Pluhowsky v. City of New Haven

• Decision Date: 28 January 1964
• Citation: 197 A.2d 645,151 Conn. 337
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Alex PLUHOWSKY v. CITY OF NEW HAVEN. Anna PLUHOWSKY v. CITY OF NEW HAVEN et al. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut

Page 645

197 A.2d 645

151 Conn. 337

Alex PLUHOWSKY v. CITY OF NEW HAVEN.

Anna PLUHOWSKY v. CITY OF NEW HAVEN et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

Jan. 28, 1964.

A. Frederick Mignone, New Haven, with whom, on the brief, was Harold M. Mulvey, New Haven, for the appellant (defendant in the first case) and for the appellees (named defendant et al. in the second case).

Irving Sweedler, New Haven, with whom was James W. Curran, New Haven, for the appellee (plaintiff in the first case).

Sherman Rosenberg, New Haven, for the appellant (plaintiff in the second case).

Kevin T. Gormley, New Haven, with whom, on the brief, was Martin E. Gormley, New Haven, for the appellee (defendant Alex Pluhowsky in the second case).

Before KING, C. J., and MURPHY, SHEA, ALCORN and COMLEY, JJ.

KING, Chief Justice.

Although these two cases arose out of the same accident, were tried together, and in many respects are factually identical, the respective causes of action are entirely different. It seems best, however, to consider them in a single opinion.

At about 6:30 on the morning of Monday, March 24, 1958, Alex Pluhowsky, the plaintiff in the first case, was operating his automobile southerly along State Street in New Haven. His wife, Anna, the plaintiff in the second case, was a passenger in the front seat. For several years they had driven together, each working day, along the same route, back and forth between their home in Hamden and their separate places of employment in New Haven.

On the morning in question a catch basin located in the curbing on the west side of State Street, about opposite the entrance of Albert Street, failed adequately to function. This in turn caused a stoppage of water which would otherwise have flowed into the catch basin and been carried away through the city's storm-sewer system. This condition had existed since at least the morning before. By Monday morning, the accumulation of water had increased in area, was dark and dirty in color, and, in diminishing depth, extended from the top of the curbing on the west side of State Street easterly into the center of the street, a distance of about twenty-one feet, covering both southbound lanes. The maximum length of the submerged area, from north to south along the west curbing, was over thirty feet.

The court found that a film of ice had formed over the west surface of the highway south of the accumulated water, where it had been splashed or tracked by cars, but that in other areas the highway was clear and dry. In oral argument the defendant city admitted that there was no ice under the accumulation of water. Alex, at a distance of six to seven feet out from the west curbing, drove his car through the water, and lost control of the car, which crashed into a utility pole located about 300 feet south of the catch basin.

I

We turn first to Alex' case against the city of New Haven as the sole defendant. Recover was sought in a common-law action of nuisance and in an action under the defective highway statute, General Statutes § 13-11. Since the court allowed recovery under the defective highway statute, it did not pass on the claim of nuisance, and nuisance is not involved in the appeal in Alex' case. See cases such as Bacon v. Rocky Hill, 126 Conn. 402, 405, 11 A.2d 399.

The statutory notice, required as a condition precedent to recovery under the defective highway statute, as well as the allegations of the complaint, relied solely on the accumulated water, as distinguished from any snow or ice, as the claimed defective condition and the cause of the accident. Alex correctly concedes that the only defective condition on which he could recover is the defective condition caused by the water and that he cannot recover for any defect consisting of snow or ice. The court found that Alex lost control of his car because of, and while going through, the accumulation of water.

This finding is attacked as without support in the evidence. At the trial, Alex testified that he did not lose control of the car while going through the water, that he went through it without difficulty, and that the loss of control did not occur until the car was on the film of ice south of the water. Manifestly, this testimony gave no support to the court's finding that Alex lost control when, and because, the car was going through the water. The only evidence supporting the court's finding as to the water causing the loss of control was a motor vehicle accident report filed by Alex almost four years after the accident and less than one month before trial. In this he stated that 'my car struck a body of water on the highway and caused me to lose control and I struck the telephone pole'. This accident report was admissible as an admission against Alex in Anna's case against him. Guarnaccia v. Wiecenski, 130 Conn. 20, 25, 31 A.2d 464; Tappan v. Knox, 115 Conn. 508, 517, 162 A. 7; Whiteman v. Al's Tire & Service Garage, Inc., 115 Conn. 379, 384, 161 A. 519. It was not, as against a proper objection, admissible in his favor in his case against the city. As such, it would be a mere self-serving statement, not even composed until shortly before trial. State v. McCarthy, 133 Conn. 171, 181, 49 A.2d 594. Actually it was admitted as an exhibit in Anna's case, in the course of the direct examination of Alex when he was called as a witness by Anna.

