Ruffin v. Desh United Corp.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided August 21, 2020·No. 1755 EDA 2018·Unpublished

Opinion

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

DONTE RUFFIN, : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA

Appellant :

:

:

v. :

:

:

DESH UNITED CORPORATION, : No. 1755 EDA 2018 MOHAMMAD A. HOSSAIN, FIESTA : PIZZA AND ABDELHALIM ABDELKARI :

:

Appeal from the Judgment Entered April 27, 2018 In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County Civil Division at No(s): October Term 2015, No. 3327

BEFORE: GANTMAN, P.J.E., STABILE, J., and STEVENS*, P.J.E. MEMORANDUM BY STEVENS, P.J.E.: FILED AUGUST 21, 2020 Appellant Donte Ruffin appeals from the judgment entered by the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in favor of Appellees Desh United Corporation (“Desh United”), Mohammad A. Hossain, Fiesta Pizza, and Abdelhalim Abdelkari. Appellant argues that the trial court abused its discretion in allowing certain evidence to be admitted at trial and asserts the jury’s verdict was against the weight of the evidence. We affirm.

On October 29, 2015, Appellant brought a civil action against Appellees seeking damages for an accident that occurred on January 16, 2015, in which Appellant was allegedly hit by a vehicle driven by Appellee Abdelkari. Appellant claimed Appellees Desh United, Hossain, and Fiesta Pizza were also liable for damages he sustained in the accident as Appellant asserted that

* Former Justice specially assigned to the Superior Court.

Appellee Abdelkari was delivering pizza on behalf of these Appellees at the time of the accident.

On February 1, 2017, after the matter was submitted to arbitration, Appellant was awarded $25,886.00. On March 6, 2017, Appellees appealed the arbitration award and the parties subsequently proceeded to a jury trial.

At trial, Appellant testified that on January 16, 2015, at approximately 7:45 p.m., he and his brother, Shawn Ruffin, were walking eastbound on Chester Avenue to get a drink at the corner store. Notes of Testimony (N.T.), 11/15/17, at 6, 97-99. The men had to wait at the northwest corner of the intersection of 52nd Street and Chester Avenue while the traffic light was red. Id. at 7, 97-99. Appellant observed Appellee Abdelkari’s Hyundai Santa Fe, which was traveling westbound on Chester Avenue, make a right turn onto 52nd Street, and then stop. Id. at 7-9, 98. Appellant alleged that Appellee Abdelkari backed up and struck Appellant’s left side, causing Appellant to fall to the ground and lose consciousness. Id. at 8, 99. Appellant could not estimate how fast the vehicle was traveling, but claimed Appellee Abdelkari must have been going fast enough to knock him down as he emphasized that he weighed 295 pounds. Id. at 10, 107.

Appellant was taken to Penn Presbyterian Hospital where he underwent testing of his head and leg; a CT scan revealed that Appellant’s brain did not show any acute trauma and x-rays of his knees did not reveal any fractures. Id. at 11-12, 51, 63-64; Nyahay Report (1/19/16), at 1. Appellant was given pain medication and discharged from the hospital. Appellant followed up with

his primary care doctor, who referred Appellant for physical therapy to Woodland Medical, where he also received a knee brace and electric stimulation. N.T., 11/15/17, at 13-18. When Appellant was later referred for further testing in April 2015, MRI results revealed that that Appellant had a medial collateral ligament tear.1 Id. at 53.

Appellant claimed to have outstanding medical bills from several providers, which included an individual bill of $8,744.00 from Presbyterian Hospital. Id. at 17. In addition, Appellant asserted that as a result of the accident, he was fired from three jobs as he had worked at the post office, Walmart, and Staples. Id. at 19-21. Appellant claimed to have worked more than 100 hours each week before the accident occurred. Id. at 19-21. Appellant clarified that “the first job was from 7 to 3 and the second job is from 3 to 11 and the third job at [S]taples I did 28 hour shifts on the weekends. I was doing 16 hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday.” Id. at 20.

On cross-examination, Appellant admitted that his records from the emergency room only indicated that he was there for four hours, when he had claimed on direct examination he was at the hospital for eight hours. Id. at 109. In addition, while Appellant had originally stated that he was required to be on bed rest for two weeks after the accident, none of his medical records admitted at trial showed that he was given that restriction. Id. at 110. While

Appellant’s counsel claimed Appellant had an outstanding bill at Penn

1We have used the spelling of Nyahay’s name as stated in his reports, whereas the trial transcript lists the chiropractor’s name as “Nayhay.”

Presbyterian for $8,744.00, Appellees’ counsel presented a bill from the hospital that identified Appellant’s out-of-pocket cost as $150.00. Id. at 111- 12. Appellant’s counsel subsequently stipulated that the bill indicated that Appellant was responsible for paying $150.00. Id. at 112.

Appellant called his brother, Shawn Ruffin (hereinafter “Shawn”) to testify on his behalf. Shawn offered an account of the accident similar to Appellant’s testimony and added that he recalled that Appellee Abdelkari had pizza boxes in his car and was wearing a Fiesta Pizza hat. Id. at 26-30.

Appellant also presented the testimony of his chiropractor, Robert Nyahay, who opined that he examined Appellant on February 9, 2015, several weeks after the accident. Id. at 50. While Nyahay initially recommended that Appellant return to work on February 16, 2015 (a month after the accident), Nyahay changed this recommendation after viewing Appellant’s MRI results in April 2015, from which Nyahay determined that Appellant had sustained a medial collateral ligament tear in his right knee, which he opined was a permanent injury that was caused by the accident. Id. at 52, 73.

Nyahay admitted that he did not review any of Appellant’s medical records prior to the accident and acknowledged that he did not recall seeing in Appellant’s records from the emergency room that Appellant had told medical personnel that he had fallen in the thirty days prior to the accident. Id. at 64. Nyahay also agreed that he had prepared a report indicating that on May 13, 2015, Appellant had no right knee pain to report and that an examination revealed that Appellant’s range of motion in the right knee was

within normal limits and that his muscle testing for the lower extremity was normal. Id. at 66-67. While Nyahay filed out paperwork to submit to Walmart for verification of Appellant’s injury, Nyahay indicated that Appellant never asked him to fill out any paperwork for the U.S. Postal Service or Staples. Id. at 71-72.

Appellee Abdelkari testified with the assistance of an interpreter and claimed that his language barrier prevented him from communicating clearly to the police on the night of the accident. Id. at 79-81, 90-91. Appellee Abdelkari gave a different account of how he arrived at the scene of the accident, claiming he was driving on Springfield Avenue (which is parallel to Chester Avenue), turned left onto 52nd Street, and made a u-turn in order to park on the side of the street where he was to make his delivery. Id. at 86- 88. Appellee Abdelkari claimed that when he stopped to wait for the customer to come to his car, he heard a noise or “a hit” on the left rear side of his car, exited his vehicle, and observed Appellant laying on the ground. Id. at 83. Appellee Abdelkari denied hitting Appellant and asserted that Appellant hit his vehicle. Id. at 83.

Appellee Abdelkari claimed at that time of the accident, he was making a delivery for one of his employers, a Mexican restaurant called Guac, at the request of one of his coworker, Mohamed Hashem.2 Id. at 84. Appellee

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