Mazzaro v. Narragansett Imp. Co.

• Decision Date: 18 November 1971
• Docket Number: No. 1282-A,1282-A
• Citation: 283 A.2d 887,109 R.I. 244
• Parties: Thomas MAZZARO v. NARRAGANSETT IMPROVEMENT COMPANY. ppeal.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 887

283 A.2d 887

109 R.I. 244

Thomas MAZZARO v. NARRAGANSETT IMPROVEMENT COMPANY.

No. 1282-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Nov. 18, 1971.

Richard M. Casparian, Providence, for plaintiff

Keenan, Rice, Dolan & Reardon, Frederick A. Reardon, Jr., Providence, for defendant.

OPINION

ROBERTS, Chief Justice.

This civil action was brought to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained as a result of a collision involving a motor vehicle being operated by the plaintiff and a motor vehicle being operated by an employee of the defendant. After the case was tried to a jury in the Superior Court, a verdict was returned for the defendant, and the plaintiff's subsequent motion for a new trial was denied. The plaintiff is now prosecuting an appeal to this court, contending that the denial of his motion for a new trial constituted error but during oral argument expressly waiving certain contentions as to the validity of evidentiary rulings of the trial justice.

The record discloses a substantial conflict in the evidence concerning the circumstances surrounding the collision, particularly with respect to the speed of the vehicles and the location thereof at the time of the impact. The collision occurred on July 15, 1965, on Wellington Avenue in the city of Cranston. The plaintiff was operating a van used for the delivery of mail in the postal service and was moving south along that highway. The vehicle operated by defendant's driver was a dump truck proceeding in a northerly direction along Wellington Avenue. To whatever extent it becomes necessary, the testimony concerning the conditions under which the accident occurred will be discussed later in the opinion.

The trial justice, in denying plaintiff's motion for a new trial, stated that in passing on the weight of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses he found '* * * that the testimony was so evenly balanced, particularly on the issues of negligence and contributory negligence, that reasonable men could arrive at different results.' He then went on to say that he felt that he was obliged to deny plaintiff's motion for a new trial.

The plaintiff at the outset appears to concede that the trial justice in an exercise of his independent judgment passed on the weight of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses and thus discharged the duty imposed upon him when deciding whether to grant a new trial on the ground that the verdict is contrary to the evidence. Barbato v. Epstein, 97 R.I. 191, 196 A.2d 836 (1964). The plaintiff further concedes the settled rule that in passing on such a motion the trial justice may not disturb the verdict returned by the jury when in his sound judgment the evidence is such that different minds would naturally and fairly come to different conclusions thereon. Waltz v. Aycrigg, 103 R.I. 109, 114-115, 235 A.2d 338, 341 (1967).

Here the evidence is clearly in conflict, particularly with reference to credibility, and obviously reasonable minds could fairly reach different conclusions as to which of the parties had produced the more credible evidence. Hirschmann v. Sun-Dial Optical Co., 89 R.I. 31, 150 A.2d 293 (1959). Under that rule the trial justice is required to recognize that the jury has the prior right to exercise the fact-finding power. This rule constitutes a judicial recognition that the jury is the finder of fact in the first instance and that where the evidence is open reasonably to different conclusions, the trial justice must abstain from frustrating the jury's priority as the finder of ultimate fact by overturning its verdict where the evidence is in the state contemplated by the rule in Hirschmann. In this case it is clear from the record that the trial justice, following that rule, found that the evidence was of such a character that reasonable men could arrive at different conclusions thereon and properly refused to usurp the priority of the jury in the fact-finding process.

What plaintiff is really contending here is that the trial justice was clearly wrong in denying plaintiff's motion for a new trial. In Labbe v. Hill Brothers, Inc., 97 R.I. 269, 197 A.2d 305 (1964), we defined the 'clearly wrong' rule, so called. It refers, we said, to the burden of an appellant who would overturn a decision of a trial justice denying him a new trial who had complied with the duty imposed upon him in passing upon that motion. The party moving for a new trial, in order to prevail thereon, has the burden of establishing that the trial justice overlooked or misconceived relevant and material evidence on a controlling issue. The instant plaintiff, seeking to meet this burden, argues that the trial justice misconceived the probative force of testimony introduced by defendant as to the circumstances in which the collision occurred. To this end he argues that the trial justice should have rejected the testimony of defendant's driver because it was contrary to the physical facts established by all of the evidence.

In Whalen v. Dunbar, 44 R.I. 136, 115 A. 718 (1922), this court held that where testimony is opposed to established physical facts, the testimony must yield to such established facts. However, the rule stated in Whalen is not applicable in cases where the physical facts surrounding the transaction under...