WINSTON-SALEM JOINT VENTURE, A Partnership v. CATHY'S BOUTIQUE, INC., 72 N.C. App. 673

Summary

After the lessee filed a libel action against the lessor, the lessor filed a separate action for breach of lease. The lessee filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1A-1, N.C. R. Civ. P. 13(a) on the basis that the lessor's action was a compulsory counterclaim to its libel action. The trial court denied the motion, and on appeal, the court affirmed. The court found that it had jurisdiction to hear the lessee's appeal and held that the lessor's action for breach of lease was not a compulsory counterclaim because it did not arise out of the same transaction or occurrence that was the subject matter of the lessee's libel action. The only relationship existing between the facts, claims, and nature of the action for breach of lease was the parties' landlord-tenant relationship. Thus, there was no logical nexus between the action for libel and the action for breach of lease, which would have required that the action for breach of lease be filed as a compulsory counterclaim ...