State v. Fearing

Justice HUSKINS

dissenting in part.

I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which holds that the trial court’s instructions in the hit-and-run case were erroneous.

The pertinent portions of G.S. 20-166 read as follows:

(a) The driver of any vehicle involved in an accident or collision resulting in injury or death to any person shall immediately stop such vehicle at the scene of such accident or collision, and any person violating this provision shall upon conviction be punished as provided in G.S. 20-182.

(b) The driver of any vehicle involved in an accident or collision resulting in damage to property and in which there is not involved injury or death of any person shall immediately stop his vehicle at the scene of the accident or collision and shall give his name, address, operator’s or chauffeur’s license number and the registration number of his vehicle to the driver or occupants of any other vehicle involved in the accident or collision or to any person whose property is damaged in the accident or collision .... Any person violating the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined or imprisoned for a period of not more than two years, or both, in the discretion of the court.

(c) The driver of any vehicle involved in any accident or collision resulting in injury or death to any person shall also give his name, address, operator’s or chauffeur’s license number and the registration number of his vehicle to the per *481 son struck or the driver or occupants of any vehicle collided with, and shall render to any person injured in such accident or collision reasonable assistance, . . . and it shall be unlawful for any person to violate this provision, and such violator shall be punishable as provided in G.S. 20-182.

G.S. 20-182 provides in pertinent part:

Every person convicted of willfully violating G.S. 20-166, relative to the duties to stop or render aid or give the information required in the event of accidents . . . involving injury or death to a person, shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years, or in the State prison for not less than one nor more than five years, or by fine of not less than five hundred dollars ($500.00) or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Thus it may be seen that a violation of G.S. 20-166(a) is a felony punishable as provided in G.S. 20-182, while a violation of G.S. 20466(b) is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine or imprisonment for not more than two years, or both, in the discretion of the court. Moreover, the misdemeanor described in subsection (b) is not a lesser included offense of the crime described in subsections (a) and (c) of this statute. State v. Chavis, 9 N.C. App. 430 , 176 S.E. 2d 388 (1970).

My dissent in the hit-and-run case is grounded on the dual position that: (1) G.S. 20-166 requires the driver of a vehicle who knows he has been involved in an accident to stop at the scene regardless of whether he knew he had injured or killed some person, and (2) even if the law requires, as the majority holds, that the driver must know not only of his involvement in an accident but also that a person had been injured or killed, the jury charge sufficiently embraced such requirement. It is my position that, on either ground, defendant’s conviction in the hit-and-run case should be upheld.

The guiding star in the interpretation of a statute is the intent of the legislature in enacting that statute. State v. Fulcher, 294 N.C. 503 , 243 S.E. 2d 338 (1978). To discover this legislative intent, courts consider the language of the statute, the spirit of the act and what the act seeks to accomplish. Stevenson v. City of Durham, 281 N.C. 300 , 188 S.E. 2d 281 (1972).

*482 The language of G.S. 20-166 indicates that the legislature intended to require any and every motorist involved in an accident to stop at the scene. Failure to stop is the conduct proscribed by the statute. The gist of the offense is failure to stop. State v. Smith, 264 N.C. 575 , 142 S.E. 2d 149 (1965).

In State v. Ray, 229 N.C. 40 , 47 S.E. 2d 494 (1948), the State offered in evidence a statement by defendant that he had just driven the highway in question but that he had no knowledge or notice that he had struck any vehicle or injured any person during the trip. This statement was not contradicted or shown to be false by any other fact or circumstance in evidence. Other evidence offered by the State did show that the occupants of another car met a large tractor-trailer, and as the two vehicles passed, the rear end of the trailer swerved across the center of the road and struck the left side of the other vehicle causing personal injury to one of its occupants. The truck continued on its way without stopping or reducing its speed. A few minutes later the defendant Ray was arrested at a service station and at that time was in possession of a tractor-trailer. Defendant was convicted of the felony denounced by G.S. 20-166(a)(c). Defendant appealed and Justice Ervin, writing for the Court, said: “It would be a manifest absurdity to expect or require the driver of a motor vehicle to perform the acts specified in the statute in the absence of knowledge that his vehicle had been involved in an accident resulting in injury to some person.” The majority construes this statement to mean not only that a defendant must know he had been involved in a collision, but he must further know that a person was killed or injured in that collision. In my view, this interpretation is not supported by the holding of Ray and is not permitted when G.S. 20-166 is construed consistent with the legislative intent.

