NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1967 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 928

SENATE BILL 412

 

 

AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 8 OF THE GENERAL STATUTES OF NORTH CAROLINA TO PROVIDE AN ADDITIONAL RULE OF EVIDENCE.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

 

Section 1.  Chapter 8 of the General Statutes is hereby amended by adding thereto a new Article immediately following Article 4A, to be designated as Article 4B, and to read as follows:

"ARTICLE 4B

Evidence of Fraud, Duress, Undue Influence.

"Section 8-45.5.  Statements, Releases, et cetera, Obtained from Persons in Shock or Under the Influence of Drugs; Fraud Presumed. Any oral or written statement, waiver, release, receipt, or other representation of any kind by any person made or executed while a patient in any hospital and taken by any person in connection with any type of insurance coverage on or for the benefit of said patient which shall have been taken while such patient was in shock or appreciably under the influence of any drug, including drugs given primarily for sedation, shall be deemed to have been obtained by means of fraud, duress or undue influence on the part of the person or persons taking same, and the same shall be incompetent and inadmissible in evidence to prove or disprove any fact or circumstance relating to any claim for which any insurance company may be liable under any policy of insurance issued to, or which may indemnify or provide coverage or protection for the person making or executing any such statement or other instrument while a patient in a hospital, nor may any such person making or executing the same be examined or cross-examined in regard thereto."

Sec. 2.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 3.  This Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 27th day of June, 1967.