discussed Cited "see" CAPE FEAR PUBLIC UTILITY AUTHORITY v. Costa (2×) See id.

discussed Cited "see, e.g." Faulkenbury v. TEACHERS'AND STATE EMP. RETIREMENT SYSTEM The doctrine allows a court in its equitable jurisdiction to order attorneys' fees "to a litigant who at his own expense has maintained a successful suit for the preservation, protection, or increase of a common fund or of common property, or who has created at his own expense or brought into court a fund which others may share with him." Horner v. Chamber of Commerce, 236 N.C. 96, 97-98 , 72 S.E.2d 21 , 22 *431 (1952); see also Raleigh-Durham Airport Auth. v. Howard, 88 N.C.App. 207 , 363 S.E.2d 184 (1987), disc. rev. denied, 322 N.C. 113 , 367 S.E.2d 916 (1988).