Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

75 N.C. App. 604

331 S.E.2d 203

Shaw v. Williamson

Court of Appeals of North Carolina · decided 1985-07-02

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[T]he right against self-incrimination is a very substantial right, indeed, protected by both the United States and North Carolina Constitutions, and if some of the interrogatories are incriminating, as [plaintiff] contends, and [she] is nevertheless compelled to answer them now [her] constitutional right could be lost beyond recall and [her] appeal at the end of the trial would be of no value.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Fields v. McMahan

Relies on Zicarelli v. New Jersey State Commission of Investigation · Allred v. Graves · State v. Pevia

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1985-07-02

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently February 2012

10 state decisions

601985199020002010decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

PHILLIPS, Judge.

¶1 Though this appeal is from an interlocutory order, it is nevertheless authorized under the provisions of G.S. 1-277 and G.S. 7A-27(d). Because the right against self-incrimination is a very substantial right, indeed, protected by both the United States and North Carolina Constitutions, and if some of the interrogatories are incriminating, as defendant contends, and he is nevertheless compelled to answer them now his constitutional right could be lost beyond recall and his appeal at the end of the *607 trial would be of no value. Stone v. Martin, 56 N.C. App. 473, 289 S.E. 2d 898, cert. denied, 306 N.C. 392, 294 S.E. 2d 220 (1982).

¶2 Defendant cannot incriminate himself criminally by answering the interrogatories, however, because the record shows that, based on the same incident referred to in the complaint, he was charged with death by vehicle and driving while intoxicated, pled guilty, and has complied with the judgments entered on the convictions. But the constitutional protection against self-incrimination also extends to civil actions that subject one to arrest, imprisonment, or execution against the person. The case so holding that defendant most strongly relies on is Allred v. Graves, 261 N.C. 31, 134 S.E. 2d 186 (1964). In that case plaintiff sought punitive damages of the defendant for a malicious assault and the Court held that defendant did not have to answer certain interrogatories deemed to be incriminating. The basis for the Court’s holding, though, was that if a judgment for punitive damages was entered against defendant and was not satisfied by regular execution he would be subject to execution against the person pursuant to the provisions of G.S. 1-311. But the defendant in this case faces no such peril and in our opinion the order requiring defendant to answer the interrogatories was properly entered. In 1977, after Allred was decided, G.S. 1-311 was amended to limit execution against the persons of judgment debtors to instances where either the jury’s verdict or the judge’s findings of fact include a finding “that the defendant either (1) is about to flee the jurisdiction to avoid paying his creditors, (2) has concealed or diverted assets in fraud of his creditors, or (3) will do so unless immediately detained.” But since there is no allegation in plaintiffs complaint that would support either of the required statutory findings for execution against the person, we see no basis for defendant’s self-incrimination plea and he must answer the interrogatories, as the trial court ordered. Furthermore, the objected to interrogatories, in our opinion, have no incriminating propensity in any event. So far as we can tell from the record and the law relating to it, stating whether he had a cold on the night involved, where he was going, who employed him, and other such things called for by the interrogatories could not conceivably incriminate defendant. The Constitution protects against real dangers, not mere speculative possibilities. Zicarelli v. Investigation Commission, 406 U.S. 472, 32 L.Ed. 2d 234, 92 S.Ct. 1670 (1972).

¶3 *608 Affirmed.

Judges WHICHARD and JOHNSON concur.
/75/ncapp/604 · .json · Public domain