Maness v. Bullins

[11 NCApp Page 568] Evidence of defendant driver's negligence was plenary. The defendants contended, however, that Larry Maness, the plaintiff
passenger, was contributorily negligent in that he voluntarily rode with Bullins with knowledge that Bullins was under the
influence of an intoxicant. Bullins testified that he and Maness drank a pint of whiskey together during a two-hour period
immediately preceding the accident and that he, Bullins, was under the influence of liquor. Larry Maness testified that another
passenger in the vehicle, one Clarence E. Henry, drank part of the pint of whiskey and that Bullins was not under the influence
of intoxicating liquor. Over the objection of the plaintiffs, defendants were allowed to read into evidence the deposition
of Clarence E. Henry which had been taken under Rule 31 of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure, upon written interrogatories
and filed several months prior to trial. Answers to the interrogatories were generally favorable to the defendants' contentions
and unfavorable to the plaintiffs. Included in plaintiffs' fifteen assignments of error based on 35 exceptions is an assignment
of error whereby plaintiffs contend that the admission of the deposition into evidence constituted prejudicial error. It did.