N.C. Gen. Stat. § 45-9
When the sole or last surviving trustee named in a will or deed of trust dies, removes from the county where the will was probated or deed executed and/or recorded and from the State, or in any way becomes incompetent to execute the said trust, or is a nonresident of this State, or has disappeared from the community of his residence and his whereabouts remains unknown in such community for a period of three months and cannot, after diligent inquiry be ascertained, the clerk of the superior court of the county wherein the will was probated or deed of trust was executed and/or recorded is authorized and empowered, in proceedings to which all persons interested shall be made parties, to appoint some discreet and competent person to act as trustee and execute the trust according to its true intent and meaning, and as fully as if originally appointed: Provided, that in all actions or proceedings had under this section prior to January 1, 1900, before the clerks of the superior court in which any trustee was appointed to execute a deed of trust where any trustee of a deed of trust has died, removed from the county where the deed was executed and from the State, or in any way become incompetent to execute the said trust, whether such appointment of such trustee by order or decree, or otherwise, was made upon the application or petition of any person or persons ex parte, or whether made in proceedings where all the proper parties were made, are in all things confirmed and made valid so far as regards the parties to said actions and proceedings to the same extent as if all proper parties had originally been made in such actions or proceedings.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 45-9