North Carolina § 14-230 - Willfully failing to discharge duties.

§ 14-230. Willfully failing to discharge duties.

If any clerk of any court of record, sheriff, magistrate, school board member, county commissioner, county surveyor, coroner, treasurer, or official of any of the State institutions, or of any county, city or town, shall willfully omit, neglect or refuse to discharge any of the duties of his office, for default whereof it is not elsewhere provided that he shall be indicted, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. If it shall be proved that such officer, after his qualification, willfully and corruptly omitted, neglected or refused to discharge any of the duties of his office, or willfully and corruptly violated his oath of office according to the true intent and meaning thereof, such officer shall be guilty of misbehavior in office, and shall be punished by removal therefrom under the sentence of the court as a part of the punishment for the offense. No magistrate recusing in accordance with G.S. 51-5.5 may be charged under this section for recusal to perform marriages in accordance with Chapter 51 of the General Statutes. History (1901, c. 270, s. 2; Rev., s. 3592; C.S., s. 4384; 1943, c. 347; 1973, c. 108, s. 5; 1993, c. 539, s. 142; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c); 2009-107, s. 1; 2015-75, s. 2.) Cross References. - As to failure of sheriff to make return, see G.S. 14-242 . As to prosecution of officers failing to discharge duties, see G.S. 128-16 et seq. Editor's Note. - Session Laws 2015-75, s. 5, provides: "Any magistrate who resigned, or was terminated from, his or her office between October 6, 2014, and the effective date of this act [June 11, 2015] may apply to fill any vacant position of magistrate. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, with respect to any magistrate who resigned his or her office between October 6, 2014, and the effective date of this act, and who is subsequently reappointed as a magistrate within 90 days after the effective date of this act: "(1) For the period of time between that magistrate's resignation and his or her resumption of service upon reappointment, the magistrate shall not receive salary or other compensation and shall not earn leave. However, the magistrate shall be considered to have been serving as a magistrate during that period for purposes of determining continuous service, length of aggregate service, anniversary date, longevity pay rate, and the accrual of vacation and sick leave. "(2) For purposes of the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System and the calculation of benefits under that System, (i) the magistrate shall be considered to have been an employee under G.S. 135-1 (10) during the break in service, (ii) the period of the break in service shall be counted as membership service under G.S. 135-1 (14), and (iii) the magistrate shall be deemed to have earned compensation under G.S. 135-1(7a) during the break in service at the rate of compensation that would have applied had there been no break in service. "(3) The Judicial Department shall pay and submit both the employee and employer contributions to the Retirement Systems Division on behalf of the magistrate as though that magistrate had been in active service during the period in question. Those contributions shall be submitted within 90 days of the magistrate's resumption of service and shall not be subject to penalties or interest if submitted within that 90-day period." Effect of Amendments. - Session Laws 2009-107, s. 1, effective December 1, 2009, inserted "school board member" near the beginning of the first sentence. Session Laws 2015-75, s. 2, effective June 11, 2015, added the subsection (a) designation and added subsection (b). Legal Periodicals. - For article, "Removing Local Elected Officials From Office in North Carolina," see 16 Wake Forest L. Rev. 547 (1980). For article, "A Primer on North Carolina and Federal Use of Force Law: Trends in Fourth Amendment Doctrine, Qualified Immunity, and State Law Issues," see 31 Campbell L. Rev. 431 (2009).