Adams v. Mackleer

361 A.2d 439, 239 Pa. Super. 244, 1976 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1889
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 29, 1976
DocketAppeal, No. 1080
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 361 A.2d 439 (Adams v. Mackleer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. Mackleer, 361 A.2d 439, 239 Pa. Super. 244, 1976 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1889 (Pa. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

Opinion by

Price, J.,

Following a jury trial, judgment was entered in favor of defendant-appellee. Plaintiff-appellant Christopher Adams (appellant-son) and plaintiff-appellant Shirley Bamforth Adams (appellant-mother) bring this appeal, alleging eight trial errors. We agree that there was error, and will, therefore, grant a new trial.

The facts indicate that on August 8, 1969, at 11:30 p.m., appellant-son and appellee were involved in an accident. Appellant-son, then seventeen years old, was operating a borrowed bicycle in a southerly direction on Highland Avenue near Abington High School, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The appellee was driving an automobile in the opposite direction on Highland Avenue.

Appellee made a left-hand turn into a driveway which led to the Abington High School parking lot, and proceeded up the driveway. Appellee testified that he did not see appellant-son until he had driven sixty or eighty feet up the driveway. Appellee also stated that he did not come to a stop prior to making the turn and that he was traveling at a speed of five miles per hour.

[248]*248Appellant-son testified that he did not see appellee’s automobile until immediately before the accident, when he was blinded by the headlights. The impact threw appellant-son into the air, and his right hand went through the windshield of the car.

Appellants first contend that it was error to allow testimony concerning a note written by appellant-mother and sent to the owner of the bicycle stating that the headlamp did not function and that the brakes failed. They contend that while questions concerning the note were proper as to appellant-mother, they were so prejudical to appellant-son as to mandate total exclusion. This is indeed a difficult question.

The law in the Commonwealth has long been that admissions by a party are admissible as an exception to the hearsay exclusion. Beardsley v. Weaver, 402 Pa. 130, 166 A.2d 529 (1961). However, our courts have established an exception to the rule.

"The more serious error, however, committed by the trial judge was in admitting the letters into evidence at all, even as against defendant who wrote them. The situation is not unique where, as in the present case, a declaration by a party would be admissible against him but not against others — co-defendants with him or with interests similar to his own, —but where, if the declaration were received as evidence against the person making it, the necessary result would be to prejudice such others; under these circumstances there is abundant authority to the effect that the declaration should be excluded entirely so as to protect those whom its admission would harm, even though the party offering it is thus precluded from the exercise of a right he would have had if the proceeding were against the declarant alone: (citations omitted).” McShain v. Indemnity Insurance Company of North America, 338 Pa. 113, 119, 12 A.2d 59, 61-62 (1940). Appellants argue that the instant case is controlled by McShain.

We agree that McShain, supra, controls and that [249]*249questions concerning the note should not have been admitted. Appellant-mother stated that her son did not tell her that the headlight was inoperative, so this cannot be considered an admission by appellant-son. Further appellant-mother was not appellant-son’s authorized agent in this matter and was not empowered to make admissions on behalf of appellant-son.

Appellants allege that the trial court erred in failing to charge the jury concerning left-hand turns. The judge refused all such charges after he personally determined that the accident occurred after appellee had made the turn and was proceeding up the driveway to the school. A review of the record does not necessarily support this determination.

Although appellant-son and appellee gave differing versions of the location of the accident, the evidence supplied by the impact marks near the right front wheel well would tend to support appellant-son’s statement as to the actual site of the crash. In any event, this question and the relevance of instructions concerning left hand turns was for the jury’s determination and resolution. The lower court judge should have instructed the jury that if they determined that the accident occurred during a left-hand turn, then the standard of care to be used in making such a turn must apply to appellee.

Appellants contend that the court should have commented on appellee’s failure to retake the stand during the presentation of his case, after he had been called by appellants as on cross-examination. In support of this contention, appellants cite Beers v. Muth, 395 Pa. 624, 151 A.2d 465 (1959).

We do not agree that Beers v. Muth, supra, controls in the instant case. We will instead apply the rationale from Evans v. Philadelphia Transportation Company, 418 Pa. 567, 212 A.2d 440 (1965), a case which distinguishes Beers v. Muth, supra. Evans, supra, holds that where a party is called by the opposite side as on cross-examination and gives a complete account of the [250]*250events in question, that party need not retake the stand during his presentation, and he will not be subject to an adverse inference charge. In the case at bar, appellee was extensively questioned by opposing counsel and by his own attorney. He gave a complete statement and could have added nothing more if he had retaken the stand during the presentation of his case.

The trial court’s refusal to charge on the assured clear distance rule1 was also alleged as error. This rule provides that a driver of a motor vehicle on a public highway must be alert to have the vehicle under such control that it can be stopped within the distance the driver can see. Koelle v. Philadelphia Electric Company, 443 Pa. 35, 277 A.2d 350 (1971). At night time, this distance is the scope of the headlights. The trial judge refused the requested charge without comment or explanation.

This court has recently held that the assured clear distance rule is not applicable in situations, such as the one presently before us, wherein the vehicles are moving toward one another. Turner v. Smith, 237 Pa. Superior Ct. 161, 346 A.2d 806 (1975). The lower court properly refused to charge on the rule.

Appellants next challenge the lower court’s charge on proximate cause and on the requirement for lighted headlights on bicycles. Much of the record is devoted to evidence as to whether or not appellant-son had a lighted headlamp on the bicycle at the time of the crash. The two points are interrelated and will be considered together.

Appellants requested that the lower court charge the jury that if appellant-son was traveling on the berm, then no lighted headlamp was necessary.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
361 A.2d 439, 239 Pa. Super. 244, 1976 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1889, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-mackleer-pasuperct-1976.