Posted: Saturday, September 29, 2018 11:45 pm
RALEIGH — In less than one month, the N.C. State Supreme Court has remanded an appeal in the civil case of Adams Creek Associates v. Melvin Davis and Licurtis Reels all the way back to trial court.
The State Supreme Court heard a motion appeal Aug. 29 to have Mr. Davis and Mr. Reels, who are brothers, released from Carteret County Jail, where they’ve been held for contempt of civil court for about seven-and-a-half years for refusing to comply with a 2011 court order to remove their property from a 13.25-acre lot that’s part of a larger, 65-acre lot on Silver Dollar Road in the Merrimon community near Beaufort, as well as sign a written agreement to stay off the 13.25-acre lot. While Supreme Court opinions can take several months to issue, in this case the court issued it on Sept. 21.
Attorney James Hairston Jr., who represents the brothers, filed the initial motion to have them released from jail in 2016. Superior Civil Court Judge Ben Alford denied the motion, which Mr. Hairston appealed to the N.C. Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals upheld Judge Alford’s denial in January, so Mr. Hairston took the appeal all the way to the state Supreme Court; the highest court for matters of state law.
“The decision of the Court of Appeals is vacated,” The State Supreme Court said in its filed opinion, “and this case is remanded to the Court of Appeals for further remand to the trial court for findings of fact concerning the defendants’ ability to comply with the removal of structures as a condition of the 2011 contempt order.”
The Supreme Court also said that in trial court, the brothers are “without prejudice” to advance claims not briefed or previously raised, but discussed during the oral arguments before the Supreme Court at the Aug. 29 hearing.
Attorney Lamar Armstrong Jr., who represents Adams Creek Associates, said in an email to the News-Times Wednesday, the case will now come back to Carteret County for a hearing.
“Judge (Benjamin) Alford will take evidence and thereafter make findings and conclusions, resulting either in Davis’ and Reels’ release or their continued incarceration,” Mr. Armstrong said. “It will probably take a month or two for the appellate court ‘mandates’ to return jurisdiction to Carteret County. It’s doubtful any hearing could be scheduled before Thanksgiving (Thursday, Nov. 22).”
Mr. Armstrong said that the specific action the Supreme Court took was to issue a “Per Curiam” opinion.
“It (a Per Curiam opinion) either affirms the Court of Appeals for the reasons stated in the (Court of Appeals’) majority opinion or reverses and vacates the majority opinion for the reasons stated in the dissent,” he said. “In this case, the Supreme Court vacated, but didn’t expressly adopt the Court of Appeals’ dissenting opinion; this is very unusual.”
Mr. Armstrong said that in his oral argument Aug. 29, he stressed to the court it “shouldn’t let bad facts make bad law.” He said this civil case is highly unusual and it’s easy to have empathy for the Reels brothers, but the law doesn’t support their release because they haven’t done what they can and must do under the law.
“My view is that the Supreme Court didn’t want to state why they were vacating, so they didn’t adopt the dissent and didn’t otherwise articulate their legal reasoning that led them to their result,” Mr. Armstrong said. “They don’t have to; we have an excellent Supreme Court. I know almost all the Justices. They’re excellent jurists who want to do what they believe is right; I understand why they didn’t want to say anything more than what they did.”
Mr. Armstrong said like the Reels brothers, Adams Creek Associates is “tired of this litigation and the tremendous expense incurred through the past several decades.”
“Adams Creek is considering its options and certainly hopes there’s some way to end Davis and Reels’ incarceration, while also providing peace on the property,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hairston said his clients are grateful to N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Donna Stroud, who wrote a dissenting opinion to the Court of Appeals’ decision in January to uphold Superior Civil Court Judge Ben Alford’s denial of the release motion. He also said his clients are grateful to the Supreme Court for “recognizing the injustice of the situation.”
“Melvin Davis and Licurtis Reels have been locked up in the county jail for over seven-and-a-half years,” Mr. Hairston said, “not because they have committed any crime, but because they don’t have the $46,000 or so it would take to remove their homes and other structures from the land claimed by a developer. Ironically, the 2011 order allows the developer the option to remove all the structures and to tax the costs of the same to Mr. Davis and Mr. Reels.”
Mr. Hairston said he doesn’t understand why Adams Creek Associates doesn’t demolish the structures and pursue a civil judgment against the brothers if they fail to pay the cost.
“As a result of their failure to exercise that option, one can only presume that their motivation wasn’t to develop the land, but simply to keep the brothers incarcerated for what could possibly be a life sentence,” Mr. Hairston said.
He also said that the Supreme Court has sent this matter back to the civil court in Carteret County for findings on one issue: the Reels brothers ability to comply with the property removal portion of the order, not the requirement to provide a written agreement to stay off the 13.25-acre lot.
“I consider going back to court a perfunctory matter,” Mr. Hairston said, “but necessary to make the record clear, considering that the exact evidence necessary now had already been proffered during the last hearing in Carteret. The testimony of our expert, Steve Bray, was uncontroverted. The testimony of Mr. Davis and Mr. Reels regarding their current financial condition was also uncontroverted.”
Mr. Hairston said “team Davis and Reels” looks forward to getting back to Carteret County as soon as the Court of Appeals remands it there, per the Supreme Court’s order.
“Hopefully, that will be the same day they (the Reels brothers) will finally be released from the Carteret County jail,” he said.
The civil case over the property has been in court for years. The 65-acre tract has been in the Reels family since 1911; purchased by Elijah Reels, it was deeded to the Trustee of Carteret County for nonpayment of taxes in 1944, only to be purchased again by Elijah’s son, Mitchell, later that year.
Mitchell died in 1971 without a will, but with 11 children, including Gertrude Reels, mother of Melvin and Licurtis. She filed a civil action in 1976, and the Superior Civil Court at the time ruled in her favor, decreeing Mitchell’s children and wife the owners of the tract.
In 1978, Shedrick Reels, Melvin and Licurtis’ uncle, claimed the 13.25-acre section of land they’d built their houses and other structures on. His claim was upheld in court, and he sold the property to a developer, who sold it to Adams Creek Associates in 1985.
A long series of legal actions began, and during these actions the brothers received two separate court orders to remove their buildings and leave the property, one in 2004 and the other in 2011. They refused to comply, so they were incarcerated for contempt of civil court, and have remained there since.
Contact Mike Shutak at 252-726-7081 ext. 206, email mike@thenewstimes.com; or follow on Twitter at @mikesccnt.
http://www.carolinacoastonline.com/news_times/article_ae856a1e-c421-11e8-af86-afa3ad43d83f.html