The mere fact that both Alex' and Anna's cases were being tried together would not, without more, make an exhibit admitted in Anna's case also an exhibit in Alex' case, especially where, as here, the exhibit was clearly inadmissible in Alex' case. An inspection of the transcript discloses that at the outset of the trial the question as to the use of evidence in the two cases was discussed by court and counsel. Although the oral stipulation, made at that time, lacks desirable clarity, it seems to have been confined to photographs which, it was agreed, were to be treated as exhibits in both cases. Of course, this motor vehicle report, although admitted as an exhibit in Anna's case, was not a photograph and, therefore, was not available as evidence, nor admitted as an exhibit, in Alex' case under the terms of the stipulation. This conclusion is fortified by the fact that it is incredible that counsel could have intended to stipulate that an exhibit properly admitted in one case should automatically be treated as an exhibit in another case in which it was wholly inadmissible.

Under the peculiar circumstances, the court's crucial finding that Alex lost control of his car when, and because, he was driving through the accumulated water is without evidential support and cannot stand. Without this finding, the judgment in Alex' favor is erroneous, and a new trial must be granted in Alex' case against the city.

II

We turn now to a consideration of the second case. Almost a year after the accident, Anna instituted a common-law action, in three counts, against her husband, the city of New Haven, Richard C. Lee, Arthur T. Barbieri, Anthony Carbone and Domenick Mercugliano, seeking damages for personal injuries claimed to have been sustained as a result of the collision of the car with the pole. The finding that Alex lost control of his car when, and because, it was going through the accumulation of water can be supported by his motor vehicle report as an admission by him in Anna's case against him. Since no attempt was made to limit it to Anna's case against Alex as distinguished from her case against the other defendants, we may assume, for the purposes of this appeal at least, that it was available, although hearsay, in proof of the matter stated in it, for whatever it was worth on its face, in Anna's case against the other defendants. Sizer v. Lenney, 146 Conn. 457, 458, 151 A.2d 889; Sears v. Curtis, 147 Conn. 311, 316, 160 A.2d 742. Consequently, in Anna's case, against all defendants therein, it may be assumed that the accumulated water was the cause of the collision with the pole as claimed by Anna and as found by the court. From a judgment for all defendants Anna took this appeal.

A

The first count ran against Alex only and sounded in common-law negligence. Whether Anna sustained her burden of proving that Alex was negligent in any of the respects claimed in her complaint, including those particularly stressed by her in her brief, was a conclusion to be drawn from the subordinate facts. The court's conclusion that she had not sustained that burden was a reasonable one and cannot be disturbed.

The plaintiff makes much of the court's finding that Alex had driven through a similar, although less extensive, accumulation of water in the same location the day before on his way to church, and of the claimed fact that he therefore had knowledge of it. This knowledge would not make Alex' conduct in driving through the water on Monday negligent as matter of law. See cases such as Clark v. Borough Torrington, 79 Conn. 42, 44, 63 A. 657; L'Heureux v. Hurley, 117 Conn. 347, 353, 168 A. 8; Rescigno v. Rosner, 124 Conn. 253, 255, 198 A. 751; Brosz v. City of Danbury, 140 Conn. 279, 281, 99 A.2d 136.

The plaintiff claims error in a ruling excluding a question asked of Alex on his direct examination as to his knowledge that clogging of the catch basin and a resulting accumulation of water was a frequent and recurring condition at about the same season every year, and that he had observed this condition for many years. In view of the finding just mentioned as to Alex' having driven through the water the day before, there is no reason to believe that the evidence excluded would have induced the court to find negligence on Alex' part, so as to have changed the result. Thus the ruling, even if erroneous, was not shown to have probably been harmful. See cases such as Casalo v. Claro, 147 Conn. 625, 630, 165 A.2d 153; Sears v. Curtis, supra.

B

The second count, while confusingly drawn in that much irrelevant matter was, without reason,...