In In re Ward, 337 N.C. 443, 446 S.E.2d 40 (1994), our Supreme Court held that an interested party to an incompetency adjudication who was entitled to notice of the incompetency proceeding, was also authorized, pursuant to N.C.G.S. 35A-1115, to appeal from the order adjudicating incompetence. Id. at 448-49, 446 S.E.2d at 43. In In re Ward, the respondent was in an automobile accident in Texas on 23 December 1987. Id. at 445, 446 S.E.2d at 41. The accident involved the respondent's U-Haul vehicle and a vehicle owned by the petitioner. Id. The respondent was injured as a result of the accident and filed an action against the petitioner in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Id. The petitioner filed a motion to dismiss based on a lack of personal jurisdiction and based on the expiration of the Texas two-year statute of limitations. Id. The respondent filed a motion for a change of venue. Id. The court granted the petitioner's motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction and respondent's motion for change of venue, but it declined to rule on the issue related to the statute of limitations. Id. The court then transferred the case to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, where the respondent took a voluntary dismissal without prejudice. Id. However, in In re Ward, prior to taking the voluntary dismissal, the respondent's attorney had filed a petition on 16 August 1990 for adjudication of incompetence and an application for appointment of guardian in North Carolina, seeking to have the respondent declared incompetent as of the date of the accident. Id. The petitioner was not listed in the petition as an interested party and did not receive notice of the hearing. Id. The Clerk of Superior Court in Durham County held a hearing and entered an order that the respondent "was rendered incompetent on 23 December 1987 as a result of the accident." Id. The Clerk also appointed the respondent's attorney as the respondent's guardian. Id. The respondent's guardian filed suit against the petitioner in Texas state court on the day after the voluntary dismissal in federal court, and the petitioner then learned about the prior incompetency proceeding. Id. The petitioner sought to have the North Carolina incompetency proceeding reopened by filing a motion in the cause under N.C. Gen. Stat. 35A-1207(a). Id. The Clerk determined that the motion was improperly filed under N.C. Gen. Stat. 35A-1207 but concluded that "'in the interest of justice . . . the motion was properly before the court pursuant to Article I of G.S. 35A.'" Id. at 446, 446 S.E.2d at 41.