Gunter v. Constitution State Service Co.

638 A.2d 233, 432 Pa. Super. 295, 1994 Pa. Super. LEXIS 543
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 4, 1994
Docket00780
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 638 A.2d 233 (Gunter v. Constitution State Service Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gunter v. Constitution State Service Co., 638 A.2d 233, 432 Pa. Super. 295, 1994 Pa. Super. LEXIS 543 (Pa. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

[297]*297POPOVICH, Judge:

The Defendant/Appellant, Constitution State Service Company, appeals the order (reduced to judgment thereafter1) of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County denying its motion for post-trial relief. We affirm in a case of first impression.

The facts of record disclose that on the 17th day of November, 1988, the Plaintiff, Janine Gunter, walked across one-half of a light-controlled intersection at Old York Road and 66th Avenue in Philadelphia. She came to rest on an island separating the lanes of traffic. Before proceeding, she looked to her right and observed a van stopped at the red light. With the traffic at a standstill, the Plaintiff proceeded across the remaining portion of the roadway when “a car came from behind the van and hit” her. The Plaintiff was knocked to the ground and needed the assistance of some employees at a nearby business to remove her to a safe location.

The striking vehicle left the scene and could not be identified by the Plaintiff. Shortly after the incident, the Philadelphia Fire Rescue Squad, consisting of two emergency medical technicians (EMT), was dispatched to the location and placed a flexible cast on the Plaintiffs leg before transporting her to the hospital. The Plaintiff spoke to no police officer either at the scene or at the hospital, from where she was released the same day.

The Plaintiff testified at trial, to which the Defendant objected on hearsay grounds, that once discharged from the hospital she did not file a report with the police because, as she told it:

When I talked—when the guy in the ambulance was talking to me he took the report and he said he would take care of it.

[298]*298All parties agree that no report has been located as filed with the Philadelphia police department.

The Plaintiff was the sole witness to testify at the bench trial, after which the court entered an award in favor of the Plaintiff and against the Defendant in the amount of $6,000.00 for pain and suffering and $3,948.25 for medical bills. Post-trial motions were denied and this appeal was perfected by the Defendant as the assignee (for statutory first party medical and uninsured motorist benefits) under the Assigned Claims Plan operated pursuant to the Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law (MVFRL), 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 1701 et seq. Benefits were denied by the Appellant on the basis that the Appellee did not file a report of the accident with the police under the Appellant’s interpretation of the MVFRL.

On appeal, the Appellant raises two issues for our consideration; to-wit:

I. Whether an Assigned Claims Plan claimant who reports an accident involving an unidentified motor vehicle only to the Philadelphia Fire Rescue Squad has reported the accident to a “proper governmental authority” within the meaning of 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 1702 so as to render the striking vehicle uninsured?
II. Whether the Plaintiff/Appellee’s testimony regarding a statement made to her by an Emergency Medical Technician, who she failed to call as a witness at trial,[2] should have been admitted into evidence?

Appellant’s Brief at 2. We respond to the last issue first, for if the Plaintiffs complained-of testimony referring to the EMT employee’s offer to report the accident to the police was excludable on hearsay grounds, the reporting requirement of the MVFRL was not satisfied and the Plaintiff is not entitled to benefits.

It is well-established in this Commonwealth that “nothing is more adamantly established in American trial procedure [299]*299than that no one may testify to what somebody else told him[/her].” Johnson v. People Cab Co., 386 Pa. 513, 126 A.2d 720, 721 (1956). The hearsay nature of the evidence is rendered inadmissible unless it qualifies under one of the recognized exceptions to that rule. 5 Wigmore, Evidence § 1420 et seq. (Chadbourn Rev.1974); McCormick, Evidence § 249 (2d ed. 1972).

If the statement of the Plaintiff in refraining from filing a report with the police, on the strength of the EMT employee’s statement that he “would take care of it,” were offered to prove the truth of the content of the EMT employee’s remarks, the statement would be clearly hearsay. See Commonwealth v. Smith, 523 Pa. 577, 568 A.2d 600 (1989), wherein our Supreme Court responded to a similar evidentiary claim in a criminal setting, the applicability of which is just as germane to the civil case facing us; to-wit:

The predicate supporting the rejection of hearsay evidence is its assumed unreliability because the declarant from which the statement originates is not before the trier of fact and therefore cannot be challenged as to the accuracy of the information sought to be conveyed.
i-s if: sj: ?-s
The hearsay concern is not present where statements of an out-of-court declarant are not being offered for the truth of the content of those statements. For instance, a witness may testify to a statement made to him when the purpose of its introduction is the fact that the statement was, in fact, made.... Similarly, we have recognized that out-of-court statements which are offered to prove the declarant’s state of mind are not within the interdiction of the hearsay rule....
' In this instance the [Appellee] argues the testimonial value of these statements was the effect they had upon the listeners. The key to the admission of evidence for this purpose is that no assertive or testimonial use is sought to be made of the content of the utterance.... The test for [300]*300relevancy is whether the proffered evidence tends to make a material fact more or less probable.

Id. at 593-94, 568 A.2d at 608-09 (Citations omitted).

At bar, the Appellee was not concerned with proving the truth of the statement made by the EMT employees, i.e., he would notify the police of the accident. Rather, she was preoccupied with establishing her state of mind at the time the conversation took place. She had just been struck and injured by a “hit and run” vehicle, and she reported the incident to an emergency medical technician en route to the hospital. She believed the incident would be reported to the police because of the technician’s remarks to that effect.

Viewed in such a light, we agree with the court that no evidentiary rules were violated in permitting the Appellee to testify to what she told the EMT employee and his response thereto. Id. The linchpin to admissibility is that the remarks were made and not whether the EMT employee carried out his statements to notify the police of the occurrence of the accident on behalf of the Appellee. Thus, we hold meritless the hearsay claim raised by the Appellant, concluding that the remarks testified to were both relevant (they increased the probability of a material fact at issue—whether the Appellee communicated to the EMT employee about the “hit and run”) and admissible. Id.

To obtain benefits through the Assigned Claims Plan, one must meet the eligibility requirements of 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 1752.

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Gunter v. Constitution State Service Co.
638 A.2d 233 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1994)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
638 A.2d 233, 432 Pa. Super. 295, 1994 Pa. Super. LEXIS 543, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gunter-v-constitution-state-service-co-pasuperct-1994.