Estate of Dyer v. Doyle

870 N.E.2d 573, 2007 Ind. App. LEXIS 1666, 2007 WL 2141969
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 27, 2007
Docket53A05-0507-CV-396
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 870 N.E.2d 573 (Estate of Dyer v. Doyle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Dyer v. Doyle, 870 N.E.2d 573, 2007 Ind. App. LEXIS 1666, 2007 WL 2141969 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinions

OPINION

CRONE, Judge.

Case Summary

The Estate of Matthew Dyer (“Dyer”), Betty Dyer, and Jerry Dyer (collectively, “the Estate”) appeal the negative judgment on their wrongful death claim against Thomas Doyle, individually, and as an employee of Orkin Exterminating Co., Inc. (“Orkin”), and its parent corporation, Rollins, Inc. (“Rollins”) (collectively, “Defendants”). We reverse and remand for a new trial.

Issues

The Estate raises four issues, which we restate as follows:

I. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by admitting medical records of a passenger in Dyer’s automobile;
II. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by admitting testimony of Doyle’s expert witness, Joseph Badger, regarding the “faked left syndrome”;
III. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by instructing the jury regarding sudden emergency; and
IV. Whether Dyer’s speed could be an intervening or proximate cause of his death.

Facts and Procedural History

The relevant facts follow. On March 16, 2000, Dyer was killed in an automobile accident that occurred when the vehicle he was driving was struck by a vehicle driven by Doyle during the course of Doyle’s employment with Orkin. Ben Eads was a passenger in Dyer’s vehicle at the time of the accident.

On July 12, 2001, the Estate filed a wrongful death claim against Doyle, Or-kin, and Rollins. During the jury trial, the Estate called Eads as a witness. Eads testified that Dyer’s vehicle was traveling at forty to forty-five miles per hour. According to Eads, when Dyer’s vehicle reached the crest of a hill on the county road, Doyle’s oncoming vehicle was “about half way in [Dyer’s] lane.” Tr. at 258. Dyer swerved “real hard to the right [576]*576and there was an impact.” Id. at 259. During cross examination, the Defendants asked Eads whether he recalled making certain deposition testimony regarding statements he had made to hospital personnel immediately after the accident. The Estate objected to discussion of Eads’s medical records, but the trial court allowed the questioning as impeachment.

At the start of the Defendants’ evidence, the Defendants sought to introduce Eads’s medical records into evidence. The Estate again objected to the admission of the medical records based upon hearsay in the records, and the Defendants argued that the medical records were admissible under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. The trial court admitted the medical records over the Estate’s objection.

The Estate also called Indiana State Trooper John Evans, an accident recon-structionist, who testified that his investigation revealed that Doyle was “left of center in the other vehicle’s lane of travel when the accident occurred.” Tr. at 411. Trooper Evans testified that speed was not a factor in the accident. The Estate also called Gary Barnett, an accident recon-structionist, who testified that the accident was caused when Doyle’s vehicle crossed the centerline into Dyer’s path. Barnett estimated that Doyle’s vehicle was traveling at twenty-five to thirty-two miles per hour, while Dyer’s vehicle was traveling at forty-three to fifty-two miles per hour.

The Defendants called Joe Badger as an expert witness. During Badger’s testimony, the Defendants sought to admit an article written by Badger entitled, “Investigating The Faked Left Syndrome.” Exh. 7. The Estate objected on relevancy grounds, and the trial court overruled the objection. The Estate also objected to Badger testifying regarding the faked left syndrome and its application to the accident at issue, but the trial court overruled the objection. Badger testified that the faked left syndrome occurs when two vehicles are approaching each other from opposite directions, the first vehicle crosses the centerline, the second vehicle swerves left into the lane vacated by the first vehicle, and the first vehicle swerves back into its own lane, resulting in an accident. Badger testified that the faked left syndrome “may apply in this situation.” Tr. at 631.

The Defendants also called Nicholas Tumbas, an accident reconstructionist, who testified that Dyer’s vehicle was “fully in its lane at the time of impact,” that Doyle’s vehicle was “almost entirely across the unmarked center of the roadway at the time of impact” and was traveling at about thirty-two miles per hour, and that Dyer’s vehicle was traveling at about sixty-one miles per hour. Id. at 695. On cross examination, Tumbas testified that the faked left syndrome did not occur in this accident. The Defendants also called Dr. Bill Smock, who testified that Dyer would not have died if his vehicle had been traveling at the thirty-five-mile-per-hour speed limit. The Estate did not object to this testimony.

The trial court instructed the jury that it could find Doyle was not negligent if he proved by a preponderance of the evidence that he was confronted with a sudden emergency not of his own making, that he did not have sufficient time to deliberate, and that he “exercised such care as an ordinarily prudent person would exercise when confronted with a similar emergency, even if it appears later that a different course of action would have been safer.” Appellants’ App. at 20. The Estate objected that the instruction was not supported by the evidence in the case.

The trial court also instructed the jury that the Estate had the burden of proving [577]*577the following by a preponderance of the evidence: (1) that Doyle was negligent; (2) that Dyer was killed; and (3) that “the negligence of [Doyle] was the proximate cause of the death.” Appellees’ App. at 43. Further, the jury was instructed that it could find for the defendants if Doyle was not at fault or if Dyer’s fault was greater than fifty percent. The trial court also instructed the jury on intervening causes. The Estate did not object to these instructions.

During closing arguments, the Defendants argued that Dyer’s speed was a proximate cause of his death and that Doyle was confronted with a sudden emergency, which resulted in a faked left syndrome accident. The jury returned a verdict for the Defendants. The jury’s verdict could have been based upon either a finding that Doyle was not at fault or a finding that Dyer was greater than fifty percent at fault for his death. The Estate now appeals.

Discussion and Decision

I. Admission of Eads’s Medical Records

The first issue is whether the trial court abused its discretion by admitting Eads’s medical records. The admission of evidence is left to the sound discretion of the trial court, and we will not reverse that decision except for an abuse of that discretion. Mann v. Russell’s Trailer Repair, Inc., 787 N.E.2d 922, 926 (Ind.Ct.App.2003), trans. denied. An abuse of discretion occurs when the trial court’s decision is against the logic and effect of the facts and circumstances before it. Id.

Eads testified that he and Dyer were driving down Ratliff Road and “as we came up over the hill there was a vehicle probably about half way in our lane or so and still coming over.” Tr. at 258. Dyer “swerved real hard to the right and there was an impact.” Id. at 259. During cross examination, the Defendants asked Eads whether he recalled making certain deposition testimony as follows:

Q: ....

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
870 N.E.2d 573, 2007 Ind. App. LEXIS 1666, 2007 WL 2141969, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-dyer-v-doyle-indctapp-2007.