{
  "id": 8551356,
  "name": "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. ELI COMBS, JR.",
  "name_abbreviation": "State v. Combs",
  "decision_date": "1971-12-15",
  "docket_number": "No. 7123SC654",
  "first_page": "195",
  "last_page": "197",
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      "cite": "13 N.C. App. 195"
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    "name": "North Carolina Court of Appeals"
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    "name_long": "North Carolina",
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      "year": 1968,
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      "cite": "251 N.C. 82",
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      "reporter": "S.E.2d",
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    {
      "cite": "237 N.C. 263",
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    {
      "cite": "226 N.C. 601",
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    {
      "cite": "226 N.C. 237",
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T21:18:15.024983+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [
      "Judges Britt and Vaughn concur."
    ],
    "parties": [
      "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. ELI COMBS, JR."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "BROCK, Judge.'\nDefendant brings forward and argues one assignment of error. He argues that the trial judge failed to give to the jury a correct definition of the term \u201cunder the influence of intoxicating liquor.\u201d\nUpon this question the trial judge instructed the jury as follows:\n\u201cWhat do we mean by under the influence of intoxicating liquor? That phrase means in law that the defendant by reason of having drunk some intoxicating beverage had lost the normal control of the powers or functions of his body or mind to such an extent that such loss could be estimated or recognized.\n\u201cI will go over that again.\n\u201cUnder the influence of intoxicating liquor means that the defendant at the time and place in question had by reason of having drunk some intoxicating beverage lost the normal control of the powers or functions of his body or mind, or both, so that such loss could be estimated or recognized.\u201d\nDefendant relies upon State v. Carroll, 226 N.C. 237, 37 S.E. 2d 688. In Carroll it is said that \u201c. . . a person is under the influence of intoxicating liquor or narcotic drugs, within the meaning and intent of the statute, when he has drunk a sufficient quantity of intoxicating beverage or taken a sufficient amount of narcotic drugs, to cause him to lose the normal control of his bodily or mental faculties, or both, to such an extent that there is an appreciable impairment of either or both of these faculties.\u201d The opinion in Carroll was concerned with an instruction by the trial judge as follows: \u201cWhere a person has drunk a sufficient quantity of alcoholic liquor or beverage to affect, however slightly, his mind and his muscles, his mental and his physical faculties, then he is under the influence .of intoxicating liquor or beverage.\u201d It is obvious that the phrase \u201chowever slightly\u201d does not properly express the intent of G.S. 20-138, which makes it an offense to operate a motor vehicle on the public highway while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, and the Supreme Court pointed out in Carroll that the statute requires an \u201cappreciable impairment\u201d of one\u2019s normal control of his bodily or mental faculties, or both.\nHowever, our Supreme Court has not decreed that the word \u201cappreciable\u201d is the only word capable of properly expressing the statutory intent. In State v. Bowen, 226 N.C. 601, 39 S.E. 2d 740, the use of the words \u201cmaterially impaired\u201d was held to be without error. In State v. Lee, 237 N.C. 263, 74 S.E. 2d 654, there was no error found in the use of the words \u201cperceptibly impaired.\u201d In State v. Peurifoy, 251 N.C. 82, 110 S.E. 2d 445, there was no error found in the use of words \u201cobvious impairment.\u201d In State v. King, 12 N.C. App. 568, 183 S.E. 2d 857, we held there was no error in the use of the words \u201cestimated or recognized.\u201d Webster\u2019s Third New International Dictionary (1968) defines the word \u201cappreciable\u201d as follows: \u201ccapable of being perceived and recognized or of being weighed and appraised.\u201d J. I. Rodale, The Synonym Finder (1967) lists synonyms for the word \u201cappreciable\u201d as follows: \u201cmaterial enough to be recognized, large enough to be estimated, definite, noticeable, perceptible, discernible, estimable, ascertainable, visible, apparent, distinguishable, cognizable, perceivable, sensible, detectable, evident.\u201d\nWe hold that the instruction complained of properly expresses the intent of the statute and is in accord with the holding in State v. Carroll, supra.\nNo error.\nJudges Britt and Vaughn concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "BROCK, Judge.'"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Attorney General Morgan, by Associate Attorney Byrd, for the State.",
      "Moore & Rousseau, by Julius A. Rousseau, for the defendant."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. ELI COMBS, JR.\nNo. 7123SC654\n(Filed 15 December 1971)\nAutomobiles \u00a7\u00a7 120, 129\u2014 definition of \u201cunder the influence\u201d\nTrial court\u2019s definition of under the influence of intoxicating liquor, \u201cThe defendant by reason of having drunk some intoxicating beverage had lost the normal control of the powers or functions of his body or mind to such an extent that such loss could be estimated or recognized,\u201d held proper. G.S. 20-138.\nAppeal by defendant from Exum, Judge, 21 June 1971 Session of Superior Court held in Wilkes County.\nDefendant was charged with the offense of operating a motor vehicle upon a public highway while under the influence of intoxicating liquor in violation of G.S. 20-138. He was found guilty in the District Court and appealed to the Superior Court. Defendant was tried de novo before a jury in the Superior Court upon his plea of not guilty. The jury returned a verdict of guilty and defendant now appeals to this Court.\nAttorney General Morgan, by Associate Attorney Byrd, for the State.\nMoore & Rousseau, by Julius A. Rousseau, for the defendant."
  },
  "file_name": "0195-01",
  "first_page_order": 219,
  "last_page_order": 221
}