Unanimous Court of Appeals verdict allows Asheville water fight to proceed
Published October 6, 2015
by Mitch Kokai, The Locker Room, October 6, 2015.
A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals has reversed key pieces of a trial court’s ruling favoring Asheville in a legal fight with the N.C. General Assembly over control of the city’s water system.
The case now heads back to the trial-court level to address other issues.
Wake County Judge Howard Manning had ruled in favor of Asheville in 2014. His order placed an injunction on a new state law forcing Asheville to give up control of its public water system. Manning also ruled the law unconstitutional.
The unanimous appellate panel disagreed with Manning about the law’s constitutionality and threw out his injunction, but appellate judges agreed with Manning that the city has standing to sue the General Assembly. The trial court must now consider other issues Asheville raised in its initial lawsuit.
Among other opinions released this morning from the N.C. Court of Appeals:
- A unanimous three-judge panel reversed the N.C. Industrial Commission and ruled against Greenville in a dispute over disability benefits for a former city worker injured in an auto accident.
- In an unpublished opinion with limited precedential value, a unanimous three-judge panel reversed a trial court and ruled in favor of the Asheville City Schools in a lawsuit filed by a woman injured while falling out of a wheelchair at Asheville High School.
