statute’s requirement that the trial court exercise its discretion is a codification of the long-standing common law rule that the decision whether to grant or refuse a request by the jury for a restatement of the evidence lies within the discretion of the trial court.” State v. Barrow, 350 N.C. 640, 646, 517 S.E.2d 374, 378 (1999). “When a motion addressed to the discretion of the trial court is denied upon the ground that the trial court has no power to grant the motion in its discretion, the ruling is reviewable.” State v. Johnson, 346 N.C. 119, 124, 484 S.E.2d 372, 375-76 (1997); see also Barrow, 350 N.C. at 646, 517 S.E.2d at 378. “ ‘In addition, there is error when the trial court refuses to exercise its discretion in the erroneous belief that it has no discretion 656-57 (1985) (<HOLDING>). Instead, the trial judge plainly exercised
holding that third party seeking to be reimbursed for costs incurred in responding to discovery request had standing to appeal because its interests were directly represented by its own counsel in the trial court it was effectively bound by the trial courts final order of dismissal the other party would have had the right to appeal the trial courts ruling if it had granted the request for reimbursement and the third party had no other legal remedy to contest the trial courts denial of its request holding that trial court acted within its discretion in denying defendants request for firstoffender treatment when there was no indication that trial court refused to consider request or erroneously believed that such was not permitted holding that the trial court failed to exercise its discretion in merely stating that the request could not be granted because there was no transcript at this point holding that where there is evidence sufficient to sustain finding of trial court that prejudicial error was contained in record there is no basis for stating that trial court abused discretion in granting new trial holding that the trial court failed to exercise its discretion by stating that it did not have the ability to present the transcript to the jury