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260 N.C. 674

133 S.E.2d 457

Grant v. Shadrick

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided December 11, 1963

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1963-12-11

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1963-12-11

How this case has been cited

Cited by 21 later decisions — most recently June 2008

21 state decisions

9019631970198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Per CuRiAM.

¶1 Each plaintiff'© allegation© as to- defendant’© negligence include the following: (1) she failed to exercise due care to keep ■a proper lookout; and (2) she “swerved her automobile” into- the path of the Grant Gar, “drove the same upon the left side of the highway,” and “failed to yield the right of way” to the Grant car.

¶2 There was evidence tending to ©how: U. S. Highway No. 19, where the collision occurred, is approximately twenty feet wide. It is a two-lane (“blacktop”) highway. Grant wais proceeding north on his (right) iside of said highway a¡t a speed of approximately forty miles per hour. The highway was straight. As Grant approached the point of ■collision, he met a line of three cars proceeding south on their (right) side of said highway. As Grant approached, the third car, defendant’s Volvo, “swerved out” from behind the second car, left its right side of said highway and collided with the Grant Dodge on Grant’s right side of said highway.

¶3 When considered in the light most favorable to plaintiff, the evidence was sufficient to withstand defendant’s motions for judgment of nonsuit and to support the verdicts.

¶4 Grant was permitted to testify, over defendant’s objection, that a State Highway Patrolman who investigated the collision charged defendant with “failing to yield right of way” and that defendant, before a justice of the -peace in Andrews, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to this charge. There was no contention that defendant’s plea constituted res judicata or an estoppel with reference to any matter involved therein. The testimony was offered and admitted as evidence in the nature of an admission bearing upon whether defendant operated her oar onto the left side of the highway and directly in the path of the approaching Grant car.

¶5 “Evidence of a plea of guilty to a (criminal charge arising out of an automobile accident is generally admissible, but it is not conclusive, and may be explained.” Blashfield, Cyclopedia of Automobile Law and Practice, Volume 9C, Permanent Edition, § 6196; 31 C.J.S., Evidence *676 § 300(b); 8 Am. Jur. 2d, Automobiles and Highway Traffic § 944; Annotation, 18 A.L.R. 2d 1287, 1307, and supplemental- dec-is-ions.

¶6 The patrokuain/'s testimooy as ibo> what occurred1, if anything, before the justice -of -the peace io Andrews was subject to -contradiction- -aod explanation, the weight to be given his testimony and the matters referred- to therein being for jury -determination. Defendant did not testify or offer evidence. Defendant’s1 pleading, as noted in -our preliminary statement, is to- -filie effect the collision occurred -on her left (Grant’s right) -side of the -highway. Under’ the -©iroumstanoes, we perceive n-o prejudicial error in the admission of the patrolman’s said testimony.

¶7 No error.

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