Court Opinion

ID: 9846043
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:33:14.924263+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:31.609071
License: Public Domain

Judge Lewis
dissenting.
With due respect to the majority, my approach to this case would begin with a review of the statutes that expressly authorize the actions of the district court judge. Section 110-44.1 of the North Carolina General Statutes reads, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any child under 18 years of age, except as provided in G.S. 110-44.2 and 110-44.3, shall be subject to the supervision and control of [her] parents.” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 110-44.1 (1997) (emphasis added). Section 110-44.4 permits parents, guardians, and persons standing in loco parentis to a child to bring a civil action in district court for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of the Parental Control Act. The section provides in relevant part,
Upon the institution of such action by a verified complaint, alleging that the defendant child has left home or has left the place where [she] has been residing and refuses to return and comply with the direction and control of the plaintiff, the court may issue an order directing the child personally to appear before the court at a specified time to be heard in answer to the allegations of the plaintiff and to comply with further orders of the court. . . . Upon the filing of an answer by or on behalf of said child, any district court judge holding court in the county or district court district as defined in G.S. 7A-133 where said action was instituted shall have jurisdiction to hear the matter, without a jury, and to make findings of fact, conclusions of law, and render judgment thereon. . . . The district judge issuing the original order or the district judge hearing the matter after answer has been filed shall also have authority to order that any person named defendant in the order or judgment shall not harbor, keep, or allow the defendant child to remain on said person’s premises or in said person’s home. Failure of any defendant to comply with the terms of said order or judgment shall be punishable as for contempt.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 110-44.4 (1997) (emphasis added).
In this case, Tracey Taylor, the mother of fifteen-year-old Ebony Robinson, brought a civil action in district court alleging that her daughter had left home and refused to return. The district court judge ordered the Onslow County Sheriff to seize Ebony and bring her to court. Ebony was in fact seized, and after a hearing, the district court *346judge entered a “Temporary Order for Parental Control” on 22 May 1997. The court found that Ebony “ha[d] previously removed herself from [her] parents’ residence,” ordered Ebony to submit to the supervision and control of her mother, and decreed that any person who violated the court’s order would be compelled to show cause why she should not be held in contempt. The civil action filed by Ms. Taylor, the proceedings that followed, and the district court judge’s disposition of the case were all expressly authorized by G.S. 110-44.4.
At a hearing on 5 June 1997, the district court judge reviewed the Temporary Order for Parental Control. It found that Ebony was in willful violation of the prior court order and concluded that she was in contempt. DYS has not assigned error to either of these findings.
Pursuant to the authority expressly conferred by section 110-44.1, the district court judge punished Ebony “as for contempt,” ordering her detained for thirty days, twenty days suspended. See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 5A-11(3) (Cum. Supp. 1997) (stating that willful disobedience of a court order constitutes criminal contempt); § 5A-12 (Cum. Supp. 1997) (authorizing imprisonment as punishment for criminal contempt). Because Ebony was. only fifteen years old when the contempt order was entered, it would have violated the public policy of this State and of the United States to place her in an adult prison. See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-693 (1995) (“[T]o every extent possible, it shall be the policy of [this State] that no juvenile or delinquent juvenile shall be placed or detained in any prison, jail, or lockup nor be detained or transported in association with criminal, vicious or dissolute persons.” (emphasis added)); 42 U.S.C. § 5633 (12) through (14) (1994) (conditioning states’ eligibility for certain federal funding on states’ agreement not to confine juveniles “in any jail or lock-up for adults”). In keeping with these policies, the district court judge ordered that Ebony be committed to the New Hanover Regional Detention Center, a juvenile detention facility.
I see no reason to overturn the court’s ruling, based as it is on express statutory authority and on established public policy. According to section 110-44.4, persons who violate court orders issued thereunder may be punished “as for contempt,” without limitation. To hold, as does the majority, that a district court judge cannot punish a juvenile contemnor by ordering imprisonment seriously diminishes the efficacy of court orders under the Parental Control Act. Furthermore, the choice to place Ebony in a detention facility separate from an adult prison was in keeping with the custody provisions of the Revised Juvenile Code: The Code states that certain juve*347nile offenders found to be delinquent or undisciplined may be held in “secure custody,” but only in facilities separate from adult penal institutions. See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-576(b) (Cum. Supp. 1997).
In its appellate brief, DYS makes the following assertion: “There are only two portals of entry into juvenile detention homes. These are set forth in Chapter 7A, Article 46, N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 7A-571 et seq. (Temporary Custody; Secure and Nonsecure Custody; Custody Hearings), and Chapter 7A, Article 49, N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 7A-608 et seq. (Transfer to Superior Court).” DYS does not cite a single statute or case to support this assertion. This is because no such statute or case exists.
DYS correctly notes that this case has nothing to do with General Statutes Chapter 7A, Article 49: Under this Article, once a district court judge has transferred, to superior court, jurisdiction over a juvenile alleged to have committed a felony, the district court judge must order that the juvenile be held in a detention home pending trial. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-611 (1995). It does not follow, however, as DYS claims, that “Article 46 [of Chapter 7A] is the only other possible source of authority for the district court’s order” that Ebony Robinson be committed to the New Hanover Regional Detention Center. A more comprehensive look at the North Carolina Juvenile Code reveals why.
