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NC Court of Appeals Sides with Tharrington Smith Education Law Client

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has once again issued an opinion in favor of Tharrington Smith Education Law client, the Vance County Board of Education.

In a case involving a group of plaintiffs who alleged that the Vance County Board of Education and its superintendent made illegal deductions from their salary to cover contributions to the state retirement system, a superior court judge granted Tharrington Smith’s motion to dismiss. Thereafter, one of the plaintiffs filed a motion for reconsideration. When the judge denied this motion, the plaintiff then appealed to the North Carolina Court of Appeals on behalf of all the plaintiffs.

In a prior appeal, Tharrington Smith attorney Neal Ramee argued that the court properly denied the first plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration.  A panel of the Court of Appeals unanimously decided this first appeal in favor of the Board of Education.  In this second appeal, the remaining plaintiffs argued that the trial court erred in refusing to let their claims proceed on appeal.  Mr. Ramee filed a brief supporting the trial court’s decision, and a separate panel of the Court of Appeals again decided the issue unanimously in favor of the Board of Education.

Tharrington Smith has been a partner to education in North Carolina for more than 30 years. Since 1978, the firm has served as general counsel to the North Carolina School Boards Association, and has assisted more than 100 school systems across the state with their legal needs. Providing a wide range of legal support involving personnel and student discipline issues, contracts, policy manual revisions, teacher dismissals, funding disputes, special education matters, school closings, construction, and everything in between, Tharrington Smith’s Education Law group represents clients in state, federal and administrative courts, and has demonstrated experience before the Office for Civil Rights, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

For full text of this opinion, visit the NC Court of Appeals website.