Mesick v. North Carolina State Board of Education

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA CHARLOTTE DIVISION 3:23-cv-00647-GCM-DCK

CRAIG MESICK and JOYCE ) MESICK, ) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) v. ) ) NORTH CAROLINA STATE BOARD ) ORDER OF EDUCATION, CATHERINE ) TRUITT, DONALD VAN DER ) VAART1, and NORTH CAROLINA ) OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE ) HEARINGS, ) ) Defendants. ) )

THIS MATTER is before the Court on Defendants North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings and Donald van der Vaart’s Motion to Dismiss Second Amended Complaint, (Doc. No. 57), Defendants North Carolina State Board of Education and Catherine Truitt’s Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction, (Doc. No. 60), and the Magistrate Judge’s Memorandum and Recommendation (“M&R”), (Doc. No. 75), recommending that this Court grant Defendants’ motions. The parties have not filed objections to the M&R and the time for doing so has expired. Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(2).

1 Plaintiffs sued “Donald Van Ver Vaart”. (Doc. No. 56 at 1). Defendants corrected the misnomer in their motion to dismiss. (Doc. No. 57 at 1 n.1). I. BACKGROUND No party has objected to the Magistrate Judge’s statement of the factual and procedural background of this case. Therefore, the Court adopts the facts as set forth

in the M&R. II. STANDARD OF REVIEW A district court may assign dispositive pretrial matters, including motions to dismiss, to a magistrate judge for “proposed findings of fact and recommendations.” 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A) & (B). The Federal Magistrate Act provides that a district court “shall make a de novo determination of those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made.” Id. § 636(b)(1)(C);

Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(3). However, “when objections to strictly legal issues are raised and no factual issues are challenged, de novo review of the record may be dispensed with.” Orpiano v. Johnson, 687 F.2d 44, 47 (4th Cir. 1982). De novo review is also not required “when a party makes general and conclusory objections that do not direct the court to a specific error in the magistrate’s proposed findings and recommendations.” Id. Similarly, when no objection is filed, “a district court need not

conduct a de novo review, but instead must ‘only satisfy itself that there is no clear error on the face of the record in order to accept the recommendation.’” Diamond v. Colonial Life & Acc. Ins. Co., 416 F.3d 310, 315 (4th Cir. 2005) (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 72, advisory committee note). III. DISCUSSION Under Rule 72(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a district court judge shall make a de novo determination of any portion of an M&R to which specific written objection has been made. No objection to the M&R having been filed, and the time for doing so having passed, the parties have waived their right to de novo review of any issue covered in the M&R. Nevertheless, this Court has conducted a full review of the M&R and other documents of record, and having done so, hereby finds that the recommendation of the Magistrate Judge is, in all respects, in accordance with the law and should be approved. Accordingly, the Court ADOPTS the recommendation of the Magistrate Judge as its own. IV. CONCLUSION IT IS, THEREFORE, ORDERED that: 1. The Magistrate Judge’s M&R, (Doc. No. 75), is ADOPTED; 2. Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss, (Doc. Nos. 57, 60), are GRANTED; and 3. The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to close this case.

Signed: June 12, 2025

Graham C. Mullen ee United States District Judge mga