Wilson ex rel. Wilson v. Bellamy

414 S.E.2d 347, 105 N.C. App. 446, 1992 N.C. App. LEXIS 260
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedMarch 3, 1992
DocketNo. 9130SC245
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 414 S.E.2d 347 (Wilson ex rel. Wilson v. Bellamy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilson ex rel. Wilson v. Bellamy, 414 S.E.2d 347, 105 N.C. App. 446, 1992 N.C. App. LEXIS 260 (N.C. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

EAGLES, Judge.

I

We note initially that the appellant did not include a copy of the court reporter’s certification of delivery of transcript or a copy of the appellant’s certification of service of the proposed record on appeal to the appellee in the record on appeal. (The record does include a certificate of service dated 7 March 1991 which is incorrectly designated as being for the proposed record on appeal. This certification could not have been for the proposed record on appeal as the appellee served its objections to the appellant’s proposed record on appeal on 21 February 1991.) Thus, we are unable to determine from the record before us whether the proposed record on appeal or the record on appeal was timely filed. However, in our discretion, we choose to address this appeal on its merits. N.C.R. App. Pro. 2.

II

Plaintiff raises seventeen assignments of error. Rule 28(b)(5) of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure provides that: “Assignments of error not set out in the appellant’s brief, or in support of which no reason or argument is stated or authority cited, will be taken as abandoned.” Here, the plaintiff’s brief fails to both set out and offer support for assignments of error numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 15. Accordingly, each has been abandoned.

III

In her first, second, third and fourth assignments of error the plaintiff alleges that the trial court erred by sustaining objections of the defendant to plaintiff’s questions of Mr. Ghoulis and Mr. Barco concerning alcohol use and instructions from defendant’s national fraternity advisor regarding alcohol use. “ ‘It is well established that an exception to the exclusion of evidence cannot be sustained where the record fails to show what the witness’ testimony would have been had he been permitted to testify.’ ” River Hills Country Club, Inc. v. Queen City Automatic Sprinkler [458]*458Corp., 95 N.C. App. 442, 446, 382 S.E.2d 849, 851 (1989) (citing State v. Simpson, 314 N.C. 359, 370, 334 S.E.2d 53, 60 (1985) and N.C. Gen. Stat. Sec. 8C-1, R. Evid. 103 (1988)). Because the record before us does not disclose what the witnesses’ testimony would have been had they been permitted to testify, this assignment is overruled.

IV

In her twelfth and fourteenth assignments of error, plaintiff argues that the trial court erred by allowing the defense to elicit testimony from the plaintiff concerning her prior sexual experiences. Our disposition does not require that we reach the merits of this assignment. However, because this issue is likely to arise on remand we choose to address it here. Lowder v. All Star Mills, Inc., 82 N.C. App. 470, 478, 346 S.E.2d 695, 700 (1986).

During defense counsel’s cross-examination of the plaintiff the following exchange took place:

Q. How long have you been having sexual relations prior to the 8th day of October, 1988 —7?
Mr. SmatherS: Objection.
THE Court: Overruled.
Mr. SMATHERS: Your Honor, he didn’t ask for a specific answer. He said, “How long prior to.”
THE COURT: Overruled.
A. About two and a half years.
Q. Pardon?
A. Two and a half years.
Q. You started when you were fourteen, I believe?
A. Right.
Upon further cross-examination the following exchange occurred:
Q. LINE 21. “Before the date of October 8, 1987, had you ever before passed out because of drinking?” Did I ask you that question?
Mr. SMATHERS: Objection. Relevancy.
[459]*459THE Court: Overruled.
A. Yes.
Q. And did you not answer and say, “Once before”?
A. Yes.
Q. And didn’t I ask you, “When was that?” And you said, “The night that I went to the Delta Sig party after I got home.” Wasn’t that your question and answer you gave?
A. Yes.
Q. And then I asked you, “That happened after you got back to your dormitory?” And your answer was, “Yeah, like I came home and my boyfriend had called me on the phone and I had answered the phone. But like after he called me I guess I passed out because when he got there”—
Mr. SmatherS: Objection.
Q. —“he said that he”—
MR. SMATHERS: Relevance.
THE COURT: Overruled.
Q. —“he said that he undressed me and like put me in bed but I don’t remember him moving me around or anything.” Isn’t that correct?
A. Yes.

Plaintiff argues that the questions in each colloquy are irrelevant and therefore inadmissible. The defense, however, argues that “[t]he purpose of evoking these responses from the plaintiff was to demonstrate to the jury that the probabilities were that the plaintiff consented to alleged but unproved sexual overtures rather than rejecting them.” We agree with the plaintiff.

Generally, all relevant evidence is admissible and all non-relevant evidence is not admissible. N.C.R. Evid. 402. “ ‘Relevant evidence’ means evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” N.C.R. Evid. 401.

[460]*460In State v. Younger, 306 N.C. 692, 295 S.E.2d 453 (1982), our Supreme Court noted that at one time evidence of a prosecuting witness’s general reputation for unchastity was admissible during a rape trial to attack her credibility and show her proneness to consent to sexual acts. Id. at 695, 295 S.E.2d at 455. However, the court continued and pointed out that “[t]oday, ‘common sense and sociological surveys make clear that prior sexual experiences by a woman with one man does not render her more likely to consent to intercourse with an often armed and frequently strange attacker.’ ” Id. at 695-96, 295 S.E.2d at 455 (quoting State v. Fortney, 301 N.C. 31, 38, 269 S.E.2d 110, 114 (1980)). We note that this holding was reached only after the enactment of G.S. 8-58.6, the former rape victim shield statute, now codified in N.C.R. Evid. 412. G.S. 8-58.6 (cross-reference). We also note that our research reveals that, to date, Rule 412 has only been applied in criminal cases. However, the logic applied behind the law espoused in Younger under the auspices of G.S. 8-58.6, is of similar import in the civil arena.

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WILSON BY WILSON v. Bellamy
414 S.E.2d 347 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1992)

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Bluebook (online)
414 S.E.2d 347, 105 N.C. App. 446, 1992 N.C. App. LEXIS 260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-ex-rel-wilson-v-bellamy-ncctapp-1992.