Court Opinion

ID: 9584510
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:49:07.914925+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:08:06.151607
License: Public Domain

Hedrick, Judge,
dissenting.
On the authority of Kirkman v. Kirkman, 42 N.C. App. 173, 256 S.E. 2d 264, disc. rev. denied, 298 N.C. 297, 259 S.E. 2d 300 (1979), and cases cited therein, I vote to vacate the judgment of the district court and remand the matter to that court for the entry of an order dismissing the proceeding. To what end has the court been called upon to declare whether the plaintiff, Terry Jean King Bowlin, is the “lawful, legal wife of Joseph James Bowlin, deceased”? The majority, in my opinion, reads too much into the pleadings when they say the plaintiff and the defendant, Jeffrey James Bowlin, have adverse interests in the estate of Joseph James Bowlin. The pleadings contain no allegations of a justiciable issue among the parties. Although it is alleged that the defendant, Eleanor L. Bowlin, has been appointed administratrix of the estate of Joseph James Bowlin, deceased, there is no allegation that the deceased owned any property, real or personal, or that the administratrix has done anything, or contemplates doing anything, toward the administration of the estate. Indeed, the administratrix, although made a party defendant, has not even filed an answer. The question of whether plaintiff was the lawful wife of Joseph James Bowlin at the time of his death, and thus his widow at the time this proceeding was commenced, insofar as the pleadings in this matter are concerned, is purely academic. I realize the act providing for declaratory judgments is to be construed liberally, but, in my opinion, this *107does not mean that the courts should be called upon to adjudicate problems which do not exist and may never arise. I vote to vacate and remand.