24 N.C. App. 387 - State v. Earley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““At the outset we are confronted with the question of Judge Martin’s jurisdiction in a criminal case to adjudicate conflicting claims of title to allegedly stolen property which has been used in evidence and in which case the prosecution has been completed. We have no statute upon the subject, and we find no case law in this state which covers the subject. “Our research leads us to believe that sound reasoning dictates that under the facts presented, Judge Martin did not have such jurisdiction in a criminal case. “When the person from whose possession the allegedly stolen property was seized as evidence was not convicted of (or was not charged with) obtaining the property in violation of the law, and there is a controversy between him and the person from whom the property was allegedly stolen as to which has the right to it, a question is presented which cannot be determined in a criminal action but must be determined in an independent civil action. After the final disposition of the criminal case, a civil action among the various claimants to the property is the proper action in which title or right to possession can be adjudicated. [Citing cases]””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Phillips v. State

2. “[T]he jurisdiction of the appellate courts on an appeal is derivative. If the trial court has no jurisdiction, the appellate courts cannot acquire jurisdiction by appeal.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 250 N.C. App. 459 - Town of Belhaven v. Pantego Creek, LLC