Court Opinion

ID: 9586204
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:08:12.063714+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:24:19.251330
License: Public Domain

Judge Greene
dissenting.
I believe the trial court’s “Partial Judgment” setting the date of separation for the parties and granting absolute divorce is immediately appealable; therefore, I would address the merits of Defendant’s appeal. Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent.
As a general rule, “final judgments are always appealable.” Tinch v. Video Industrial Services, 347 N.C. 380, 381, 493 S.E.2d 426, 427 (1997) (per curiam); N.C.G.S. § 7A-27(c) (1995) (“From any final judgment of a district court in a civil action appeal lies of right directly to *166the Court of Appeals.”); N.C.G.S. § l-277(a) (1996). A “ ‘decision which disposes not of the whole but merely of a separate and distinct branch of the subject matter in litigation’ is final in nature and is immediately appealable.” Highway Commission v. Nuckles, 271 N.C. 1, 13, 155 S.E.2d 772, 783 (1967) (quoting 4 Am. Jur. 2d Appeal and Error § 53 (1962) (emphasis added)). Our Supreme Court “inter-pretfs] G.S. 1-277 so as to give any party to a lawsuit a right to an immediate appeal from every judicial determination . . . which constitutes a final adjudication, even when that determination disposes of only a part of the lawsuit.” Oestreicher v. Stores, 290 N.C. 118, 124, 225 S.E.2d 797, 802 (1976) (emphases added);1 Pelican Watch v. U.S. Fire Ins. Co., 323 N.C. 700, 701-02, 375 S.E.2d 161, 162 (1989) (per curiam) (holding that the trial court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claim for compensatory damages “was a final judgment and plaintiffs were entitled to appellate review of the grant of summary judgment against them on [that] issue” even though other issues were still pending in the trial court).
In this case, the “Partial Judgment” is, despite its caption, a final judgment because it disposes of the parties’ action for divorce, leaving nothing to be judicially determined in the trial court on that action. The divorce action was expressly “severed from the remaining issues in this cause” with the consent of the parties and is a “separate and distinct branch” of the parties’ litigation which is final in nature. Accordingly, the trial court’s judgment as to divorce is a final judgment and is immediately appealable.
In any event, even assuming the “Partial Judgment” entered in this case is interlocutory, it affects a substantial right which would be prejudiced absent immediate appeal. “[A]n order which completely disposes of one of several issues in a lawsuit affects a substantial *167right.” Case v. Case, 73 N.C. App. 76, 78, 325 S.E.2d 661, 663 (1985) (allowing immediate appeal of the trial court’s entry of summary judgment on the defendant’s counterclaim for equitable distribution, even though claims for absolute divorce and child custody and support were still pending in the trial court, because it affected a substantial right), disc. review denied, 313 N.C. 597, 330 S.E.2d 606 (1985). In addition, the trial court’s determination of the date of separation in the divorce action precludes relitigation of that issue for purposes of equitable distribution, see, e.g., Garner v. Garner, 268 N.C. 664, 665, 151 S.E.2d 553, 554 (1966) (noting that res judicata is applicable to divorce proceedings), and it cannot be modified by another district court judge upon a showing of changed conditions because it is not a discretionary ruling, but rather is a ruling on a matter of law which can only be reversed on appeal, see, e.g., Calloway v. Motor Co., 281 N.C. 496, 501-03, 189 S.E.2d 484, 488-89 (1972). As such, the trial court’s determination in this case affects a substantial right and is immediately appealable.

. The language in Oestreicher as to what constitutes a substantial right may have been implicitly limited by subsequent Supreme Court cases. See Moose v. Nissan of Statesville, 115 N.C. App. 423, 426, 444 S.E.2d 694, 696 (1994) (noting that “two lines of cases” have emerged regarding whether a substantial right has been affected); J & B Slurry Seal Co. v. Mid-South Aviation, Inc., 88 N.C. App. 1, 6-7, 362 S.E.2d 812, 816 (1987) (noting “two occasionally incompatible lines of authority governing the appeal-ability of partial summary judgments,” referring to the Supreme Court’s apparent rejection of part of the Oestreicher opinion in Green v. Duke Power Co., 305 N.C. 603, 290 S.E.2d 593, (1982)). Regardless of whether that portion of Oestreicher has been implicitly overruled, the remaining aspects of the Oestreicher opinion (including the statement cited above) remain unchallenged, and in fact, have been relied on in recent Supreme Court opinions. See, e.g., DKH Corp. v. Rankin-Patterson Oil Co., 348 N.C. 583, 585, 500 S.E.2d 666, 668 (1998); Crossman v. Moore, 341 N.C. 185, 186, 459 S.E.2d 715, 717 (1995); Pelican Watch, 323 N.C. at 702, 375 S.E.2d at 162.