Barretto v. Akau

463 P.2d 917, 51 Haw. 383
Hawaii Supreme Court·Decided December 11, 1969·No. 4792·Published·Cited by 53 cases

Opinion

*384 OPINION OP THE COURT BY

LEVINSON, J.

This case comes to us on appeal from a judgment of $38,762.50 for plaintiff Marlene Barretto, a 16-year-old girl at the time of the accident, and $1,000 in favor of her parents, plaintiffs Manuel and Winifred Barretto. The suit was the result of an auto accident on October 3, 1965 in which the defendant, Stanley Akau, caused a head-on collision with another car while driving the car of Gerald Ito in which both Ito and plaintiff Marlene were also riding. The defendant admits negligence. The only issues at trial were the extent of damages to be awarded to Marlene, the expenses incurred by her parents, and the affirmative defenses of assumption of risk and contributory negligence.

On the day of the accident, Gerald Ito and the defendant had been drinking in various bars in Kapaa on the *385 island of Kauai from about noon until just before the accident at 4:30 p.m. They proceeded from the last bar to Marlene’s home with Ito driving. Ito backed up a long driveway to the Barretto house, parked at the garage, and went in through the adjacent kitchen door to ask Mrs. Barretto’s permission to take Marlene out for some ice cream. Permission was granted and the defendant slid over in the seat and drove until the time of the accident.

Marlene was married to Gerald Ito on April 22, 1966, over six months after the accident. She gave birth to a child on September 10,1966, less than six months from the time of her marriage. No evidence was adduced as to whether the pregnancy was other than a normal one of approximately 280 days or nine calendar months.

The damages claimed at trial were numerous. Testimony was introduced that Marlene suffered amnesia, a cut chin, a bruised breast, a cut on the left thigh, a sore jaw, chipped teeth, and a mild cerebral concussion. At trial it developed that a major emphasis was being placed on emotional damages allegedly resulting from the crash and the injuries. The plaintiffs introduced testimony that before the accident Marlene was a lively girl who hiked, swam, caught frogs, fished, bowled, played the piano, and sang in the church choir, and that after the accident she became dependent, uninterested in her previous activities, reserved in her contacts with others, irritable, forgetful and unable to care properly for her child. Considerable expert medical testimony was introduced to prove these damages and to establish the accident as their cause.

While defendant alleges 27 different specifications of error in his brief, we find it necessary to address ourselves to only four in particular. First, the defendant alleges as error the refusal of the trial judge to allow two of Marlene’s medical experts, Doctors Goebert and Popper, to answer a line of hypothetical questioning posed by the *386 defendant on cross-examination relating to the effect which a pre-marital pregnancy might have had on Marlene. This was to determine, by way of rebuttal, whether a pre-marital pregnancy could have precipitated a severe emotional crisis and brought about a personality change. An objection to the questioning was sustained because the fact of pre-marital pregnancy, assumed in the hypothetical question by defendant,. was not yet in evidence.

Second, at the close of the trial the judge granted a motion for a directed verdict for the plaintiffs on the issues of assumption of risk and contributory negligence. On appeal the defendant has argued only the issue of assumption of risk. The factual issue was whether Marlene actually knew that the defendant had been drinking. She had no opportunity, except at a distance, to observe him before she got into the car, nor had she ever met him. Whatever she observed upon getting into the car and riding with the defendant was lost to the jury by a claim of amnesia covering those events. Mrs. Barretto did have an opportunity to observe firsthand Mr. Ito, who is not a party to this suit, when he came to pick up Marlene.

The defendant attempted to elicit testimony from Mrs. Barretto and from Marlene that Mrs. Barretto told Marlene in the hospital room after the accident that the boys were obviously drunk. Mrs. Barretto maintained that her information came from the police report. The defendant offered the report to show that no mention was made of the intoxication of the boys in it except for a statement that they had been drinking. This left an inference of firsthand knowledge as a basis for Mrs. Barretto’s statement that the boys were obviously drunk. This in turn could mean that Marlene had that same opportunity to observe the boys’ condition. The defendant’s case rested, as it had to, on circumstantial evidence and inference. *387 The trial court chose to strike the admission of the police report as hearsay.

Third, over the defendant’s objection Marlene’s attorney was permitted to make a formula argument to the jury in order to illustrate how damages might be computed.

Now we come to the disfigurement. The ordinary person is aivake around 16 hours a day. Marlene Barretto walks around with that scar on her face, that lump in her mouth, and that scar, those two scars on her face, one of which is swollen, all day long; and naturally she is conscious of it. If for the 2y2 years that have gone by since this accident, you awarded her the mere sum of 50 cents an hour for that embarrassment ... [Objection overruled.]

The defendant contends that the statutory authority upon which Marlene’s attorney relies, HRS § 635-52, 1 is an unconstitutional legislative incursion into the judicial function and thereby violates the principle of separation of powers embodied in the State Constitution. See Hawaii Constitution, art. Ill, § 1; art. IY, § 1; art. Y, § 1.

Fourth, the defendant also specifies as error the inclusion in the instructions to the jury of eleven separate instructions on damages. He contends that by being repetitious the instructions unduly over-emphasized the subject of damages.

We reverse and remand for a new trial.

*388 I. CROSS-EXAMINATION OF PLAINTIFF’S MEDICAL EXPERTS.

We agree with the defendant’s contention that in the cross-examination of an expert witness there is no requirement that hypothetical questions be based upon facts already in evidence. While the authorities are divided on this issue, we think that in cross-examining an expert witness a question aimed at demonstrating an alternative theory or contesting a substantive element of the case may be based on (1) those facts already in evidence, (2) those facts which are the proper subject of judicial notice, and (3) those facts which the cross-examiner in good faith anticipates he will establish later in the trial. If the cross-examiner fails to prove the facts assumed in his hypothetical question, then a motion to strike by opposing counsel is appropriate to cure the defect. Peterson v. Schlottman, 237 Ore.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Barretto v. Akau, 463 P.2d 917, 51 Haw. 383 (haw 1969).

463 P.2d 917 (Barretto v. Akau) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

In re Estate of Koetter
980 N.W.2d 376 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 2022)
Peake v. Labatad
501 P.3d 332 (Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, 2021)
Fredricksen v. Dyas
479 P.3d 925 (Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, 2021)
State v. Cordeiro
56 P.3d 692 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 2002)
Tabieros v. Clark Equipment Co.
944 P.2d 1279 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1997)
Ditto v. McCurdy
947 P.2d 961 (Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, 1997)
Lai v. St. Peter
869 P.2d 1352 (Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, 1994)
Debus v. Grand Union Stores of Vermont
621 A.2d 1288 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1993)
Larsen v. Pacesetter Systems, Inc.
837 P.2d 1273 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1992)
Braun v. Ahmed
127 A.D.2d 418 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1987)
Meyer v. City and County of Honolulu
729 P.2d 388 (Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, 1986)
DiCenzo v. Izawa
723 P.2d 171 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1986)
McKeague v. Talbert
658 P.2d 898 (Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, 1983)
Kekua v. Kaiser Foundation Hospital
601 P.2d 364 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1979)
Worsley v. Corcelli
377 A.2d 215 (Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 1977)
Lauer v. Young Men's Christian Ass'n of Honolulu
557 P.2d 1334 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1976)
Sherry Ex Rel. Sherry v. Asing
531 P.2d 648 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1975)
Greene v. Texeira
505 P.2d 1169 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1973)
State v. Martin
504 P.2d 1223 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1973)