Roberts v. Kettelle
| Citation | 116 R.I. 283,356 A.2d 207 |
| Decision Date | 23 April 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 74-322-A,74-322-A |
| Parties | Edith F. ROBERTS, Adm'x v. Donald E. KETTELLE et al. Peter CHAPMAN, guardian, et al. v. Donald E. KETTELLE et al. ppeal. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Rhode Island |
This case arises from a tragic automobile accident which occurred in the southbound lanes of Interstate Route 95 in the city of Warwick on the night of February 6, 1970. On that evening, seven young people were traveling from Boston, Massachusetts to Old Lyme, Connecticut, in a three-seated, heavy-duty station wagon known commercially as an International Travel-all. Seated from left to right in the front seat were the defendant-driver Martha D. Roberts, the plaintiff's decedent Robin Roberts, and the second plaintiff, Akiko Sasamoto. The middle seat was occupied by Katharine Hotarek and Olivia Campo and the rear seat contained Edward Ritz and Edith Roberts, the sister of the plaintiff's decedent and of the defendant.
This group had spent the day in Boston where Robin resided as a college student and had as their destination the Roberts' home in Old Lyme. Martha, who was 17 years old at the time and who had been a licensed driver for 7 or 8 months prior to the date in question, assumed driving duties that day upon leaving the Boston city limits to which point Edward Ritz had piloted them.
The group proceeded southerly without incident until they reached a point on the highway some seven to eight-tenths of a mile north of the East Greenwich turnoff. At that particular location, the asphalt surface attains a width of four lanes, each lane being 12-feet wide. The two left lanes are clearly marked as East Greenwich-bound while those on the right are equally clearly marked as the through lanes of Interstate Route 95 bound for New York city and other points south. At this juncture Martha swung her vehicle from the third lane in which she had been traveling into the fourth lane in order to pass a slower vehicle. Just as she accomplished this incursion into the left-hand lane, Martha became suddenly aware of defendant state trooper Kettelle's police car which she described as a vehicle with red flashing lights that appeared to have stopped immediately in front of her. She could not then retreat to the third lane as her vehicle was parallel to the automobile which she had intended to pass. She therefore applied the brakes on her Travel-all and swerved to the left in an effort to avoid defendant Kettelle's automobile.
Martha's efforts were to no avail in that her vehicle struck the rear of the preceding vehicle with enough force to leave the latter facing in the direction from which it had come, and her own car struck the guardrail located on the median area and overturned once coming to rest on its side. As a result of the mishap Robin Roberts was killed and Akiko Sasamoto suffered severe personal injuries resulting in several hospitalizations for the treatment of a fractured pelvis, a fractured lumbar vertebra and a ruptured spleen.
While these events were unfolding, a separate set of facts was developing which have a bearing on several aspects of this case. On the same evening when Martha Roberts and company sojourned homeward on Interstate Route 95, a noted local underworld figure and his female companion were killed by shotgun blasts emanating from a late model white Cadillac with out-of-state registration plates as the pair left the woman's home in the Pawtuxet section of Cranston. A description of said vehicle was broadcast to all state police vehicles and all officers were advised to be on the lookout in order to avert the alleged gunman's escape from the state of Rhode Island.
Trooper Kettelle was traveling southward on Interstate Route 95 in the city of Warwick near the interchange of Rhode Island Route 117 when he received the above-described bulletin. He decided to assume a post about 2 miles south of Route 117 in a dirt and macadam path marked 'Official Use Only' which traverses the median area just north of the East Greenwich turnoff described in the first part of this opinion. As he approached his destination he directed his car into the fourth left-hand lane and began to decelerate. Kettelle testified that at this point in time he activated his red flashing signal light in order to avoid becoming 'a sitting duck.' It is unclear whether this comment indicates that his intention in lighting the signal apparatus was to announce his presence to following vehicles and thus to avoid any rear-end collisions or whether he intended to evade detection by the suspected killers. When he was two-to-three-tenths of a mile north of the so-called 'official turnoff,' trooper Kettelle's vehicle was traveling, by his own estimate, no more than 40 miles per hour and, by some witnesses' estimates, his vehicle was at a complete standstill. The maximum speed allowed on that stretch of road on that date in 1970 was 60 miles per hour and the minimum allowable speed was 15 miles per hour less or 45 miles per hour. In any event, it was at this juncture that the Roberts' vehicle, being operated as described above, came into contact with the Kettelle vehicle.
