Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority v. Mehretab

480 S.E.2d 310, 224 Ga. App. 263, 97 Fulton County D. Rep. 155, 1997 Ga. App. LEXIS 45
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 16, 1997
DocketA96A2095
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 480 S.E.2d 310 (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority v. Mehretab) 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.

Bluebook
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority v. Mehretab, 480 S.E.2d 310, 224 Ga. App. 263, 97 Fulton County D. Rep. 155, 1997 Ga. App. LEXIS 45 (Ga. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinions

Birdsong, Presiding Judge.

Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (“MARTA”) appeals a judgment based on a jury verdict in favor of Mesfin Mehretab on his claims arising from an automobile accident in which a MARTA bus pulled into Mehretab’s lane of traffic and forced him off the road and into a sign. The witnesses testified that Mehretab and a MARTA bus were traveling in the same direction on a multilane street when a third vehicle pulled into the lane of travel of the MARTA bus. When the bus then pulled into Mehretab’s lane of travel, Mehretab ran off the road. The MARTA bus did not stop, and no MARTA bus driver admitted any role in the accident.

At the trial, the trial court initially gave a charge on sudden emergency, but upon Mehretab’s objection later withdrew the charge from the jury’s consideration. MARTA contends the trial court erred by withdrawing the defense of sudden emergency from the jury, by denying MARTA’s motion for a directed verdict, and by denying MARTA’s motion for judgment n.o.v. or in the alternative a new trial. Held-.

1. The trial court did not err by withdrawing the defense of sudden emergency. Although under appropriate circumstances, the defense of sudden emergency might be established without the testi[264]*264mony of the person faced with the emergency, this is not one of those cases. “The defense of emergency is not available unless the evidence shows that there has been a sudden peril caused by circumstances in which the defendant did not participate and which offered him a choice of conduct without time for thought so that negligence in his choice might be attributable not to lack of care but to lack of time to assess the situation. . . . The doctrine requires that the person confronted by the emergency have the opportunity to exercise one of several reasonable alternative courses of action. In the absence of such factors, there can be no conduct to which to apply the standard and the doctrine is inapplicable.” (Citation and punctuation omitted; emphasis in original.) Thomas v. Stairs, 215 Ga. App. 288, 289 (450 SE2d 326). Here there is no evidence a MARTA driver, while driving without negligence, perceived that he was faced with a sudden emergency and then exercised an unplanned choice in the matter. See Johnston v. Woody, 148 Ga. App. 152, 153 (250 SE2d 873). All the MARTA bus drivers called as witnesses, who drove the bus route on the day and time of the incident, denied having been involved in any such incident. This testimony effectively destroyed any claim of sudden emergency. Even if this testimony shows, as MARTA claims, the bus driver was unaware of the accident, that is not sufficient to establish this defense because there is no evidence that the MARTA driver was not himself negligent, actually was faced with an emergency, or took an unplanned choice. See Davis v. Calhoun, 128 Ga. App. 104, 105 (195 SE2d 759). Moreover, the blind spot, mentioned by the dissent, had nothing to do with this incident; the blind spot is immediately behind the bus in the same lane. Neither the white pickup truck nor Mehretab’s car was located in that position.

