Court will not stay NC senator’s suit for wrongfully convicted men

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has rejected a law firm’s request for a temporary stay in a lawsuit filed by a Robeson County state senator. The suit aims to collect money a federal court awarded to two wrongfully convicted men.

A unanimous three-judge Appeals Court panel issued an order Monday denying law firm Hall Booth Smith’s request for a stay. Sen. Danny Britt, R-Robeson, filed suit in 2025 against the firm and two of its lawyers. Britt is working on behalf of half-brothers Henry McCollum and Leon Brown.

Monday’s order offered no explanation for the decision. The court indicated it would wait to rule on Hall Booth Smith’s separate request for an order called a writ of supersedeas. Granting the writ would block Britt’s suit indefinitely. The Appeals Court will rule on the requested writ after hearing from Britt.

Britt’s suit is tied to his federal court-ordered work for McCollum and Brown. The men spent 31 years in prison after being convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl in Robeson County in 1983. Both men were exonerated with the help of DNA evidence in 2014.

They later sued for wrongful conviction and reached settlements with the town of Red Springs and the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office. A jury awarded McCollum and Brown $75 million in a 2021 verdict against two remaining defendants, former State Bureau of Investigation agents who were part of the original arrests.

Since May 2024, McCollum and Brown have had a court-ordered “receiver” with authority to pursue lawsuits to help generate money to cover the jury award. Britt joined that effort in August 2025.

Less than two weeks after his appointment, Britt filed the suit against Hall Booth Smith and lawyers Scott MacLatchie and Adam Peoples. Britt “claims capacity to act as the court-appointed receiver for ‘recovery of damages proximately caused by HBS’s deficient legal representation’” of McCollum and Brown, according to a court filing Friday from the law firm.

HBS and its lawyers have moved to dismiss Britt’s suit on the basis of “improper venue.” “[T]his action is being prosecuted in the wrong court and by a purported co-receiver whose appointment conflicts with the governing statute under which he contends to derive his authority,” the firm’s lawyers wrote.

The trial judge in the Robeson County case has ordered discovery to move forward. “That order threatens immediate and irreparable harm,” HBS argued. “The defendants are being compelled to litigate in the very forum they contend lacks authority to entertain this supplementary proceeding. Worse still, North Carolina law recognizes that venue objections may be waived through litigation conduct, including even limited participation in discovery. Thus, absent intervention from this [Appeals] Court, the defendants face an untenable choice: refuse to participate in discovery and risk sanctions, or comply with the trial court’s orders and risk forfeiting the venue rights they seek to vindicate on appeal.”

“Henry McCollum and Leon Brown each served thirty-one years for crimes they did not commit,” Britt’s lawyers wrote in response. “Following a federal jury trial, they hold an unsatisfied judgment against the two SBI agents who wrongly put them there. After the judgment was entered, United States District Judge Terrence W. Boyle appointed Senator Danny Britt as receiver to pursue the agents’ malpractice claims.”

“The appointment order expressly authorized Britt to bring those claims ‘in any appropriate county in state court, including any co-receiver’s county of residence,” the court filing continued. “Britt then commenced this action in Robeson County, where he lives, on 21 August 2025 — a year ago. The Defendants have not answered the complaint, and they’ve refused to participate in discovery.”

“The Defendants now ask this Court to stay all discovery while the Defendants’ interlocutory appeal is decided,” Britt’s lawyers added. “The trial court declined to stay discovery, and it said why: It ‘reasonably determined that discovery is not a matter embraced by the interlocutory order from which Defendants have appealed,’ and it found that staying discovery, ‘even in this Court’s discretion, would needlessly delay and prolong this litigation.’”

Britt’s lawyers labeled HBS’ arguments “a collateral attack on a federal-court order, which isn’t permitted. If the Defendants don’t like Judge Boyle’s order, they can take it up with Judge Boyle.”

“The Defendants also can’t show irreparable harm,” Britt’s lawyers added.

“Court will not stay NC senator’s suit for wrongfully convicted men” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.