Cassinelli v. Begley

433 S.W.2d 651, 1968 Ky. LEXIS 286
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976)
DecidedSeptember 20, 1968
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 433 S.W.2d 651 (Cassinelli v. Begley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976) primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cassinelli v. Begley, 433 S.W.2d 651, 1968 Ky. LEXIS 286 (Ky. 1968).

Opinion

JULIUS LEIBSON, Special Commissioner.

Brown Begley, as administrator of the estate of Crit Begley, his brother, recovered a $15,000 judgment against the appellant, Peter Cassinelli. Cassinelli has appealed and claims that the court erroneously overruled his motion for a directed verdict made at the close of appellee’s evidence, and again at the close of all the evidence, and in overruling his motion for judgment n. o. v. It is our opinion that there was no reversible error in this regard.

Though numerous other claims of error were asserted by appellant in his motion for a new trial, he does not urge any of them on this appeal; furthermore, under R.C.A. 1.210(2), we may not consider any error not set forth in appellant’s Statement of Questions Presented”.

The accident occurred between 7:00 and 7:30 P.M., March 2, 1965, on Memorial Drive, also known as the By-pass, in Hazard, Kentucky. Memorial Drive is 40 feet wide, runs north and south, and is a two-way street. Appellee’s decedent, a pedestrian, 76 or 77 years old, was struck as he was crossing from the east toward the west side at a point variously estimated from 25 to 120 feet south of the intersection. Davis Street joins Memorial Drive from the east, and Lovern Street joins Memorial Drive from the west, Lovern Street being a few feet to the north of Davis Street. Cassinel-li was driving his car south on Memorial By-pass. It had been raining (but not at the time of the accident), was misty and the streets were wet. A street light located on the southwest corner was burning.

Appellant questions only the correctness of the trial court in overruling his motions for a directed verdict and for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. This presents one question, because the considerations governing a proper decision on a motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict are exactly the same as those first presented on a motion for a directed verdict at the close of all the evidence. Clay, Kentucky Practice, CR 50.02, Comment 4, and cases therein cited.

We shall examine the evidence to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to raise an issue of fact for submission to the jury. As we stated in Lyon v. Prater, Ky., 351 S.W.2d 173: “Ordinarily, an error in denying such a motion at the close of the plaintiff’s evidence is held to be cured when the defendant by his subsequent testimony has supplied the omission in the plaintiff’s case.” We do not mean to indicate that the plaintiff’s evidence alone, in this action, was or was not sufficient to make a submissible issue,

Crit Begley, the decedent, was attending a meeting of the Fraternal Order of Police at Police Headquarters Building located on the southeast corner of Davis and Memorial By-pass. Because the Health Building on the southwest corner of Lovern and Memorial By-pass had larger quarters, it was decided to walk across to it to hold the meeting. The map filed in evidence and the testimony of several witnesses establish that the entrance of the Police Building on the east side of Memorial By-pass, out through which the decedent’s witnesses and the decedent himself *653 came, is some distance south of the intersection, and the entrance of the Health Building on the west side of Memorial Bypass is south of the entrance to the Police Building. Tolbert Combs, Commonwealth’s Attorney at Hazard, Bill Kelly, jailor of Perry County, and Sam Luttrell, Chief of Police of Hazard, testified on behalf of the decedent. Their testimony establishes that they had left the Police Building with Crit Begley and crossed Memorial Drive ahead of Crit. Neither Combs nor Kelly saw the defendant’s car at any time before the impact, nor did they see Crit Begley at any time as he crossed the street or before he was hit. Luttrell testified that he saw the car hit Begley; that Begley had crossed the center of Memorial Drive, going west; that the point of impact was 40 or 50 feet south of the intersection. He measured the skid marks laid down by the car and they measured 72 feet to the point of impact, and he stated that Cassinelli had skidded “just about all the way through the intersection.” (The intersection is 30 feet wide on the Davis Street side and 20 feet wide on the Lovern Street side.)

Cassinelli, the appellant, testified he was driving south on the west side of Memorial By-pass; that his headlights were on low beam and on this occasion he estimated that they “were shining about 100 feet;” that his visibility was poor, but there was nothing to obstruct his view for 100 feet in front of him. He said the first time he saw Begley was when “I noticed something come up in front of the car.” Cassinelli was asked the following questions and made the following answers:

Q- “And when you came over here, there was nothing to obstruct your view, you say, for 100 feet?”
A- “That is right.”
Q- “Even that night that was your guess. Now, when the pedestrian here left this side of the street, going across, was there anything to obstruct your view, to keep you from seeing him at the time you got on the street there?”
A- “Well, yes, there was.”
Q- “What was that?”
A- “That X-ray Mobile Unit there.”
Q- “The X-ray Mobile Unit was on this side. The pedestrian left on the Davis Street side going across toward the mobile unit, there was nothing to obstruct your view, to keep you from seeing Mr. Begley from the time he left on the Davis Street side, going over there, was there?”
A- “I didn’t notice him going over there.”
Q- “There was nothing to keep you from seeing him if you had been looking, was there?”
A- “I was looking, I didn’t see him.”
Q- “There was nothing to obstruct your view to keep you from seeing him, was there?”
A- (No answer).
Q- “What is your answer?”
A- “My answer would be that I didn’t see him.”
Q- “Now, at the time you came in contact with Mr. Begley up here, he had already crossed the center of the street, hadn’t he?”
A- “That’s right.”
‡ ⅝ ⅜ ⅜ ⅜ ‡
Q- “What part of your car came in contact with his body?”
A- “The left hand side of the hood.”
Q- “That was the front end of your car?”
A- “Yes, sir.”
Q- “The front end of your car, between the center and the left headlight hit his body, is that correct ?”
A- “That’s right.”
Q- “And what part of his body did you hit?”
*654 A- “His right side.”
* * * * * *
Q- “Was there any traffic coming, approaching you, at that time ?”

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Bluebook (online)
433 S.W.2d 651, 1968 Ky. LEXIS 286, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cassinelli-v-begley-kyctapphigh-1968.