Court Opinion

ID: 9594936
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:34:05.110297+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:43:13.968934
License: Public Domain

Judge WYNN
dissenting.
The life of this appeal began with a Notice of Appeal from the judgment below. In apt time, the appellant served the Record on Appeal on the appellee, who made no objection thereto, and the Record was accordingly filed in this Court on 14 May 1992. Thereafter, the attorneys for each party undertook the necessary research and analysis to address the issues on appeal and, again in apt time, filed the completed briefs for the appellant and the appellee on 26 June 1992 and 15 July 1992, respectively.
Following a hearing of this appeal without argument in this Court on 15 April 1993, the majority now snuffs out the life of this appeal based on the failure of the appellant to include in the Record proof that the Notice of Appeal was served on the appellee. This they do even though the appellee neither contends that the Notice was not served on him nor makes an issue of the fact that the proof of service certificate is not in the Record on Appeal.
In Mason v. Moore County Bd. of Comm’rs, 229 N.C. 626, 51 S.E.2d 6 (1948), the appellants failed to include the Notice of Appeal in the Record. The Supreme Court stated, “[t]he record filed in this Court must show at least that an appeal was taken from the judgment. Otherwise this Court acquires no jurisdiction of the action.” Id. at 628, 51 S.E.2d at 7 (citations omitted) (emphasis added). Thus, the Court did not address the issue of whether jurisdiction is acquired where the Record contains a Notice of Appeal but fails to also contain a certificate of service and moreover, the appellee has not raised an issue regarding the missing certificate. As such, contrary to the majority, it is my opinion that Mason does not hold that without proof of service of the Notice of Appeal in the Record on Appeal, this Court obtains no jurisdiction.
The majority cites three cases from this Court in support of their holding. However, none of those cases address facts similar *625to the case at hand. In Giannitrapani v. Duke Univ., 30 N.C. App. 667, 669, 228 S.E.2d 46, 48 (1976), Smith v. Smith, 43 N.C. App. 338, 339, 258 S.E.2d 833, 835 (1979), and Shaw v. Hudson, 49 N.C. App. 457, 459, 271 S.E.2d 560, 561 (1980), this Court reviewed the dismissal of an appeal by the trial court where the appellant failed to timely serve the Notice of Appeal on the appellee. These cases appear to indicate that the proper course of action to contest lack of service is for the appellee to raise the issue of lack of service at the trial court level. This factor significantly distinguishes those cases from the present appeal, where no such issue was raised by motion of the appellee in the trial court (nor in this Court).
It is clear that the failure to include the Notice of Appeal in the Record renders this Court jurisdictionally infirm. Mason, 229 N.C. at 628, 51 S.E.2d at 7. The cases cited by the majority clearly state that both the requirement of timely filing the Notice of Appeal and that of serving the Notice, are jurisdictional. Giannitrapani, 30 N.C. App. at 670, 228 S.E.2d at 48; Smith, 43 N.C. App. at 339, 258 S.E.2d at 835. However, in my opinion, the service of the Notice of Appeal is a matter that may be waived by the conduct of the parties. As such, I quarrel only with the majority’s apparent presumption that the jurisdiction indicated is subject matter jurisdiction, which cannot b.e waived. Instead, I find the filing and service of the Notice of Appeal to be analogous to the Complaint and service thereof. The Complaint itself indicates whether the trial court has jurisdiction of the subject matter contained therein, and proper service on the defendant confers personal jurisdiction. The service of the Complaint, however, can be waived by the defendant by his voluntary appearance before the trial court. Likewise, it appears to me that, while the timely filing of the Notice is necessary to grant this Court subject matter jurisdiction over the appeal, the service of the Notice may be waived by the appellee without depriving this Court of subject matter jurisdiction. In examining the service of a Complaint on the opposing party, the Supreme Court has determined that
“[d]ue process of law” requires that a defendant shall be properly notified of the proceeding against him, and have an opportunity to be present and to be heard. “When the defendant has been duly served with summons personally within the State, or has accepted service or has voluntarily appeared in court, jurisdiction over the person exists and the court may proceed to render a personal judgment against the defend*626ant. If there has been no service of summons and no waiver by appearance, the court has no jurisdiction and any judgment rendered would be void.”
B-W Acceptance Corp. v. Spencer, 268 N.C. 1, 10, 149 S.E.2d 570, 577 (1966) (quoting 1 McIntosh, N.C. Civil Practice and Procedure, 2d Ed., § 933(1)). Therefore, by analogy in the case at hand, where the appellee failed, by motion or otherwise, to raise the issue as to service of notice in either the trial court or in this Court and has proceeded to file a brief arguing the merits of the case, I vote to hold that he has waived service of notice and, thus, the failure to include the proof of service in the Record is inconsequential. Having so concluded, I find that this Court should consider the merits of this case as argued by the parties.