As noted by the majority, the Juvenile Code, codified at sections 7A-516 through 7A-749 of the General Statutes, establishes, among other things, procedures for the disposition of cases “involving a juvenile alleged to be delinquent, undisciplined, abused, neglected, or dependent.” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-523(a) (Cum. Supp. 1997). Under the Code, an “intake counselor” must screen all complaints alleging that a juvenile is undisciplined or delinquent. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-530 (1995). The intake counselor must determine whether the complaint should be filed with the district court as a petition, based on a consideration of whether reasonable grounds exist to believe the facts alleged are true, whether the facts alleged constitute a delinquent or undisciplined offense within the jurisdiction of the court, and whether the facts alleged are sufficiently serious to warrant court action. N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 7A-530, 7A-532 (1995). Upon the approval of the intake counselor or the prosecutor, see N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-536 (1995), a petition is filed with the district court alleging “the facts which invoke jurisdiction over the juvenile.” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-560 (1995).
*348It is in this context that section 7A-574(b) must be read. This section provides that “fwlhen a request is made for secure custody. the judge may order secure custody only where he finds there is a reasonable factual basis to believe that the juvenile actually committed the offense as alleged in the petition, and” that one of eight enumerated conditions is met. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-574(b) (emphasis added). By its own terms, section 7A-574(b) applies only to cases in which the district court judge is asked to commit a juvenile to secure custody, based on a petition alleging that the juvenile has committed an offense. This is not such a case.
In this case, a complaint was filed against Ebony Robinson alleging that Ebony had refused to submit to the supervision and control of her mother. The complaint did not request that Ebony be committed to secure custody; rather, in accordance with G.S. 110-44.4, the complaint prayed the district court judge to issue an order directing Ebony to reside with plaintiff and to submit to plaintiffs parental control and supervision. It was only later, three weeks after the district court judge issued the order requested, that the case was reviewed and Ebony was found to be in willful violation of the order. For her failure to comply with the decree, she was held in contempt and ordered imprisoned as section 110-44.4 expressly permits. Simply put, section 7A-574(b) does not apply to this case.
The majority holds that the district court judge had no authority to punish Ebony Robinson for criminal contempt by ordering her confinement with DYS. This holding is based on a single provision of the Juvenile Code: “The [district] court has exclusive, original jurisdiction over any case involving a juvenile who is alleged to be delinquent, undisciplined, abused, neglected, or dependent.” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-523(a) (Cum. Supp. 1997). From this provision — which unquestionably vests the district court with exclusive jurisdiction over the juvenile cases listed — the majority concludes that “the Juvenile Code is the exclusive provision governing the commitment of allegedly undisciplined minors under the age of sixteen.” Slip op. at 7. The conclusion does not follow from the premise.
It is one thing to say that the district court, and no other tribunal, is to have exclusive jurisdiction over cases involving juveniles who are alleged to be undisciplined or delinquent: section 7A-523(a) so provides. It is quite another to say that the Juvenile Code provides the exclusive source of statutory authority for adjudicating claims against juveniles who refuse to submit to parental control. There is no statute that so provides.
*349Despite claims to the contrary, the majority effectively holds that when the Revised Juvenile Code was enacted in 1979, it repealed the Parental Control Act to the extent it applies to children age fifteen and under. The majority so holds despite the fact the Parental Control Act was not expressly repealed when the Revised Juvenile Code was passed, and despite the fact that G.S. 110-44.1 continues to read, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any child under 18 years of age . . . shall be subject to the supervision and control of [her] parents” (emphasis added).
It has been the law in North Carolina since at least 1849 that the repeal of statutes by implication is disfavored. See, e.g., State v. Woodside, 31 N.C. 496, 500 (1849); Winslow v. Morton, 118 N.C. 486, 493, 24 S.E. 417, 418-19 (1896); Person v. Garrett, 280 N.C. 163, 165-66, 184 S.E.2d 873, 874 (1971); Empire Power Co. v. N.C. Dept. of E.H.N.R., 337 N.C. 569, 593, 447 S.E.2d 768, 782 (1994). “ ‘[T]here is a presumption against inconsistency, and when there are two or more statutes on the same subject, in the absence of an express repealing clause, they are to be harmonized and every part allowed significance, if it can be done by fair and reasonable interpretation.’ ” Empire Power, 337 N.C. at 593, 447 S.E.2d at 782 (quoting In re Miller, 243 N.C. 509, 514, 91 S.E.2d 241, 245 (1956)). I find nothing in the Juvenile Code that necessitates a finding that the Parental Control Act has been implicitly repealed to the extent it applies to children under the age of sixteen.
This case does not, moreover, provide the occasion to apply the rule of construction favoring a specific statute over a general statute. The rule set forth by our Supreme Court is that, where two statutes are necessarily repugnant to one another in some respect, the specific statute prevails over the general. Krauss, 347 N.C. at 378, 493 S.E.2d at 433. We do not in this case confront two statutes, one specific and one general, in necessary conflict with each other. Instead, we have before us two sets of statutes, the Juvenile Code and the Parental Control Act, which specifically address different proceedings and different remedies sought, neither of which inherently conflicts with the other. The majority perceives a clash between the Code and the Act, but I see none.
I believe it was fully within the power of the district court to punish Ebony Robinson for contempt of court by ordering her commitment with DYS. I respectfully dissent.