Gen. Stat. § 1A-1, Rule 32(a)(3). Indeed, this Court has specifically held that a party’s presence at trial is not a reason to prevent an adverse party from introducing her deposition. Stilwell v. Walden, 70 N.C. App. 643, 547-48, 320 S.E.2d 329, 332 (1984). Therefore, the presence of defendant at trial or her availability as a witness is wholly immaterial to the issue of whether her deposition may be used against her. Moreover, for purposes of Rule 32, it is irrelevant that there were multiple defendants at trial. Rule 32(a) specifically permits the use of a deposition “against any party who was present or represented at the taking of the deposition or who had reasonable notice thereof.” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1A-1, Rule 32(a); see Floyd v. McGill, 156 N.C. App. 29, 40, 575 S.E.2d 789, 796 (<HOLDING>), disc. rev. denied, 357 N.C. 163, 580 S.E.2d
holding that admission of one defendants deposition was proper where she was present at the deposition even though she was represented at the time by the same counsel as her codefendants holding that even though the declarant was not in danger she was experiencing an ongoing emergency because she did not know where her children were and she feared for their safety holding if a deposition is taken for discovery only  not for use at trial the deposition is not a stage of trial for which the defendant must be present holding that dismissal for failure to appear at a deposition is on the merits holding that plaintiff was not prejudiced by defendants failure to disclose documents before her deposition because she had a unique familiarity with documents at issue