Court Opinion

ID: 9854430
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:07:33.602632+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:04.720382
License: Public Domain

Judge PHILLIPS
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
The majority opinion is based upon mistaken premises and I dissent from it, while agreeing that the order denying defendant’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s claim for punitive damages does not affect a substantial right and is not immediately appealable.
The dispositive issue is not whether the appeals are interlocutory — both manifestly are, since neither order finally determines any aspect of the case; there is no two-part test for determining whether an appeal or order is interlocutory; some of the discussion of these mistaken issues and premises is unnecessary as well as incorrect; the dispositive issue is whether either interlocutory order appealed from affects a substantial right, for if an interlocutory order affects a substantial right it is immediately appealable, otherwise it is not, and the issue has been clearly and succinctly answered for us by previous decisions of our courts.
One order appealed from refused to dismiss plaintiff’s claim against Piedmont for punitive damages and in Williams v. East Coast Sales, Inc., 50 N.C. App. 565, 274 S.E.2d 276 (1981), it was held without qualification that an order denying a similar motion did not affect a substantial right. Though not discussed by the Court, the reason that a refusal to dismiss a meritless claim in advance of trial does not affect a substantial right is that such claims come to nothing in due course anyway. I would dismiss the appeal from that order without further ado or discussion..
The other order refused to disqualify plaintiff’s attorney because of confidential information allegedly obtained while representing defendant Piedmont, and in Lowder v. All Star Mills, Inc., 60 N.C. App. 275, 300 S.E.2d 230, aff’d in part, reversed in part, 309 N.C. 695, 309 S.E.2d 193 (1983), it was held that an order refusing to disqualify the plaintiff’s attorney because of confidential information allegedly obtained while representing the movant in another matter affects such a right and is immediately appealable. The substantial right that was endangered in Lowder and that the order in this case endangers — not to be at a disadvantage in a case because of a former lawyer’s violated confidence — is basic to the integrity of our adversary system. In Lowder the likeli*665hood of the movant establishing that this right would be prejudiced was apparently not a factor in determining whether the order was appealable, as this Court upheld appealability, but affirmed the order, and that ruling was not reviewed by the Supreme Court. The decision in Goldston v. American Motors Corp., 326 N.C. 723, 392 S.E.2d 735 (1990), is clearer on this point, as the Supreme Court determined that an interlocutory order which disqualified plaintiff’s chief trial counsel because of confidential information obtained from defendant’s former employee about the turnover propensity of the motor vehicle model involved affected a substantial right, though plaintiff’s other lawyers could effectively handle the case, but left the merits of the appeal to us. These and other decisions indicate to me that contrary to the loose and unnecessary language in some of the other cases the appealability of an interlocutory order that affects a fundamental right does not depend upon the likelihood, much less the certainty, that the right will be lost, but upon the character of the right that is endangered and the type of prejudice that can result. Which is as it should be; because the effect upon a lawsuit of . violated confidence or losing the services of one’s chosen lawyer cannot be determined without considering the merits of the appeal, and both practicality and prudence require that the extent of a threat to a substantial right of a litigant be determined while there is still time to prevent or minimize it, rather than after the damage is beyond correction. The conclusion that defendant’s substantial right will not be affected by permitting the lawyers to stay in the case, since a new trial can be obtained if prejudice is established, is both groundless and unrealistic in my opinion. The signing of a new trial order is not likely to obliterate the information that caused the order to be entered. Since the unfairness and violated confidence issue is serious enough to require a sixty-seven page order by the trial judge, it should be set at rest now either by determining that no significant prejudice is likely and affirming the trial court, or by determining that prejudice to the right is likely and requiring the law firm to withdraw.
And, in my view, the implication in the majority opinion that the circumstances of every fragmentary appeal that comes here must be analyzed before determining whether a substantial right is affected is incorrect and misleading. For it has been established that some orders affect such a right and that others do not, and analyzing the circumstances in cases that involve such orders can *666lead only to pointless appeals and arguments and irreconcilable opinions that confuse and mislead the profession. No circumstance, for example, is going to make an order refusing to dismiss a claim for punitive damages immediately appealable or an order depriving a party of its right to a jury trial unappealable.