GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2003
SESSION LAW 2003-59
HOUSE BILL 636
AN ACT to give effect to electronic judgment dockets by modernizing laws regarding judgments and reestablishing the effective date of civil judgment liens and the date from which interest accrues on judgments.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. G.S. 1-232 reads as rewritten:
Unless the party or his attorney furnishes a judgment roll,
roll or the documents referred to in this section are already on file,
the clerk, immediately after entering the judgment, shall attach together and
file the following papers which constitute the judgment roll:
(1) In case the complaint is not answered by any defendant, the summons and complaint, or copies thereof, proof of service, and that no answer has been received, the report, if any, and a copy of the judgment.
(2) In all other cases, the summons, pleadings, or copies thereof, and a copy of the judgment, with any verdict or report, the offer of the defendant, exceptions, case, and all orders and papers in any way involving the merits and necessarily affecting the judgment."
SECTION 2. G.S. 1-233 reads as rewritten:
"§ 1-233.
Docketed and indexed; held as of first day of session.indexed.
Every judgment of the superior or district court, affecting the
right title to real property, or requiring in whole or in part the
payment of money, shall be entered indexed and recorded by the
clerk of said superior court on the judgment docket of the court. The docket
entry must contain the file number for the case in which the judgment was
entered, the names of the parties, the address, if known, of each party and
against whom judgment is rendered, and the relief granted, date of
judgment, and the date, hour hour, and minute of docketing;
and the the entry of judgment under G.S. 1A-1, Rule 58, and the date,
hour, and minute of the indexing of the judgment. The clerk shall keep a
cross-index of the whole, with the dates and file numbers thereof;
however, error or omission in the entry of the address or addresses shall in no
way affect the validity, finality or priority of the judgment docketed. In
all cases affecting the title to real property the clerk shall enter upon the
judgment docket the number and page of the minute docket where the judgment is
recorded, and if the judgment does not contain particular description of the
lands, but refers to a description contained in the pleadings, the clerk shall
enter upon the minute docket, immediately following the judgment, the
description so referred to.
All judgments rendered in any county by the superior or
district court, during a session of the court, and docketed during the same
session, or within 10 days thereafter, are held and deemed to have been
rendered and docketed on the first day of said session, for the purpose only of
establishing equality of priority as among such judgments."
SECTION 3. G.S. 1-234 reads as rewritten:
"§ 1-234. Where and how docketed; lien.
Upon filing a judgment roll upon a judgment the
entry of a judgment under G.S. 1A-1, Rule 58, affecting the title of real
property, or directing in whole or in part the payment of money, it shall be
docketed the clerk of superior court shall index and record the judgment
on the judgment docket of the court of the county where the judgment roll
was filed, and entered. The judgment may be docketed on the
judgment docket of the court of any other county upon the filing with
the clerk thereof of a transcript of the original docket, and docket.
The judgment lien is effective as against third parties from and after the
indexing of the judgment as provided in G.S. 1-233. The judgment is a lien
on the real property in the county where the same is docketed of every person
against whom any such judgment is rendered, and which he has at the time of the
docketing thereof in the county in which such real property is situated, or
which he acquires at any time thereafter, for 10 years from the date of the rendition
entry of the judgment. judgment under G.S. 1A-1, Rule 58, in
the county where the judgment was originally entered. But the time during
which the party recovering or owning such judgment shall be, or shall have
been, restrained from proceeding thereon by an order of injunction, or other
order, or by the operation of any appeal, or by a statutory prohibition, does
not constitute any part of the 10 years aforesaid, as against the defendant in
such judgment, or the party obtaining such orders or making such appeal, or any
other person who is not a purchaser, creditor or mortgagee in good faith.
A judgment docketed pursuant to G.S. 15A-1340.38 shall constitute a lien against the property of a defendant as provided for under this section."
SECTION 4. G.S. 24-5 reads as rewritten:
"§ 24-5. Interest on judgments.
(a) Actions on Contracts. - In an action for breach of contract, except an action on a penal bond, the amount awarded on the contract bears interest from the date of breach. The fact finder in an action for breach of contract shall distinguish the principal from the interest in the award, and the judgment shall provide that the principal amount bears interest until the judgment is satisfied. If the parties have agreed in the contract that the contract rate shall apply after judgment, then interest on an award in a contract action shall be at the contract rate after judgment; otherwise it shall be at the legal rate. On awards in actions on contracts pursuant to which credit was extended for personal, family, household, or agricultural purposes, however, interest shall be at the lower of the legal rate or the contract rate. For purposes of this section, "after judgment" means after the date of entry of judgment under G.S. 1A-1, Rule 58.
(a1) Actions on Penal Bonds. - In an
action on a penal bond, the amount of the judgment, except the costs, shall
bear interest at the legal rate from the date of docketing of judgment entry
of judgment under G.S. 1A-1, Rule 58, until the judgment is satisfied.
(b) Other Actions. - In
an action other than contract, any portion of a money judgment designated by
the fact finder as compensatory damages bears interest from the date the action
is commenced until the judgment is satisfied. Any other portion of a money
judgment in an action other than contract, except the costs, bears interest
from the date of entry of judgment entry of judgment under G.S. 1A-1,
Rule 58, until the judgment is satisfied. Interest on an award in an action
other than contract shall be at the legal rate."
SECTION 5. This act becomes effective September 1, 2003, and applies to all judgments entered, indexed, and docketed on or after that date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 15th day of May, 2003.
s/ Marc Basnight
President Pro Tempore of the Senate
s/ Richard T. Morgan
Speaker of the House of Representatives
s/ Michael F. Easley
Governor
Approved 5:43 p.m. this 20th day of May, 2003