Verchereau v. Jameson

• Decision Date: 03 January 1961
• Docket Number: No. 352,352
• Citation: Verchereau v. Jameson, 122 Vt. 189, 167 A.2d 521 (Vt. 1961)
• Parties: Carol VERCHEREAU v. Charles W. JAMESON.
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Page 521

167 A.2d 521

122 Vt. 189

Carol VERCHEREAU v. Charles W. JAMESON.

No. 352.

Supreme Court of Vermont.

Jan. 3, 1961.

Joseph C. McNeil, Burlington, for plaintiff.

Black, Wilson & Hoff, Burlington, for defendant.

Before HULBURD, C. J., and HOLDEN, SHANGRAW, BARNEY and SMITH, JJ.

HOLDEN, Justice.

This is an action to recover for personal injuries sustained in an automobile accident that happened at the intersection of Chase Street and Colchester Avenue in the city of Burlington. The collision occurred before dark on the evening of September 21, 1958. The plaintiff was a guest passenger in a vehicle operated by her brother, Robert Hurlburt, traveling west on Chase Street

The western terminal of Chase Street enters Colchester Avenue diagonally, with the obtuse angle on the left. The northbound traffic on Colchester Avenue was halted in the east lane by a traffic light at Barrett Street which intersects Colchester some 493 feet to the north.

When the Hurlburt car reached the Chase Street stop sign, the exit was blocked by the traffic headed north on Colchester. Shortly after Hurlburt's arrival at this point, the line of cars separated enough to permit the Hurlburt vehicle to emerge, cross the lane and turn left on Colchester. Just as Hurlburt had passed through this opening and headed south up Colchester hill, the defendant's 1955 Oldsmobile sedan overtook it. The defendant applied his brakes and turned in an effort to avoid and pass to the right of the car in which the plaintiff was riding. The defendant's car struck the right side of the Hurlburt vehicle, impelling it into two vehicles in the northbound lane of travel. The force of the impact threw the plaintiff and her young nephew to the pavement. The Hurlburt vehicle was damaged to the extent of $800 and the defendant's vehicle in an amount in excess of $400. The defendant's car left skid marks that extended thirty feet to the rear of the point where it came to rest. The defendant estimated his speed at the approach to the intersection at twenty miles an hour.

The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff. The defendant appeals. The assignments of error are directed to the reception of evidence, the order of the plaintiff's medical testimony, the instructions of the trial court, the failure of the court to direct a verdict in his favor and its refusal to set the verdict aside as against the weight of the evidence.

The plaintiff called Lieutenant D'Arcangelo, an officer in charge of traffic in the Burlington Police Department. This witness was permitted to testify concerning the distance of travel of a motor vehicle at speeds of twenty and twenty-five miles per hour, normal driver reaction time and braking distances at these speeds. The defendant had previously testified that he applied his brakes when he first saw the Hurlburt vehicle and at that time, he was a distance of fifty-one feet from the point of impact.

Counsel for the plaintiff then asked the following hypothetical question: 'Assuming that a 1955 Oldsmobile with good brakes was proceeding up Colchester Avenue and at this point at the northerly edge of Chase Street, saw another vehicle coming out of Chase Street and went for his brakes, and that a collision took place at a point on this sketch marked PPI (point of probable impact), do you have an opinion as to whether the speed of that vehicle was in excess of twenty miles an hour?'

The witness was permitted to answer over objection from the defendant on the ground that pertinent evidentiary facts were not included. The speed, distances and points of observation and impact had previously been shown in the evidence. That the defendant's brakes were in good working condition can be inferred from the skid marks on the pavement.

The facts embraced in the question were not matters which had been left to speculation, without evidentiary support, as in Bliss v. Moore and Stoughton, 112 Vt. 185, 190, 22 A.2d 315, and Platt v. Shields, 96 Vt. 257, 273, 119 A. 520. The question propounded was not rendered inadmissible because it did not include all the facts that related to the accident. Opinion evidence may be given on part of the facts which the evidence tends to prove. The critical facts were included. Omissions in some aspects of the detail may affect the weight of the opinion given, but shortages in this respect will not preclude the question. State v. Stacy, 104 Vt. 379, 399, 160 A. 257, 747; McKinstry v. Collins, 74 Vt. 147, 153, 52 A. 438; State v. Doherty, 72 Vt. 381, 392, 48 A. 658.

