order, entitled “ORDER GRANTING PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT[.]” The order stated in pertinent part as follows:
[f]rom a review of the Complaint, it appears that the only claim for relief by the Plaintiffs is one for an Order enjoining Defendants from building an addition on to their house. Although denominated as a Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on the claim for a “permanent injunction,” in fact, the Motion is one for *131Summary Judgment on the Complaint of the Plaintiffs against Defendants. . . .
The trial court thereafter granted summary judgment for defendants as to plaintiffs’ claims and dismissed plaintiffs’ complaint in its entirety. '
The trial court order did not specifically address the contingencies in defendants’ counterclaims, and it is unclear from the record whether defendants currently have pending counterclaims. The conditions stated for defendants’ counterclaims were that “the [c]ourt finds and concludes [(1)] that the Restriction Agreement and the setback restrictions remain in full force and effect, and [(2)] that the [defendants’] are not in violation of that Agreementf.]” These conditions were fulfilled, which would indicate that the counterclaims were active based upon the order granting “partial” summary judgment.
The trial court order reads, “There is no just reason for delay in entry of this Judgment. Accordingly, this Judgment is a final Judgment on the merits of the Complaint.” This language is similar to the language of North Carolina Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b) for certification by the trial court for immediate appeal of an interlocutory order. See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1A-1, Rule 54(b). Therefore, both the title of the order, “ORDER GRANTING PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT],]” and the order’s language which seems to mirror “certification” language, see id., could be read as an indication that the trial court did not consider its order a final order which disposed of all claims as to all parties, so that certification of this interlocutory order was necessary for this Court to review the issues which were determined. See id. However, no party has argued that this appeal is interlocutory, and the majority opinion has addressed this appeal on its merits as a final judgment which dismissed the case in its entirety as to all claims and parties.
The trial court also effectively converted defendants’ motion for partial summary judgment into a motion for summary judgment and dismissed plaintiffs’ entire complaint because “it appears that the only claim for relief by the Plaintiffs is one for an Order enjoining Defendants from building an addition on to their house.” We note that defendants contributed to the trial court’s misconception as the last sentence in their 29 October 2007 motion for partial summary judgment is, “WHEREFORE, the Brightons respectfully request that the Court enter an Order granting them partial summary judg*132ment on Plaintiffs’ sole claim for relief-permanent injunction.” (Emphasis added.)
However, plaintiffs’ amended complaint also clearly requests “an Order requiring the Defendants to remove any improvements on Defendants’ property that are in violation of the Restrictions.” Therefore, the trial court order erred in stating that the plaintiff had only brought forth one claim for relief. Plaintiffs requested both (1) injunctive relief to prevent defendants from continuing construction in the future and (2) an order requiring defendants to remove the portion of the construction that had already been done. Plaintiffs’ suit included both future relief, an injunction prohibiting future violations, as well as relief for past actions of defendants, removal of construction already done. It is true that the two claims for relief arise out of the same legal theory, violation of the Restriction Agreement, but there are differences between the remedies of equitable, injunctive relief to prevent future violations and legal relief to address a past violation. In addition, as noted above, defendants had raised possible counterclaims which are not clearly addressed in the record.
The majority has assumed that the trial court’s order was in fact a final order which disposed of all claims by all parties, and this assumption is probably correct, but I prefer not to base an opinion upon assumptions. To the extent that these assumptions are correct, I agree entirely with the majority’s analysis of the substantive issues, and for this reason I concur in the result. I therefore write separately to state my concerns regarding the lack of clarity in the trial court’s order and in the record and to admonish the trial court to take care to address clearly each pending claim of each party.

. There is some indication in the record that the word “not” was a typographical error, so that the condition for the counterclaim should have read “that the Brightons are in violation of that Agreement. . .[;]” (emphasis added), if this is correct, the condition for the counterclaim was not fulfilled.