Balboni v. Stonick

481 A.2d 82, 2 Conn. App. 523, 1984 Conn. App. LEXIS 671
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedSeptember 11, 1984
Docket2454
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 481 A.2d 82 (Balboni v. Stonick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Balboni v. Stonick, 481 A.2d 82, 2 Conn. App. 523, 1984 Conn. App. LEXIS 671 (Colo. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

Dannehy, C.P.J.

This is an action for damages resulting from injuries sustained by the plaintiff in an automobile collision between his automobile and an automobile driven by the defendant. The intersection where the collision took place was governed by a traffic signal light which both opposing parties contended was green in their favor. After trial, the jury returned a general verdict for the defendant, but the trial court granted a motion to set it aside, from which action this appeal was taken.1

There appears to have been no substantial dispute as to certain circumstances preliminary to the collision. The collision occurred at the intersection of Forbes and [525]*525Woodward Avenues in New Haven. Upon the trial it appeared that the defendant was driving his automobile westerly along Forbes Avenue and that his automobile entered Woodward Avenue and, after it was almost completely across the intersection, was struck by that of the plaintiff. Beyond these, the facts were definitely in dispute; and it was for the jury to determine what the true facts were, insofar as the jury found them proved.

The primary factual dispute was whether the traffic signal was green for the plaintiff or for the defendant at the time of the collision.2 The defendant testified that he was familiar with the intersection where the collision took place; that at about 6 a.m. on October 11, 1974, he was driving his automobile westerly along Forbes Avenue behind a truck proceeding in the same direction; that as he approached Woodward Avenue he observed the traffic signal and it was green; that from Forbes Avenue, at a point five feet east of Woodward Avenue, the truck made a right hand turn into a driveway; that he observed then that the traffic light was still green; that he drove slowly left to pass the truck; that as he passed the truck and entered the intersection, he was unable to see the traffic light; and that he had driven his automobile three-quarters of the way through the intersection when the front end of the plaintiffs southbound car collided with the right rear fender of his automobile.

The court instructed the jury as to what constituted negligence and contributory negligence under the cir[526]*526cumstances, but, although the plaintiff previously argued that the court’s charge was deficient in several respects, most notably because the court failed to furnish the jury with the statutory definition of intersection; General Statutes § 14-1 (18); no error is assigned in the instructions on this phase of the case. The jurors returned a verdict for the defendant and their answer to an interrogatory submitted by the court of its own motion unequivocally established that the plaintiff failed to prove that the defendant was negligent in even one of the ways specified in the complaint.3 The trial court was of the opinion that the jury could not reasonably have found otherwise than that there was negligence on the part of the defendant. On the plaintiff’s motion, the court set aside the verdict of the jury as against the evidence.

The pivotal issue in this appeal is how far a trial court may go in setting aside the verdict of a jury as against the evidence. A trial court in passing upon a motion to set aside a verdict and this court in reviewing its action thereon are limited by established legal principles. Our rule is plain and unchanged, although it has been stated in a variety of ways. “If, on the evidence as presented and under the pleadings, the jury could have reasonably found in accordance with the verdict as rendered, then it cannot be set aside as against the evidence.” Goodman v. Norwalk Jewish Center, Inc., 145 Conn. 146, 154, 139 A.2d 812 (1958); see also Horvath v. Tontini, 126 Conn. 462, 464, 11 A.2d 846 (1940).

It is the duty of the trial court in its relation to the jury to protect the parties by setting aside a verdict where its manifest injustice is so plain as clearly to indi[527]*527cate that the jury has disregarded the rules of law applicable to the case; Jacobs v. Goodspeed, 180 Conn. 415, 417, 429 A.2d 915 (1980); or was influenced by prejudice, corruption or partiality in reaching a decision. Kalleher v. Orr, 183 Conn. 125, 126, 438 A.2d 843 (1983); Preisner v. Illman, 1 Conn. App. 264, 268, 470 A.2d 1237 (1984). In setting aside the verdict, the trial court acts in the exercise of a broad legal discretion which, in the absence of a clear abuse, will not be disturbed; and in reviewing the exercise of that discretion every reasonable presumption should be indulged in favor of its correctness. Jacobs v. Goodspeed, supra, 416.

One obvious and immovable limitation on the legal discretion of the court in setting aside a verdict is the constitutional right of trial by jury. To protect the right of a litigant to have disputed issues of fact determined by a jury, the court’s action cannot be reviewed in a vacuum. The evidence upon which the verdict was based must be examined. Id., 416-17. “Upon issues regarding which, on the evidence, there is room for reasonable difference of opinion among fairminded men, the conclusion of a jury, if one at which honest men acting fairly and intelligently might arrive reasonably, must stand, even though the opinion of the trial court and this court be that a different result should have been reached.” Horvath v. Tontini, supra. The question before this court is whether there was room for such a reasonable difference of opinion with respect to the issue of the defendant’s negligence. If so, the trial court erred in setting aside the verdict.

“Ordinarily a conclusion of negligence or of freedom from it is one of fact. The reason is that ‘the law itself furnishes no certain, specific, sufficient standard of conduct, and, of necessity, leaves the trier to determine, both what the conduct is, and whether it comes up to the standard, as such standard exists in the mind of [528]*528the trier. . . . In every such case the trier, for the time being, adopts his own opinion, limited only by the general rule, of what the man of ordinary prudence would or would not do under the circumstances, and makes such opinion the measure or standard of the conduct in question.’ Farrell v. Waterbury Horse R. Co., 60 Conn. 239, 250, 21 Atl. 675, 22 [Atl.] 544 [1891].” Skovronski v. Genovese, 124 Conn. 482, 483-84, 200 A. 575 (1938).

The trial court found that in a written and appropriately exhibited statement the defendant admitted that “he went through the red light.” The court, in its memorandum of decision accompanying the order setting aside the verdict of the jury, concluded that in none of his testimony did the defendant explain, deny or contradict the statement he made admitting that “he went through the red light” and that the jury could not have come to any conclusion other than that the defendant did in fact go through the red light. We disagree.

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Bluebook (online)
481 A.2d 82, 2 Conn. App. 523, 1984 Conn. App. LEXIS 671, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/balboni-v-stonick-connappct-1984.