Here’s a new one. Can you make a mandatory designation of a case directly from North Carolina District Court to the Business Court? Believe it or not, there are circumstances under which you might want to do that, so the Business Court’s opinion this month in Bailey Pointe Homeowners’ Association v. Strong is worth knowing about.
Start from square one: The District Court has jurisdiction over matters involving $10,000 or less and the Superior Court has jurisdiction over cases exceeding $10,000 (per G.S. §7A-243). Since the Business Court is a part of the Superior Court division of the trial courts, a case that falls under District Court jurisdiction can’t be designated to the Business Court because there isn’t sufficient amount in controversy to qualify for Superior Court jurisdiction.
But it happens that cases are filed in District Court which involve more than $10,000. Or there are District Court cases in which counterclaims are made for more than that amount and which properly belong in Superior Court. Or there might be a case filed in District Court asking for injunctive relief against a statute, for which Superior Court is the correct division under G.S. §7A-245. In all of these circumstances, there’s a mechanism in G.S. §7A-258 for transferring a case from District Court to Superior Court.
So let’s say you are representing the Defendant in a District Court case which wasn’t properly filed there because it involves more than $10,000, or in which you are going to counterclaim for more than $10,000, and the issues in the case otherwise make it appropriate for mandatory jurisdiction in the Business Court Can you jump the case straight from District Court to the Business Court?
The answer is no. In Bailey Pointe, the Plaintiff sought to designate the District Court case it had filed to the Business Court. The designation was based on counterclaims raising corporate governance claims and seeking in excess of $10,000 in damages. Judge Tennille held that G.S. §7A-45.4(b) says that cases are designated "by filing a Notice of Designation in the Superior Court in which the action has been filed. . . ." So, he held, "only actions filed in or transferred to Superior Court may seek mandatory complex business designation."
In other words, you can’t hopscotch directly from District Court to Business Court. Judge Tennille denied the Notice of Designation by the Plaintiff in Bailey Pointe, and held that the only route to the Business Court for that Plaintiff was a motion to the Chief District Court Judge, per Rule 2.1 of the General Rules of Practice, to recommend that the case be designated as a complex business case.