O'Kane v. Bacon

77 Pa. D. & C.4th 183
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lehigh County
DecidedNovember 18, 2005
Docketno. 2003-C-1703
StatusPublished

This text of 77 Pa. D. & C.4th 183 (O'Kane v. Bacon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lehigh County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'Kane v. Bacon, 77 Pa. D. & C.4th 183 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2005).

Opinion

BLACK, J.,

Before the court is the motion of the plaintiff, Laura M. O’Kane, for post-trial relief following a jury verdict in favor of the defendant, David J. Bacon. In her motion the plaintiff seeks a new trial of this motor vehicle/pedestrian accident case. She contends that the court erred (a) in refusing her motion for mistrial after defense counsel asked a witness whether the defendant had been issued any traffic citations for the accident, a question that went unanswered after the objection of plaintiff’s counsel was sustained; and (b) in declining to instruct the jury on the assured clear distance ahead rule.1 For the reasons stated, we find no merit in the plaintiff’s contentions and therefore deny her motion for post-trial relief.

[185]*185FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On the evening of August 23,1999, at approximately 10:20 o’clock p.m., the plaintiff, then age 16, was struck by a vehicle driven by the defendant. As a result of the accident the plaintiff sustained serious and permanent injuries. At the time of the accident, the plaintiff was attempting to cross Route 378, a four-lane highway, on foot, at a point where the highway traverses the Hill-to-Hill Bridge in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The plaintiff and her mother, Linda O’Kane, were leaving a music festival known as Musikfest in the City of Bethlehem. They had watched the fireworks display that closed Musikfest from a ramp leading to the bridge. The four lanes of traffic over the bridge, two southbound and two northbound, were separated from the bridge walkway by barricades 40 inches high when measured from the sidewalk and 52 inches high when measured from the surface of the highway.

When they decided to depart, the plaintiff and her mother could have taken a pedestrian walkway that went under the bridge. However, they instead climbed over a barricade and attempted to cross the four lanes of traffic. The plaintiff’s mother had said to the plaintiff just before they scaled the barricade, “Laura, no. It’s a busy street. We shouldn’t do it.”2 A police officer on duty on the bridge had specifically warned the plaintiff and her mother that they should not attempt to cross the highway, but this directive was ignored. The plaintiff had no [186]*186recollection of what happened after she decided to cross the highway.

The two-day jury trial began on May 16, 2005. The plaintiff stipulated at trial that she had been negligent in attempting to cross the four-lane highway and that her negligence was a factual cause of the accident.

The sole non-party eyewitness who testified, Lonnie White, explained that the accident occurred almost directly in front of him. He was standing on the bridge walkway when he observed the plaintiff and her mother climb over the barricade and proceed onto the highway. According to him, they “walked fast” or ran onto the highway across the two northbound lanes of travel.3 As they approached the double-yellow centerline, the plaintiff’s mother stopped and reached out with her hand to slow down the plaintiff. However, the plaintiff continued across the centerline into the left-hand southbound lane. At this point the plaintiff was struck by a van operated by the defendant in a southerly direction in the left-hand southbound lane. Mr. White reported to the responding police officer that the plaintiff “ran directly into the path of [defendant’s vehicle] traveling south on the bridge in the left lane.”4 He reaffirmed this recollection in his trial deposition. Mr. White explained that the plaintiff had not stopped, but instead went directly into defendant’s lane of travel. “It was continuous,” Mr. White explained; the plaintiff “basically kept going” into defendant’s lane of travel.5 The plaintiff was struck almost immediately [187]*187after entering the highway and crossing the centerline. She was only on the highway itself for “a couple of seconds” before being struck.6

The Bethlehem Police Department investigated the accident. Sgt. Robert Meixell, the lead investigator, was called by the plaintiff as a trial witness. In response to questions from the plaintiff’s counsel, he opined that the defendant had been traveling at approximately 51 miles per hour when his van struck the plaintiff. He based his opinion on the assumption that the defendant had fully applied his brakes from the moment of impact until his vehicle came to rest. The defendant testified, however, that he had eased up on the brakes after impact because the plaintiff was on the hood of his vehicle and he did not want her to fall off.7

During the defendant’s testimony, defense counsel asked him whether he had ever been cited by the police for any violations as a result of the accident. Before the question could be answered, plaintiff’s counsel objected, and the objection was sustained. The defendant never answered the question. Plaintiff’s counsel then moved for mistrial. This motion was denied.

At the close of the testimony the court charged the jury on the law of negligence including the concept of negligence per se. The court declined to charge the jury on the assured clear distance ahead rule, as requested by plaintiff’s counsel, on the ground that the evidence did not support a finding that this rule had been violated.

[188]*188On May 17, 2005, the jury returned a special verdict finding that both parties were causally negligent. The jury assigned 85 percent of the total causal negligence to the plaintiff and 15 percent to the defendant. As a result, a molded verdict was entered in favor of defendant.

The plaintiff now seeks post-trial relief in the form of a new trial.

DISCUSSION

I. The Motion for Mistrial

During the trial the defendant was called as witness by plaintiff’s counsel. When defense counsel had an opportunity to question the defendant, the, following exchange took place:

“Q. [By defense counsel]: You were never cited by the police for any violations in this accident, were you?

“[By plaintiff’s counsel]: Objection, your honor.

“[By the court]: Sustained.”

The question was never answered. The entire episode consisting of question, objection and trial judge’s ruling . consumed less than a minute. Nevertheless, immediately following this exchange, plaintiff’s counsel moved for a mistrial. After argument at side-bar, the motion for mistrial was denied.

The plaintiff contends that evidence of the lack of any traffic citation is inadmissible and that defense counsel’s leading question irreversibly tainted the jury. He argues that the trial court should have granted the motion for mistrial for this reason.

Initially, we note that the plaintiff did not assign this specific exchange as error in her motion for post-trial [189]*189relief. Instead the plaintiff asserted that the court had erred in refusing to grant a motion for mistrial during the questioning of Bethlehem Police Sergeant Robert Meixell regarding the issuance of traffic citations to the defendant.8 In point of fact, Sergeant Meixell was never asked about any traffic citations. The question referred to by plaintiff’s counsel in his brief and at oral argument was addressed to the defendant himself.

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Bluebook (online)
77 Pa. D. & C.4th 183, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/okane-v-bacon-pactcompllehigh-2005.