Britt v. Wake Cnty. Sheriff's Off.

Summary

The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of Vicki Britt’s second action against the Wake County Sheriff’s Office and the Sheriff on res judicata grounds. The court held that Britt’s Corum constitutional claims and intentional infliction of emotional distress claim were based on the same factual allegations as her prior action and could have been brought in that original proceeding.

Holdings

1. Res judicata barred Britt's Corum claims and intentional-infliction-of-emotional-distress claim because the prior action resulted in a final judgment, involved the same cause of action and parties or privies, and the later claims could have been litigated in the prior proceeding.
2. A Corum claim is an alternative theory that may be brought alongside conventional claims in the same action; it is not a collateral means of reviving a conventional claim after that claim has failed and is not an exception to res judicata.
3. A Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal is proper when the complaint reveals that no law supports the claim, facts sufficient to make a valid claim are absent, or a fact disclosed by the complaint necessarily defeats the claim.

Questions Presented

1. Whether res judicata barred Britt's later Corum constitutional claims and intentional-infliction-of-emotional-distress claim because they arose from the same factual allegations as her prior action.
2. Whether a Corum claim may be asserted in a later action after a conventional claim based on the same facts has been dismissed, rather than being brought as an alternative theory in the original action.

Disposition

affirmed