Chasse v. Albert
| Decision Date | 15 November 1960 |
| Citation | 147 Conn. 680,166 A.2d 148 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | Roland CHASSE v. Marie ALBERT, Administratrix (ESTATE of Luc ALBERT), et al. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut |
Dominic J. Ferraina, Hartford, with whom were James F. Kennedy, and, on the brief, Peter J. Zaccagnino, Jr., Hartford, for the appellant (plaintiff).
William P. Aspell, Hartford, with whom, on the brief, was George Muir, Hartford, for the appellee (named defendant); with him were Edward J. Foley, E. Hartford, and, on the brief, Warren Maxwell, Hartford, for the appellee (defendant Daigle).
Before BALDWIN, C. J., and KING, MURPHY, MELLITZ and SHEA, JJ.
The plaintiff was injured in a motor vehicle accident in Maine and brought this action to recover damages for the injuries he sustained. No direct testimony was presented to explain the cause of the accident. The trial court directed a verdict for the defendants, and the question is whether it erred in refusing to set the verdict aside.
The jury, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, could have found the following facts: The plaintiff was a passenger in a car owned by the defendant Guy Daigle. It went off the road near Skowhegan, Maine, early on the morning of October 27, 1957. The car was being operated by Luc Albert, the named defendant's decedent. Daigle was also a passenger. Both he and the plaintiff were asleep. The car went off the left-hand side of the road, knocked down a utility pole and turned over. The plaintiff was riding in the front seat, Daigle in the rear seat. The party had left Hartford the day before, with Daigle driving. He drove about 250 miles and then Albert took over. Albert had not worked the previous day and he had slept a couple of hours en route. He was familiar with the area where the accident occurred. He had driven about sixty miles when it happened, at a curve and approximately at a grade crossing. The car, after it knocked down the utility pole and turned over, came to rest in the left lane of the highway. Only one other car was on the highway at the time. It was approaching from the opposite direction and was operated by David Pye, who gave the only testimony as to how the accident happened. He said he saw the lights of an approaching car at a distance of about 150 yards, that the car appeared to keep about 'the same speed,' and that the lights just seemed to disappear off the road. A Maine statute provides that the operator of a motor vehicle who passes a sign, which is described in the statute, located more than 100 feet from a grade crossing shall reduce the speed of the vehicle upon reaching a distance of 100 feet from the crossing. Me.Rev.Stat.Ann. c. 22, § 152 (1954).
The plaintiff was required to establish negligence on the part of the operator of the car by sufficient evidence to remove the issue from the field of surmise and conjecture. Palmieri v. Macero, 146 Conn. 705, 708, 155 A.2d 750; Bruce v. McElhannon, 141 Conn. 44, 48, 103 A.2d 335; Latham v. Hankey, 117 Conn. 5, 10, 166 A. 400. The evidence here completely lacked facts to support a finding of negligence. There were so many possibilities as to the cause of the accident other than negligence in the operation of the car that a finding of negligence on the meager evidence in the case could result in a verdict for the plaintiff based only on surmise, speculation and conjecture. Sigel v. Gordon, 117 Conn. 271, 275, 167 A. 719. Much the same situation was presented by the facts in the Palmieri case, supra, where the plaintiff had a verdict and the action of the trial court in setting it aside was sustained.
Aware of this obstacle to a verdict, the plaintiff contended that under the law of Maine; Chaisson v. Williams, 130 Me. 341, 156 A. 154; the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is applicable to establish a prima facie case of negligence where there is an unexplained motor vehicle accident, the vehicle was within the exclusive control of the driver and proof of negligence is difficult or impossible....
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Burton v. City of Stamford
...(Citations omitted.) Id., at 707-708, 155 A.2d 750. The court reached an identical conclusion on similar facts in Chasse v. Albert, 147 Conn. 680, 683, 166 A.2d 148 (1960). Next came Terminal Taxi Co. v. Flynn, 156 Conn. 313, 240 A.2d 881 (1968), in which the court ultimately determined tha......
-
State v. Williams
... ... Warehouse Transport, Inc., 165 Conn. 553, 338 A.2d 111 (1973); Toomey v. Danaher, 161 Conn. 204, 286 A.2d 293 (1971); Chasse v. Albert, 147 Conn. 680, 166 A.2d 148 (1960). We have not permitted juries to rely upon one of several possible explanations of an accident unless ... ...
-
Johnson v. Foster
...on the shoulder at a slight angle to the highway for about 75 feet, proceeded into a field and continued (c) See also Chasse v. Albert, 147 Conn. 680, 166 A.2d 148 (1960); Ivey v. Rollins, 250 N.C. 89, 108 S.E.2d 63 (1959); Lane v. Dorney, 250 N.C. 15, 108 S.E.2d 55 (1959); Cole v. Swagler,......
-
Patch v. Stanley Works (Stanley Chemical Co. Div.), 663
...remedy or of procedure are governed by the lex fori, Rich v. Dixon, 153 Conn. 52, 212 A.2d 417, 419 (1965). See also Chasse v. Albert, 147 Conn. 680, 166 A.2d 148 (1960); Thomas Iron Co. v. Ensign-Bickford Co., 131 Conn. 665, 42 A.2d 145 (1945). A Connecticut court will look to any "legal r......