Although we do not disagree with the dissent’s basic proposition that a jury charge on sudden emergency does not require testimony from the person who may have faced a sudden peril and would agree that standing alone the testimony from the other witnesses would authorize a sudden emergency charge, we cannot agree that such a charge was authorized by the evidence in this case because of the drivers’ testimony. What the dissent proposes would allow MARTA to have its cake (by disclaiming any involvement in the collision before the jury) and eat it too (by claiming that if the MARTA bus did cause the collision, it was the result of a sudden emergency). Our law, however, does not allow that result. MARTA did not assert that some missing bus driver caused the collision; instead, it called all the drivers who might have been involved and had each of them testify that although they remembered driving that route on the day in question, they did not remember any white truck pulling into their lane and causing them to change lanes abruptly. Such testimony denies that any bus driver faced a sudden peril — the essential element of the [265]*265defense of sudden emergency — and denies that MARTA’s driver made a choice of action without time for thought. See Thomas v. Stairs, supra; Johnson v. Woody, supra. By having its witnesses testify in this fashion, MARTA disproved the essential elements of the sudden emergency defense. Further, under the evidence MARTA presented denying any involvement in the incident, it is disingenuous to assert that MARTA did not deny that the incident took place. Unless MARTA’s purpose was to show that all of the bus drivers on the route that day had bad memories, what was the purpose of calling each of them to deny any recollection of a white pickup truck pulling into the drivers’ lane of travel? If MARTA truly wanted to show that the drivers were unaware that a car was forced off the road, why then was that question not asked?

There is no competent evidence establishing the defense of sudden emergency. The dissent’s reliance upon the other witnesses’ perception of the event is misplaced. The dissent assumes the MARTA driver shared these perceptions and assumes these perceptions caused the bus driver’s actions. This focus, however, ignores the bus drivers’ denials that they were involved in any incident. Although it is possible a bus driver faced the emergency the witnesses perceived and acted as these witnesses believe (and forgot it happened or lied about it on the witness stand), it is equally possible the bus driver involved did not consider the white pickup truck pulling into his lane as an emergency, pulled into Mehretab’s lane for some other reason, and negligently caused Mehretab to hit the sign. The testimony of these other witnesses is perfectly consistent with either possibility. Yet, to find a charge on sudden emergency warranted from this testimony, however, one must accept the first possibility as established fact, and reject the second. That cannot be done.

Although the witnesses’ testimony about what they saw is direct evidence, their testimony explaining why these events occurred, and particularly why the bus driver pulled into the other lane, is only their inadmissible guess about the bus driver’s motivation. At best, this testimony might be circumstantial evidence from which one could infer that the bus driver was faced with a sudden emergency and acted for that reason. Because this testimony is circumstantial evidence, however, it cannot overcome the unimpeached, direct evidence from MARTA’s bus drivers that none of them faced the sudden emergency.

“The test is whether the circumstantial evidence is ‘perfectly consistent’ or ‘inconsistent’ with the direct evidence. Circumstantial evidence which could be taken as inconsistent with the direct, positive testimony is sufficient to get the case to a jury. However, the rule where the circumstantial evidence is consistent with the direct, positive testimony is different. Circumstantial evidence from which the [266]*266existence of a fact might be inferred, but which did not demand a finding for [MARTA] to that effect, will not support a verdict, when by positive and uncontradicted testimony of unimpeached witnesses, which was perfectly consistent with the circumstantial evidence relied on by [MARTA], it was affirmatively shown that no such fact existed.” (Citation and punctuation omitted; emphasis in original.)

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Leigh Smithwick v. Ross Campbell
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2021
Austin v. State
799 S.E.2d 222 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2017)
SMITH Et Al. v. NORFOLK SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY
788 S.E.2d 508 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2016)
Drew v. Work
95 A.3d 324 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2014)
Rayfield v. Farris
558 S.E.2d 748 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2002)
Atlantic Coast Cable, Inc. v. Mallory
540 S.E.2d 206 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2000)
MacGibbon v. Akins
538 S.E.2d 793 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2000)
Jenkins v. Department of Corrections
518 S.E.2d 730 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1999)
Gay v. Hatfield
516 S.E.2d 856 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1999)
Whalen v. Isaacs
504 S.E.2d 214 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1998)
Desai v. Silver Dollar City, Inc.
493 S.E.2d 540 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1997)
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority v. Mehretab
480 S.E.2d 310 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
480 S.E.2d 310, 224 Ga. App. 263, 97 Fulton County D. Rep. 155, 1997 Ga. App. LEXIS 45, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/metropolitan-atlanta-rapid-transit-authority-v-mehretab-gactapp-1997.