Presswood v. Morris

• Decision Date: 19 March 1979
• Docket Number: No. 77-174,77-174
• Citation: 388 N.E.2d 844,70 Ill.App.3d 513,26 Ill.Dec. 843
• Parties: , 26 Ill.Dec. 843 Gary PRESSWOOD, as Administrator of the Estate of Stella Sue Presswood, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Enoch MORRIS, as Administrator of the Estate of Gary Joe Morris, Deceased, and Enoch Morris, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 844

388 N.E.2d 844

70 Ill.App.3d 513, 26 Ill.Dec. 843

Gary PRESSWOOD, as Administrator of the Estate of Stella Sue Presswood, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Enoch MORRIS, as Administrator of the Estate of Gary Joe Morris, Deceased, and Enoch Morris, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 77-174.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Fifth District.

March 19, 1979.

Rehearing Denied April 18, 1979.

Harlan Heller, Ltd., Mattoon, for plaintiff-appellant; Harlan Heller, Mattoon, of counsel.

James B. Wham, Wham & Wham, Centralia, for defendants-appellees.

GEORGE J. MORAN, Presiding Justice:

This wrongful death action arising from an automobile accident was brought by Gary Presswood, Administrator of the estate of Stella Sue Presswood, against Enoch Morris, Administrator of the estate of Gary Joe Morris. Enoch Morris, as Administrator of the estate of Gary Joe Morris filed a counterclaim to recover damages from the Presswood Estate. In addition, Enoch Morris filed a crossclaim in his own name seeking damages to the automobile Gary Joe Morris was driving at the time of the accident. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant on the plaintiff's complaint, and found against the defendant on the defendant's counterclaim.

Subsequently, the crossclaim of Morris for property damage to his automobile was dismissed without prejudice on his own motion. Judgment was entered on the verdicts. Both plaintiff and defendant-counterclaimant appeal.

On April 22, 1973 at approximately noon, Stella Sue Presswood was driving a 1969 Ford Torino in a northerly direction along Radom Road. Her three children were in the rear seat of the automobile. Gary Joe Morris was driving his father's automobile, a 1970 Ford Fairlane, in a southerly direction along the same highway.

The two vehicles collided on Radom Road at a point approximately 11/2 miles south of Ashley, Illinois. At the point where the accident occurred, Radom Road is a two-lane, straight, level highway constructed of asphalt. It was wet due to an earlier rain. There was controverted evidence that there was a slight depression in Morris's lane just north of the accident site.

The accident resulted in the death of Morris, Presswood, and two of her three children. There were no eyewitnesses to the accident.

Post-accident evidence indicated the Presswood vehicle was discovered on the east shoulder of Radom Road headed northeast with all but the left rear wheel of the car off the asphalt highway. There was a gouge mark approximately 14 feet long in the grass shoulder extending in a southeasterly direction from the pavement to the front of the Presswood vehicle. Although the photographs in evidence tended to support the defendant's contention that the gouge mark extended to the right wheel, plaintiff's evidence contradicted this.

The Morris vehicle, after the accident, was headed generally north, having turned approximately 180o from its initial southerly direction. Although the major portion of the Morris vehicle was in the northbound lane, both the left front wheel and the left rear wheel remained in their own southbound lane of traffic.

Since there were no eyewitnesses qualified to testify, the facts of the collision had to be inferred from the circumstances. The principal issue was which driver was over the center line of the highway when the collision occurred. Testimony on this point rested almost entirely upon the testimony of Dr. Harrison Streeter, an accident reconstruction expert called by the plaintiff, and Mr. Loren Ayres, an accident reconstruction expert called by the defendant-counterclaimant.

Appellant Presswood contends that the trial court erred in permitting expert Ayres to give speculative testimony and in receiving testimony of Ayres without proper foundation as to expertise or factual basis for the testimony. He also contends the verdict of the jury was contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence.

Appellant Morris alleges that the verdict against Morris as Administrator of the estate of Gary Joe Morris was contrary to the manifest weight of evidence, that the court erred in permitting two state troopers to testify as expert witnesses to the point of impact and in permitting Gary Presswood to testify to the whereabouts and intended destination of Stella Sue Presswood in violation of the Dead Man's Statute (Ill.Rev.Stat.1971, ch. 51, par. 2).

Two Illinois State Police officers who investigated the accident testified that in their opinion the accident occurred in the northbound (Presswood) lane, since the majority of the accident debris was concentrated in that lane. Due to the wet pavement, no skid marks were discernible.

Both plaintiff and defendant called witnesses who testified to the careful driving habits of each driver.

Evidence adduced at trial tended to show that the rear tires on the Morris vehicle were worn.

Dr. Harrison Streeter, a professor of engineering at the University of Illinois and an expert in accident reconstruction, was called by the plaintiff. He testified to his training, background and experience in the field. He had reconstructed the accident in question using photographs of the cars involved, photographs of the highway at the scene of the accident, and measurements of the final resting places of the vehicles involved taken from the police accident report. He did not personally observe the vehicles, although he admitted this was the preferred practice. It was Dr. Streeter's opinion that the accident occurred in the Presswood lane, that Presswood was traveling north at the time of the accident, that Morris was traveling southeast at the time of the accident, and that the speed of the Morris vehicle exceeded that of the Presswood vehicle by approximately 25 miles per hour, but that the actual speed of either vehicle was incalculable.

The defendant called Mr. Loren D. Ayers, a reconstruction expert, to testify. Much of the dispute on this appeal relates to his testimony. He testified as to his training, background and experience in the field. He had reconstructed the accident by using photographs of the cars involved, photographs of the scene of the accident, and measurements of the final resting places of the vehicles as devised from the police accident report. He testified as to his personal observation of the vehicles and to the measurements and other observations made by him after viewing the vehicles at two different salvage yards. Ayres expressed the opinion that the collision occurred with the Morris vehicle driving on its own side of the road in the southbound lane and the Presswood vehicle being mostly in the southbound lane at the point of impact.

It is clear that expert testimony in matters which are complicated and outside the knowledge or understanding of the average person is proper. In the case of motor vehicle accidents, where there is sufficient physical evidence present to provide the basic data needed, an expert may analyze and reconstruct the occurrence.

In Merchants National Bank v. E. J. and E. Ry. Co., 49 Ill.2d 118, 273 N.E.2d 809, our supreme court approved the practice of...