Actions were instituted in the Superior Court by the estate of the decedent Robin Roberts for wrongful death and on behalf of Akiko Sasamoto, a minor and a citizen of Japan, for pain and suffering and medical expenses. Both complaints named the driver Martha D. Roberts and trooper Kettelle as parties defendant.
The cases came to trial before a justice of the Superior Court and a jury in June 1974. On June 10, 1974, the jury returned verdicts in favor of each plaintiff against each defendant. Damages in the wrongful death suit were assessed against defendant Kettelle in the amount of $40,000 and against defendant Martha D. Roberts in the same amount. In the personal injury action the award was $2,800 for medical expenses to Peter Chapman, Guardian, against both defendants and $5,000 for pain and suffering in favor of Akiko Sasamoto, p.p.a., against both defendants. Upon the recording of the verdict, counsel for plaintiffs objected on the ground of his belief that the jury had misunderstood the trial justice's instructions and halved the awards. He opined that the verdicts should be doubled and moved that the jury be polled as to the amount of the award intended by them. The justice denied the motion upon a finding that the jury had clearly followed the instructions and the jury was polled in the ordinary manner, each juror responding that he or she intended an award of $40,000 against both defendants in the wrongful death suit. Judgments were entered accordingly.
At this juncture, the trial justice denied the motions for a directed verdict of each defendant upon which decision had been reserved. All parties thereupon filed Super.R.Civ.P. 59 motions for a new trial; defendants on the ground that the verdict was against the law, the evidence and the weight thereof, and plaintiffs on the ground that the damages were grossly inadequate. The plaintiffs also filed a so-called 'Motion for Relief' under Super.R.Civ.P. 60 and accompanied said motion with the affidavits of each of the 12 jurors who sat on the case to the effect that each had intended that the damages in the wrongful death action were to be $80,000 against both defendants and that the award to Akiko Sasamoto was intended to be $2,800, medical expenses, and $10,000, pain and suffering.
The trial justice denied the motions for new trial filed by each defendant and the Rule 60 motion filed by plaintiffs. Regarding the latter motion, the trial justice ruled that a motion which directs the court to consider affidavits of the jury is inappropriate and not the proper subject matter for Super.R.Civ.P. 60. The trial justice then proceeded to reject consideration of the affidavits in the context of plaintiffs' Super.R.Civ.P. 59 motions for a new trial. Upon full consideration of those motions, however, the trial justice found, on the basis of all relevant evidence other than the jurors' affidavits, that the jury's award was inadequate to compensate for the losses suffered. The motions for a new trial were therefore granted in both cases on the issue of damages alone unless the defendants filed an additur of $50,000 in the wrongful death action, raising the total verdict to the full sum of $90,000, and an additur of $10,000 in the personal injury action, thereby increasing the total verdict in that case to $15,000. Orders to this effect were entered on July 3, 1974.
All parties filed appeals in this court. These appeals raise several significant issues and for the sake of clarity each will be dealt with individually.
The first point raised by defendant Kettelle in his appeal from the denial of his motion for a directed verdict is that because he was responding to an emergency call displaying his emergency signal lights, he was exempt from the minimum speed regulations. On this basis, he asserts that no negligence can be ascribed to him and that he is thus entitled to have a verdict directed in his favor. He cites G.L.1956 (1968 Reenactment) § 31-12-6 1 as the source of this exemption and the gravamen of his position is that the operator of an emergency vehicle enjoys a per se exemption from vehicle speed laws. The defendant Kettelle is of the belief therefore that his traveling at a speed less than the 45 miles per hour minimum was, in these circumstances, nonnegligent. The defendant Roberts, who relies on a finding of Kettelle's negligence in order to enjoy the partial shelter of joint and several as opposed to sole liability, vigorously opposes this position. In her brief, defendant Roberts joins in the position of plaintiffs and asserts that...
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