Court Opinion

ID: 9586995
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:17:08.489323+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:58.407807
License: Public Domain

HEDRICK, Judge.
The record shows that all parties entered into the following stipulation:
(4) For the sole purpose of this appeal, summary judgment on behalf of Long Manufacturing Company, Inc. would only be appropriate if plaintiffs action is barred by the applicable North Carolina statute of limitations.
The only assignment of error brought forward and argued in plaintiffs brief is set out in the record as follows:
I. The Court improperly granted Motion for Summary Judgment by defendant Long Manufacturing Company, Inc., in that the statute upon which defendant’s Motion was based is unconstitutional on its face.
The only assignment of error brought forward and argued in defendant Revels’ brief is set out in the record as follows:
I. The Court improperly granted the Motion for Summary Judgment of the Defendant, Long Manufacturing Company, Inc., in that the Statute relied upon by both the movant and the Court is unconstitutional.
*630The only argument advanced on appeal by appellants is that N.C. Gen. Stat. Sec. 1-50(6) is unconstitutional.
In Wilcox v. Highway Comm., 279 N.C. 185, 181 S.E. 2d 435 (1971), the plaintiff appealed from a decision dismissing his suit as barred by the applicable statute of limitations. Plaintiffs argument on appeal was that the statute in question was unconstitutional. In upholding the decision of the trial court, our Supreme Court said, “Having failed to question the constitutionality of G.S. 136-111 in the trial court, plaintiff may not on appeal attack the statute upon that ground. ‘It is a well established rule of this Court that it will not decide a constitutional question which was not raised or considered in the court below.’ ” Id. at 187, 181 S.E. 2d at 437 (quoting Johnson v. Highway Commission, 259 N.C. 371, 373, 130 S.E. 2d 544, 546 (1963)). See also Midrex Corp. v. Lynch, Sec. of Revenue, 50 N.C. App. 611, 274 S.E. 2d 853, disc. rev. denied and appeal dismissed, 303 N.C. 181, 280 S.E. 2d 453 (1981):
The record does not contain anything in the pleadings, evidence, judgment or otherwise, to indicate that any constitutional argument was presented to the trial court. The appellate court will not decide a constitutional question which was not raised or considered in the trial court. . . . The record must affirmatively show that the question was raised and passed upon in the trial court. . . . This is in accord with the decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Edelman v. California, 344 U.S. 357, 97 L.Ed. 387 (1953).
Id. at 618, 274 S.E. 2d at 857-58.
The record before us does not affirmatively disclose that the constitutionality of N.C. Gen. Stat. Sec. 1-50(6) was raised, discussed, considered, or passed upon in the trial court. We will not pass upon the question in this case, where it is raised and discussed for the first time on appeal.
Summary judgment for Long Manufacturing Company will be affirmed, and the cause is remanded to the Superior Court for further proceedings.
Affirmed.
*631Judge HILL concurs.
Judge Becton concurs in the result.