The phrase “resulting in injury to some person” following the word “accident” was used by Justice Ervin only to modify the word “accident,” ie., to indicate which accident a defendant must be aware of before he can be prosecuted under G.S. 20-166. If the phrase is interpreted to mean that a defendant must know the accident resulted in injury to some person, then it is mere dictum and should be disavowed. This is so because defendant in Ray denied knowledge that he had been involved in an accident or had injured any person. Since the State offered his statement in *483 evidence and since the statement was uncontradicted, his motion for judgment of nonsuit was sustained by this Court. If he did not know he had been involved in an accident, he did not have to stop. Whether Ray was required to know, in addition to knowledge that he had been involved in an accident, that some person had been injured in that accident was not the determinative question. Hence the words “resulting in injury to some person” are dictum and should not be regarded as binding on this Court.

The majority’s interpretation of the statute and of the holding in Ray renders the statute internally inconsistent and practically destroys it. If a driver knows he has been involved in an accident resulting in property damage but no physical injury to a person, he is guilty of a misdemeanor under G.S. 20-166(b) for leaving the scene of that accident. If a driver knows he has been involved in an accident and knows someone has been injured or killed in that accident, he is guilty of a felony under G.S. 20-166(a) for leaving the scene of that accident. The problem arises when a defendant knows, or has reasonable grounds to believe, that he has been involved in an accident resulting in property damage but does not know that it also resulted in injury or death to some person. The majority holds that a motorist who leaves the scene of an accident under those circumstances is not guilty of any violation of G.S. 20-166(a), (b) or (c). He has not violated subsection (a) becuase he did not know that any person had been injured or killed. He has not violated subsection (b) because that subsection applies only when “there is not involved injury or death of any person.” Thus the anomalous consequence of the majority decision is that one who leaves an accident scene knowing only that he was involved in an accident is completely immune to prosecution under G.S. 20-166 if some person was in fact injured or killed, yet he is guilty of a misdemeanor under subsection (b) if no person was in fact injured or killed. The legislature could not have intended such a result. Justice Ervin in writing the Court’s opinion in Ray could not have intended such a result. In the construction of statutes, courts should adopt an interpretation which avoids bizarre consequences, the presumption being that the legislature acted in accordance with reason and common sense and did not intend untoward results. Comr. of Insurance v. Automobile Rate Office, 294 N.C. 60 , 241 S.E. 2d 324 (1978).

*484 Reason dictates that the legislature intended to punish hit- and-run drivers involved in accidents resulting in either property damage or injury to some person. Knowledge of the accident is all the knowledge that the law requires. If a motorist knows he has been involved in an accident and willfully fails to stop, he is guilty of violating G.S. 20-166. If only property damage was done in the accident, he is guilty of a misdemeanor for failure to stop. If injury or death to a person resulted from the accident, he is guilty of a felony for failure to stop. That is my interpretation of the statute and of the decision in Ray and its progeny, State v. Glover, 270 N.C. 319 , 154 S.E. 2d 305 (1967).

I believe my interpretation is grounded not only in logic but also is supported by the practicalities of the situation as well. Since the actual physical result of a collision is often unknown, the statute requires that a motorist stop to investigate. This serves the underlying rationale of facilitating investigation of accidents and providing immediate assistance to those injured. It seems to me that the majority’s interpretation encourages a driver to remain ignorant of the actual consequences of the accident. If he does not stop to investigate and never learns whether anyone was injured or killed, he is guilty at most of the misdemeanor proscribed by G.S. 20466(b). If some person was in fact injured or killed in the accident, he has violated no part of G.S. 20-166 by his failure to stop. Such an interpretation of the law rewards a motorist who deliberately remains ignorant of the results of his accident.

Finally, it is my position that even if the Court’s opinion today accurately delineates the knowledge requirement, the trial court’s instructions adequately advised the jury with respect thereto. The charge is accurately set out in the majority opinion and I shall not repeat it here. It suffices to say that the trial judge charged the jury that if it found beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant was involved in an accident in which Cloise H. Creef was physically injured or killed and that defendant “knew of the accident” and willfully failed to immediately stop at the scene, the jury should return a verdict of guilty as charged. It is perfectly clear that the phrase “if Charles S. Fearing knew of the accident” relates to the preceding clause and other portions of the charge describing “the accident” as that accident “in which Cloise *485 H. Creef was physically injured or killed.” Thus, when the charge is considered as a whole, as we are required to do, it indicates that in order to convict defendant the jury was told it must find that defendant knew a person had been physically injured or killed in the accident, ie., in the very accident defendant admits he knew had occurred. When the charge is considered in its entirety, it adequately complied with the law as interpreted by the majority.

I have outlined the bases for my dissent in the hit-and-run case. Even so, it must be conceded that there is a reasonable basis for the majority decision. I simply believe that the opposite result should have been reached in deference to the legislative intent and what I believe to be the adequacy of the trial court’s charge. Surely the General Assembly will now give the appropriate attention to a revision of G.S. 20-166 so as to remove all doubt concerning its meaning and intent.

Chief Justice BRANCH and Justice MEYER join in this dissent.