State v. Hough

• Decision Date: 24 November 1948
• Docket Number: 507.
• Citation: 50 S.E.2d 496,229 N.C. 532
• Parties: STATE v. HOUGH.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

50 S.E.2d 496

229 N.C. 532

STATE v. HOUGH.

No. 507.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

November 24, 1948

Criminal prosecution tried upon a warrant charging the defendant with operating a motor vehicle upon the public highway while under the influence of intoxicants.

The State's evidence tends to show that the defendant, on 8 May, 1948, about 11:00 p.m., was operating a 1941 Buick Sedan on the Beatties Ford Road, which turned over and injured him. The officers who testified for the State arrived at the scene of the wreck 25 or 30 minutes after the wreck occurred. One of the officers testified: 'In my opinion Mr. Hough was under the influence of some intoxicant when I observed him that night. I base my opinion on the fact that I smelled something on his breath.' On cross-examination, he testified: 'Yes, Mr. Hough complained of some injuries which he received in the wreck. I don't know what injuries he received, but I heard he was in the hospital ten days. No, I do not know whether his condition which I observed that night was due to his injuries, or to what he had to drink. I could not tell.' The other officer testified: 'In my opinion he was intoxicated or uneder the influence of something.' Then on cross-examination he testified: 'No, I don't know just what injuries Mr. Hough received when his car turned over. I heard he was in the hospital, later. He did complain of his back hurting him that night. No, I don't know whether Mr. Hough's condition which I observed that night came from what he had had to drink, or whether it came from the injuries he sustained. I took him to Memorial Hospital, where his wounds were dressed and strapped up. Then we came back to the police station. Yes, I allowed him to go home without being confined to jail, due to the fact that he was injured.'

The defendant testified he drank three bottles of beer between noon and 7:30 p.m., on 8 May, 1948, but that he had not had anything to drink between 7:30 p.m. and 11:00 o'clock when the accident occurred; that as he was rounding a curve on Beatties Ford Road about 10 miles from Charlotte, and at about the sharpest point in the curve, the sway-bar underneath his car broke and tilted the car over that X-rays made at Mercy Hospital the following day showed he had three broken ribs and two broken vertabrae; that he stayed in the hospital ten days and had to wear a back brace after he got out.

From a verdict of guilty and the judgment entered thereon, the defendant appeals assigning error.

Harry M. McMullan, Atty. Gen., and T. W. Bruton, Hughes J. Rhodes and Ralph M. Moody, Asst. Attys. Gen., for the State.

Carl Horn, Jr. and G. T. Carswell, both of Charlotte, for defendant.

DENNY Justice.

The defendant challenges the correctness of the Court's ruling below, denying his motion for judgment as of nonsuit made at the close of the State's evidence and renewed at the close of all the evidence.

We said in State v. Carroll, 226 N.C. 237, 37 S.E.2d 688 691: 'We realize the necessity for strict enforcement of the statutes enacted for the protection and safety of the public in the use of our...