Buck v. Scott Township

472 A.2d 691, 325 Pa. Super. 148, 1984 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4040
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 24, 1984
Docket547 and 554
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 472 A.2d 691 (Buck v. Scott Township) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Buck v. Scott Township, 472 A.2d 691, 325 Pa. Super. 148, 1984 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4040 (Pa. 1984).

Opinions

BECK, Judge:

Stephen C. Buck and Scott Township each appeal the order of the Court of Common Pleas, Allegheny County of May 5, 1982 which granted a new trial in Buck’s suit against the township. Buck was injured in June 1978 while riding his motorcycle in Scott Township and he brought two causes of action in trespass: one against the township for negligent failure to erect or replace stop signs or traffic lights at the site of the accident, and one against Patricia Ann Gotch, the driver of the other vehicle. Gotch was joined as additional defendant in the suit against the township.

A jury trial returned a verdict of $89,000 in favor of Buck against the township. The lower court then molded the verdict, reducing it to $44,500 on the basis of the jury’s answers to interrogatories, which found that Buck and the township were each fifty per cent negligent. The jury also found that Gotch was not negligent.

Following the verdict, the township moved for judgment non obstante veredicto and for a new trial, and Buck moved for a new trial restricted to the issue of damages alone, not liability. The lower court denied the motion for the judgment n.o.v. and granted an unrestricted new trial. The township here appeals the denial of the judgment n.o.v., and Buck appeals the grant of the unrestricted new trial.

Initially we note that an order denying a new trial or judgment n.o.v. is interlocutory and nonappealable until it is [152]*152reduced to judgment and docketed. Pa.R.A.P. 301(c); Brogley v. Chambersburg Engineering Co. v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, 282 Pa.Super. 562, 424 A.2d 952 (1981); Thomas M. Durkin & Sons, Inc. v. Nether Providence Township School Authority, 291 Pa.Super. 402, 435 A.2d 1288 (1981). However, when a party to an action moves for a judgment n.o.v. and also for a new trial, and the new trial is granted, he is not denied an appeal from the refusal of the judgment n.o.v., which is given independent review. Schroeder Brothers, Inc. v. Sabelli, 156 Pa.Super. 267, 40 A.2d 170 (1944); Corabi v. Curtis Publishing Co., 441 Pa. 432, 273 A.2d 899 (1971). Jurisdiction over Buck’s appeal from the granting of a new trial is conferred by Pa.R.A.P. 311(a)(5), interlocutory appeals as of right. We therefore proceed to review the appeals of both parties from the same order.

Pennsylvania law allows a court to enter judgment n.o.v. only in the clearest of cases, after the court has reviewed all the evidence which supports the verdict winner and resolves all doubts in that party’s favor. A judgment n.o.v. will be entered only in those cases where no two reasonable persons could fail to agree that the verdict is improper. Atkins v. Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, 489 Pa. 344, 414 A.2d 100 (1980); O’Malley v. Peerless Petroleum, Inc., 283 Pa.Super. 272, 423 A.2d 1251 (1980); Martin v. Soblotney, 296 Pa.Super. 145, 442 A.2d 700 (1982); McKnight v. City of Philadelphia, 299 Pa.Super. 327, 445 A.2d 778 (1982). We must therefore review all the evidence to determine whether Buck proved or failed to prove any negligence on the part of the township that was causally related to the accident in issue.

Buck sustained severe injuries which left him a paraplegic at the age of twenty-one when his motorcycle collided with Gotch’s automobile near the intersection of Locust and Carothers in Scott Township. Buck was travelling south on Carothers, a route which he did not usually take and with which he was unfamiliar. As Buck approached the Locust Street intersection, which intersects Carothers on the west [153]*153side of Carothers in a T-intersection, his view of the intersection was partially restricted by cars which were legally parked on the west side of the street up to approximately twenty feet from Locust Street. A stop sign which should have been posted on Locust Street was missing. Gotch, travelling east on Locust, nevertheless stopped at the intersection. She then proceeded slowly into the parking lane of Carothers when she saw Buck and brought her vehicle to another stop. Buck began braking when he saw Gotch, at approximately 150 to 180 feet from her car. R. 109a. At approximately 70 feet from her car he determined that he would suffer less harm if he laid his motorcycle on its side, to avoid a head-on collision in an upright position. When he put the motorcycle on its side, he lost control of it and skidded into Gotch, R. 100a-112a. Buck admits that the conduct of Gotch and the absence of the Locust Street stop sign did not cause the accident. He attributes the accident to the township’s allegedly negligent failure to warn those on Carothers of the Locust Street intersection either by signs, traffic light, or painted cross-walk.

At trial it was adduced that Carothers was marked with signs indicating a twenty-five mile per hour speed limit, R. 67a-68a, and bus stop signs. R. 72a-73a. Buck testified that his speed was approximately twenty-five miles per hour. R. 105a-106a.

The township introduced evidence that one month before the accident Buck had received an estimate from Washington Pittsburgh Cycle which indicated that Buck’s motorcycle required the replacement of left and right forkears (part of the steering mechanism) and a brake pedal. R. 125a-126a.

A traffic consultant who studied the scene of the accident testified that in his opinion safety requirements for an area with a twenty-five mile per hour speed limit required 100 feet visibility for traffic intersection, T. 236a, and that the Carothers-Locust intersection lacked indicia of an intersection due to the absence of signals, cross-walks, and street hardware. R. 242a-246a. The same traffic consultant tes[154]*154tified that if Buck had been travelling at twenty-five miles per hour, and if he had begun to brake at a distance of 180 feet from Gotch as he testified, that Buck could have safely come to a complete stop without any skidding or collision. R. 275a.

We conclude that a judgment n.o.v. in the instant case was properly denied by the lower court. Taking all the evidence which supports Buck, and giving him the benefit of all reasonable inferences therefrom, there is no clear case absolutely absolving the township from negligence. The testimony of the traffic consultant raised factual issues concerning the township’s duty of care toward motorists at this intersection which precludes the granting of judgment n.o.v.

The township also moved for a new trial on the basis of its motion for judgment n.o.v. and on the basis of errors in the court’s charge. The motion for judgment n.o.v. included averments, inter alia,

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Buck v. Scott Township
472 A.2d 691 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
472 A.2d 691, 325 Pa. Super. 148, 1984 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4040, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/buck-v-scott-township-pa-1984.