Lamarr Garland Forbis, Co-Executor of the Estate of Bonnie S. Newell; and Lamarr Garland Forbis

Summary

The Supreme Court of North Carolina reviewed cross-motions for summary judgment in a fraud action brought by LaMarr Garland Forbis, executor of the estates of Bonnie Newell and Augusta Sustare, against their nephew Beverly Lee Neal, who had served as the sisters' attorney-in-fact under powers of attorney that conferred no gift authority. The Court held that fraud claims under N.C.G.S. § 1-52(9) accrue at discovery rather than when the fraudulent acts occurred, overruling conflicting lower-court decisions, and found the discovery-timing question unresolvable on the inconclusive record. It sustained summary judgment for defendant on the actual fraud claims involving the payable-on-death and right-of-survivorship accounts Newell personally signed, but reinstated the actual fraud claim on the Paine Webber account, whose application defendant alone signed, and all three constructive fraud claims, because defendant failed to rebut the presumption of constructive fraud arising from his fiduciary status. The Court affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with instructions.