Hennessy v. Robertson

37 Pa. D. & C.5th 520
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedApril 10, 2014
DocketNo. 04451
StatusPublished

This text of 37 Pa. D. & C.5th 520 (Hennessy v. Robertson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hennessy v. Robertson, 37 Pa. D. & C.5th 520 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2014).

Opinion

YOUNGE, J.,

[522]*522Procedure:

The plaintiff, Patrick L. Hennessy, sued the operators and owners of the vehicles involved in two automobile accidents that occurred in the northbound lanes of the Roosevelt Boulevard, in the City and County of Philadelphia at approximately 2:30 a.m. on the morning of July 26, 2009. In a series of separate actions that were consolidated for trial, the plaintiff also filed medical malpractice actions against various physicians who treated him following the automobile accidents. Prior to trial, the plaintiff settled with the physician defendants resulting in termination of the medical malpractice actions that were consolidated with this case. This case then proceeded as an ordinary negligence action against the above-captioned automobile liability defendants. This case was tried before a jury between May 20, 2013 and May 23, 2013. The plaintiff voluntarily withdrew his case against the defendants, Shawn Robertson, Frank D. Caruso, and Rosetta L. Caruso. On May 21, 2013, this court granted a motion for non-suit in favor of defendant, Bruce Reikow. On May 23, 2013, the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff and against the defendants, Ryan Caruso and Shawn Robertson, Jr., in the amount of $19,145,904.17. The jury found 45% of the causal negligence attributable to Mr. Caruso. Mr. Caruso then filed a motion for post-trial relief and an appeal following the denial of his post-trial motion.

Facts:

This case arises from two automobile accidents [523]*523that resulted in the above-the-knee amputation of the plaintiff’s right leg. In the early morning hours of July 26, 2009, the plaintiff was a passenger in a vehicle operated by Ryan Caruso and owned by Frank Caruso and Rosetta Caruso. They were traveling northbound on the Roosevelt Boulevard when Mr. Caruso struck the rear end of a vehicle operated by the defendant, Bruce Reikow, while Mr. Reikow was sitting stationary at a red traffic signal. As a result of this collision, defendant’s vehicle was rendered inoperable. Following this accident, the plaintiff and a passenger in the Reikow vehicle began to push the Caruso vehicle to the shoulder of the Roosevelt Boulevard. At approximately the same time, the defendant, Shawn Robertson, Jr., was traveling northbound on the Roosevelt Boulevard. While in the process of pushing the Carusos’ disabled vehicle from the roadway, the vehicle operated by Mr. Robertson struck the rear end of Mr. Reikow’s vehicle and spun or careened into the left rear comer of the Carusos’ vehicle crashing the plaintiff. On August 24, 2009, after several weeks of medical treatment, the plaintiff’s leg was amputated above the right knee.

Issues Averred in Defendant’s Motion for Post-Trial Relief:

This court ruled against the defendant, Ryan Caruso, on his argument that two separate accidents had occurred and that he was not liable for injuries caused by Shawn Robertson, Jr., when he struck the rear of the two vehicles and crashed the plaintiff. This court submitted a verdict slip that allowed the jury to apportion liability between the parties, and it instructed the jury on how to apportion [524]*524harm between joint tortfeasors.

On June 3, 2013, Mr. Caruso filed his motion for post-trial relief. This court requested a briefing schedule and following production of the trial transcripts, the parties submitted briefs. Mr. Caruso’s brief addressed seven separate issues under the following headings:

A. Defendant Ryan Caruso is entitled to a new trial based on the prejudice resulting from the trial court erroneously ruling that defendant Caruso was a joint tortfeasor with defendant, Shawn Robertson, Jr...
B. Defendant Ryan Caruso is entitled to a new trial based on the prejudice resulting from the trial court’s failure to give standard jury charge 7.8, its use of an improvised charge that was incomplete and biased against Caruso and its use of a verdict slip that was confusing and misrepresented the law...
C. Defendant Ryan Caruso is entitled to a new trial based on the prejudice resulting from the trial court erroneously permitting plaintiff’s accident reconstruction expert to testify...
D. Defendant is entitled to a new trial based on defendant Shawn Robertson’s conduct and sole liability for the plaintiff’s injuries...
E. Defendant is entitled to a new trial on all issues because the issue of liability and damages are inextricably intertwined...
F.The verdict in plaintiff’s favor was contrary to [525]*525the facts and the law and against the weight of the wvidence...
G. The jury award is clearly excessive and exorbitant and should be reduced...

(Defendant, Ryan Caruso’s, brief in support of his motion for post-trial relief (September 16, 2013).)

Discussion:

A. This Court Properly Ruled that the Jury Should Consider Whether Defendant, Ryan Caruso, and Defendant, Shawn Robertson, Jr., Were Joint Tortfeasors.

In the first section of his motion for post-trial relief, Mr. Caruso did not accurately portray what occurred at trial when he argued that this court erroneously ruled that he and Mr. Robertson were joint tortfeasors. This court did not rule that Mr. Caruso and Mr. Robertson were joint tortfeasors. On the contrary, this court allowed the status of the two defendants to be determined by the jury. In addition to misstating this issue in his motion for post-trial relief, Mr. Caruso made a fatally flawed argument when he argued that the jury should not have been permitted to consider him a joint tortfeasor with Mr. Robertson. He argued that this court committed reversible error when it failed to intervene and rule that two separate accidents occurred with damages that were capable of apportionment. In fact, Mr. Caruso suggested that this court was obligated to rule that the defendants were not joint tortfeasors and that the failure to so rule was error. In support of this bald contention, Mr. Caruso points to [526]*526the fact that no evidence was presented to show that the plaintiff’s leg was injured prior to the second collision with Mr. Robertson. The fact that the plaintiff was able to help push the Carusos’ vehicle following the first collision was critical under this argument. From this fact, Mr. Caruso infers that the plaintiff could only have lost his leg as a result of the second collision for which he argued he was not responsible.

Mr. Caruso wrongly contended that the jury should not have been permitted to assess his responsibility for the plaintiff’s above-the-knee right leg amputation and apportion liability accordingly. Despite his erroneous phrasing, this first issue averred by Mr. Caruso is, in reality, a question of proximate causation or legal causation, and his argument failed because it is hornbook law that a tortfeasor is responsible for the consequences of his tort. Spangler v. Helm’s New York-Pittsburgh Motor Exp., 396 Pa. 482, 153 A.2d 490 (1959); Boggavarapu v. Ponist, 18 Pa. 162, 165 (1988).

Pennsylvania has adopted the substantial factor test for determining whether a party’s negligence is the proximate or legal cause of a plaintiff’s harm.

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Bluebook (online)
37 Pa. D. & C.5th 520, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hennessy-v-robertson-pactcomplphilad-2014.