Gwinnett County v. Sargent

738 S.E.2d 716, 321 Ga. App. 191, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 676, 2013 WL 930597, 2013 Ga. App. LEXIS 174
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 12, 2013
DocketA12A2083
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 738 S.E.2d 716 (Gwinnett County v. Sargent) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Gwinnett County v. Sargent, 738 S.E.2d 716, 321 Ga. App. 191, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 676, 2013 WL 930597, 2013 Ga. App. LEXIS 174 (Ga. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Boggs, Judge.

Gwinnett County (“the County”) appeals following a $2 million jury verdict in favor of Faustina Sargent, individually, and as administrator of the estate of Willie Allen Sargent, Jr. (“the appellees”) in this wrongful death action. The County contends that the trial court erred in ruling that the waiver of its sovereign immunity was not limited to $100,000, and that it also erred in granting the appellees’ [192]*192motion in limine to exclude any evidence of the deceased’s blood-alcohol level. We agree that the trial court erred in both respects, and we therefore reverse.

On December 15, 2006, around midnight, a Gwinnett County police officer was traveling on Stone Mountain Highway with no siren or emergency lights when he struck a vehicle driven by Willie Sargent as Sargent turned left in front of him from the turn lane. Sargent died at the scene. It is undisputed that the officer was driving in violation of the posted speed limit, 79 miles-per-hour in a 45 mile-per-hour speed zone. He was responding to a call for back-up for another officer investigating a suspicious person, but violated police department policy by speeding in response to the call, which was considered “non-emergency.” Also in violation of police department policy, the officer was driving in excess of the speed limit without using his siren and emergency lights.

The appellees filed suit against the County for the wrongful death of Sargent. The County denied liability and asserted that it was entitled to sovereign immunity, that the decedent was negligent, and that he assumed the risk because of his voluntary intoxication.

The County subsequently moved for partial summary judgment “to limit the amount of monetary damages that may be awarded to Plaintiff” to the statutory maximum waiver of sovereign immunity of $100,000. Following the argument of counsel, the trial court denied the County’s motion.

Prior to trial, the appellees moved in limine to exclude any evidence that the decedent had a blood-alcohol level of 0.192 at his death. The trial court held a hearing on the matter, and granted the appellees’ motion, finding that any probative value from the admission of the evidence was outweighed by the danger of undue prejudice. The court nevertheless ruled that “[t]he issues of whether the decedent was negligent in turning across three lanes of traffic at night and whether this [o]fficer could have been seen by [the decedent] are still issues for trial.”

After a three-day jury trial, the jury found in favor of the appellees in the amount of $2,000,000. The jury found further that the decedent was “negligent five percent.” The County immediately moved to have the jury’s verdict reduced to $100,000 pursuant to OCGA § 36-92-2 (a) (1) (statutory waiver of sovereign immunity). The trial court denied the motion and entered a judgment in favor of the appellees in the amount of $1,900,000, deducting $100,000 based upon the jury’s finding that the deceased was five percent negligent.

1. The County argues that the trial court erred in granting the appellees’ motion in limine to exclude evidence that the deceased’s blood-alcohol level was 0.192. “We review a trial court’s ruling on a [193]*193motion in limine for abuse of discretion. Amotion in limine is properly granted when there is no circumstance under which the evidence under scrutiny is likely to be admissible at trial.” (Citation, punctuation and footnote omitted.) Hankla v. Jackson, 305 Ga. App. 391, 392 (1) (699 SE2d 610) (2010).

A forensic toxicologist testified at the hearing on the motion in limine that the deceased’s blood-alcohol level was 0.192 at the time of his death. She opined that this would affect an individual’s ability to perceive and react. An investigator with the Gwinnett County Police Department Accident Investigation Unit also testified at the hearing, and the trial court viewed a video recording of the few seconds before impact recorded by a nearby business. The investigator testified that based upon his accident reconstruction and data recorded by the officer’s vehicle, five seconds before impact, the officer was traveling at 79 miles-per-hour and was 579 feet, or about one-tenth of a mile, away from the deceased’s vehicle. He explained further that the deceased’s sight distance was 1,159 feet and that the deceased had five seconds to see the officer “before he committed to making the turn.” The investigator determined that there were three contributing factors to the accident:

You are going to have [the officer’s] speed, which, obviously, increased the severity of the accident. You’re going to have [the decedent] failing to yield while turning left. And you’re also going to have [the decedent’s] blood[-]alcohol level, which,. 192, I’ve pulled over people before at a. 192, even less than that, and most people exhibit... problems in judgment and perception and those types of manifestations.

We have held that “the question of whether a motorist’s' consumption of alcohol impaired his driving capabilities and entered into the proximate cause of the collision is best left for the jury’s resolution.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Schwartz v. Brancheau, 306 Ga. App. 463, 467 (2) (702 SE2d 737) (2010). And

[u]nless the potential for prejudice in the admission of evidence substantially outweighs its probative value, the Georgia rule favors the admission of any relevant evidence, no matter how slight its probative value. Evidence of doubtful relevancy or competency should be admitted and its weight left to the jurors.

(Citations and punctuation omitted.) Id.

[194]*194In Schwartz, we held that evidence that the driver’s breath smelled of alcohol had a logical connection to the issue of whether he was intoxicated, and that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in permitting the evidence where it had some relation to his driving capability before the collision. Id. Here, much stronger evidence of intoxication was presented, a blood-alcohol level of 0.192, more than twice the legal limit. See OCGA § 40-6-391 (a) (5) (0.08 grams).

Finney v. Machiz, 218 Ga. App. 771 (463 SE2d 60) (1995), citedby the appellees, is distinguishable. In Finney, a vehicle in which the plaintiff was a passenger swerved over the centerline of the road striking a van driven by the defendant. Id. The evidence showed that the defendant was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. Id. We held that the alleged negligence of the defendant in driving under the influence played “no causative role in the collision” as a matter of law, and that the sole proximate cause was the vehicle in which the plaintiff was a passenger crossing the centerline and striking the defendant’s vehicle. Id. at 773. In contrast to Finney, however, the jury here was charged with deciding whether the officer’s action of speeding at night without a siren or emergency lights, or the decedent’s action of turning left in front of the officer, or a combination of both, was the proximate cause of the accident.

Under these particular circumstances, the issue of whether the decedent’s blood-alcohol level factored into the proximate cause of the collision should have been presented for the jury to resolve. See Schwartz, supra, 306 Ga. App.

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738 S.E.2d 716, 321 Ga. App. 191, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 676, 2013 WL 930597, 2013 Ga. App. LEXIS 174, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gwinnett-county-v-sargent-gactapp-2013.