The state’s highest court last month upheld an N.C. Court of Appeals decision that had reversed a trial court decision in favor of the defendants. The defendants had argued in Henderson County Superior Court that the plaintiffs’ lawsuit made claims that were barred by a state Supreme Court precedent limiting similar claims of emotional harm from a wrongful death.
“In this tragic case, the facts are undisputed,” the Supreme Court said in the opening line of a 19-page opinion supporting the case brought by the child’s parents.
On Oct. 26, 2015, Angel Newman dropped off her 2-year-old daughter, Abby, at the Crab Creek home of James and Heather Stepp, who operated an unlicensed daycare where Heather regularly cared for Abby and other children in addition to her own. Around 8 that morning, Abby and several other children wandered into the kitchen, where a loaded 12-gauge shotgun that James “Bo” Stepp had used for hunting the day before had been left on a table. One of