Court Opinion

ID: 9623659
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:39:26.944164+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:33.352230
License: Public Domain

Judge JOHNSON
concurring in the result.
I, too, believe the Order granting defendant custody should be vacated, but for a different reason than stated by Judge Bec-ton. In my view, no proper pleading was filed to enable the Wake County court to consider the custody issue. The wife did not file a Complaint; rather, she filed, as her initial pleading, a “Motion in the Cause,” listing her out-of-state husband as the plaintiff. This, our rules of civil procedure and statutes will not permit. See N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 1A-1, Rule 3 (1983); 50-13.5 (Supp. 1983); 50A-15 (Supp. 1983). Absent minimal compliance with our rules and statutes, as a threshold matter, the jurisdictional questions need not be reached.