Camp v. Herzog

45 Pa. D. & C.3d 531, 1986 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 134
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Potter County
DecidedMay 21, 1986
Docketno. 395 of 1985
StatusPublished

This text of 45 Pa. D. & C.3d 531 (Camp v. Herzog) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Potter County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Camp v. Herzog, 45 Pa. D. & C.3d 531, 1986 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 134 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1986).

Opinion

FINK, J„

RE: Preliminary Objections of defendants’ Herzog:

I. Demurrer (No-fault Act)

Defendants demur on the basis that the complaint does not allege the monetary 'threshold in damages necessary to comply with the Pennsylvania No-fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act. There is no question that on the date of the alleged incident the Pennsylvania No-fault Act was sputtering but, nonetheless, alive. The only question is whether or not it was applicable to the facts alleged in plaintiffs’ complaint.

Plaintiffs basically alleged that plaintiff Judith Camp was an adult person and mother of plaintiffs Sean and Jennifer Camp, minor children. It is further alleged that the mother went into the Quaker State gas station for a car repair. The gas station was a two-bay garage physically attached to which was a waiting area with a door or passageway in-between. The mother and her two children went into the waiting area while her car was being worked on. The door between the bays and waiting room remained open and the ignition was on in the automobile being worked on in the two-bay garage for approximately 30 minutes. At the expiration of the 30-minute period, the minor Sean Camp fell to the [533]*533floor with seizures brought about by the inhalation of carbon monoxide. Both children inhaled the carbon monoxide and.noxious fumes from the running vehicle in the two-bay garage for the 30-minute period and, as a result, both children suffered nausea, vomiting, headaches, anxiety, depression, etc. and will in the-future endure like suffering. This is the essence of plaintiffs’ complaint against the numerous defendants.

We do not find that the Pennsylvania No-fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act contemplated such coverage. Although the motor of the vehicle was in operation, the vehicle itself was not in that it was not moving. Furthermore, the gravamen of the complaint in negligence is the failure of the owner and/or operator of the gasoline station to provide suitable ventilation and/or suitable waiting area for the business invitees of the premises.

Counsel for defense refers to two Superior Court cases which are most relevant and illuminating and which clearly support this court’s determination as above set forth; the first is Erie Insurance Exchange v. Fleagle, 427 A.2d 651, In the Fleagle case, the issue was whether or not plaintiff was a “victim” within the meaning of the No-fault Act. In the Fleagle case, plaintiff was a mechanic who was crossing his employer’s parking lot to retrieve a car which he intended to drive into the garage for service when he was struck and injured by a patrol car driven by a police officer employed by the borough. The court had no difficulty in finding that plaintiff was, in fact, covered by the No-fault Act and, therefore, reversed an adverse finding by the trial court. It pointed out that a “victim” is defined by the act as “an individual who suffers injury arising out of the maintenance or use of a motor vehicle.” Maintenance or use, however, does not include conduct [534]*534within the course of a business of repairing, servicing, or otherwise maintaining motor vehicles unless the conduct occurs off the business premises. In Fleagle defendant argued that because the employee was in the process of getting a car to take into the garage for repair and, in fact, was on his employer’s premises, he came within the exception and, therefore, was not a “victim” within the meaning of the act. The Superior Court, speaking through the Honorable Judge Hoffman, had no difficulty in finding, however, that he was injured “only because he was there” and had no direct relationship to the fact that he was an employee or that he intended to go get a car to move into the garage for the purpose of repairing it.

The next case is Monaghan v. Pa. Mfgrs. Ass’n. Ins. Co. v. Stanislawczyk, 299 Pa. Super. 227, 447 A.2d 1037 (1982). In this case plaintiff took her motor vehicle to defendant station for inspection and repair. Defendant owner of the facility was working on another car while plaintiff was waiting in the garage. While the other car was being worked on, it moved forward and struck plaintiff. Under these facts the lower court found Jn favor of plaintiff but was properly reversed on appeal to the Superior Court and through the Honorable Judge Van der Voort found that the statutory exclusion applied, viz., that maintenance or use of a motor vehicle did not include “conduct within the course of a business of repairing, servicing, or otherwise maintaining motor vehicles unless the conduct occurs off the business premises, or. . . .”

Accordingly, it appears obvious to this court that the Monaghan case and the Fleagle case are definitely distinguishable and they can coexist very nicely; as a matter of fact, it appears that the two cases are “hand in glove” with each other. The gen[535]*535eral principle is that-each case is dependent upon its own peculiar set of facts in order to construe whether plaintiff is a victim within the meaning of the No-fault Act and whether or not the injury suffered “arose out of the maintenance or use of a motor vehicle. ”

It is obvious to this writer that the peculiar set of facts in the instant case, at minimum, come under the exception to the “maintenance or use” provision and that the injury resulted from conduct “within the course of a repairing, servicing, or otherwise maintaining a motor vehicle while the plaintiff was on the business premises. ” We, therefore, find that the No-fault Act does not apply to the factual situation as pled in plaintiffs’ complaint and, thus, the demurrer in defendant’s count I is refused.

II. Demurrer (Sister’s Emotional Suffering from Witnessing her Brother’s Injuries)

This issue requires setting forth a brief history of recovery from emotional stress. Originally in Pennsylvania emotional stress was not recoverable as damages in tort unless it was accompanied by a direct trauma or trespass to the person so suffering. In other words, if a plaintiff was a guest passenger in an automobile and suffered a broken arm, he could not only recover loss of wages and ordinarily pain and suffering, but the mental suffering he himself endured as a result of the injury he himself sustained. Then came Niederman v. Brodsky, 436 Pa. 401, 261 A.2d 84 (1970) where the court held that a parent could recover damages for his or her emotional and mental anguish experienced while witnessing the death of that parent’s child caused by the negligent conduct of defendant only if the parent was physically within the “zone of danger” at the time of the trauma to the child. Later, in the [536]*536case of Sinn v. Burd, 486 Pa. 146, 404 A.2d 672 (1979), the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania expanded the rule to allow recovery for emotional stress experienced by a parent for the injury to the child even if the parent was not physically within the “zone of danger.” In Sinn, the parent, in fact, actually witnessed the death of her child. The specific holding of Sinn v. Burd

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Related

Erie Insurance Exchange v. Fleagle
427 A.2d 651 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1981)
Commonwealth v. Williams
445 A.2d 537 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1982)
Monaghan v. PA. MFRS.'ASS'N INS. CO.
447 A.2d 1037 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1982)
Niederman v. Brodsky
261 A.2d 84 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1970)
Sinn v. Burd
404 A.2d 672 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1979)

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Bluebook (online)
45 Pa. D. & C.3d 531, 1986 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 134, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/camp-v-herzog-pactcomplpotter-1986.