This question was followed by a second hypothetical question concerning the relative position of the vehicles involved when they came to rest after the collision. The defendant again objected for the reason that the question did not embrace all the facts necessary to arrive at a sound conclusion. The facts stated in the question were within the evidence. It was in the court's discretion to admit the answer, leaving it to cross-examination to develop the deficiencies in factual data. See, 12 V.S.A. § 1643; Tinney v. Crosby, 112 Vt. 95, 99, 22 A.2d 145.

In connection with this exception the defendant complains that the remarks the trial judge made at the time of this ruling indicate his ruling was based on a misunderstanding of the evidence. If such was the case, and it does not so appear, the court's misconception was not indicated or pointed out at the time the ruling was made. The statement stands on the record without objection. It cannot be brought forward at the basis for reversible error on appeal. Croteau v. Allbee, 117 Vt. 332, 335, 91 A.2d 803; State v. Lindsay, 110 Vt. 120, 123, 2 A.2d 201.

At the trial, the court struck the conclusions of a witness who was riding with her husband in a north bound vehicle to the effect that the Hurlburt car was traveling 'very fast' and the defendant was moving at a 'normal rate of speed.' The exclusion was harmless for her husband followed her on the stand to state in specific rates his estimate of the speed of the two vehicles. Moreover, the witness was a passenger and she had previously stated she was unable to estimate speed of a vehicle unless she was driving. The status of the evidence supports the discretionary ruling of the court in striking the answers. Davis v. Raymond, 103 Vt. 195, 198, 152 A. 806; Rutland Sash & Door Co. v. Gleason, 98 Vt. 215, 221, 126 A. 577.

It appears from the record that at some time after the collision, the operator of the car in which the plaintiff was riding made some oral statements to the witness Russell Godsey concerning the accident. The defendant offered the substance of these statements in evidence. The court excluded this testimony on the ground that the operator's statements in this regard would not be binding upon the plaintiff.

The basis upon which the ruling was made appears to have been well taken, for there was nothing in the record to connect the plaintiff to the statements of her host driver. However this may be, the question is not briefed. Rather the defendant claims error on the ground that the evidence was admissible to impeach the testimony of Hurlburt and to explain how the accident occurred. Since these points were not made below, it is not appropriate to raise them here. Dailey v. Town of Ludlow, 102 Vt. 312, 316, 147 A. 771; Higgins v. Metzger, 101 Vt. 285, 295, 143 A. 394. We point out however that no foundation for impeachment was laid in accord with the procedure prescribed in In re Waterman's Will, 102 Vt. 443, 447, 150 A. 65. Nor does it appear that the statements were spontaneously exclaimed out of the stress of the excitement. See Fitch v. Bemis, 107 Vt. 165, 167, 177 A. 193; State v. Blair, 118 Vt. 81, 91, 99 A.2d 677.

The defendant complains that at the conclusion of his evidence, the plaintiff called one of her medical witnesses for the first time. The witness, William I. Shea, M.D. was in the courtroom during the presentation of the plaintiff's medical evidence. He was not called upon to testify until the defendant had rested. The defendant objected that the subject of Dr. Shea's testimony was not rebuttal. The court allowed his testimony to continue and stated the ruling was made as a matter of discretion.

The procedure followed was somewhat unusual and had about it the capability of working some inconvenience to the defendant and his medical experts. We do not approve a departure from County Court Rule 27 unless the circumstances require. But the relaxation of the rule is a matter that must be left to the trial court's discretion unless it brings about an unfair and prejudicial result and exceeds the bounds of reason. McNeish v. United States Hulless Oat Co., 57 Vt. 316, 324; 53 Am.Jur. Trial, § 121, p. 107.

Oftentimes the question of what is rebuttal evidence, in itself, is a matter of discretion, for at the trial there is no full opportunity for refinement of the evidence to draw a precise line as to where primary evidence ends and rebuttal begins. State v. Newburg, 129 Or. 564, 278 P. 568, 63 A.L.R. 1225, 1228. Such appears to have been the case in this instance. And if the evidence given by this witness took the defendant by surprise, it does not appear that he appealed to the trial court for an opportunity to meet the new aspects of his testimony. No abuse of discretion has been shown.

The defendant objected to the introduction of the plaintiff's hospital and medical expenses. The defendant also excepted to the court's instructions to the jury that if they reached the question of damages the plaintiff would be entitled to recover such medical expenses in the stipulated amount of $322.93. The ground for the objection was that she was not entitled to recover these items of special damage since at the time of the accident, she was a minor of nineteen. Before she reached her majority she married. The defendant maintains that her special damage incurred before her marriage could only be recovered by her father;...