Shiner v. Ralston

64 A.3d 1, 2013 Pa. Super. 33, 2013 WL 653033, 2013 Pa. Super. LEXIS 79
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 22, 2013
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 64 A.3d 1 (Shiner v. Ralston) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shiner v. Ralston, 64 A.3d 1, 2013 Pa. Super. 33, 2013 WL 653033, 2013 Pa. Super. LEXIS 79 (Pa. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION BY

PER CURIAM:

Glenn and Beth Shiner (the Shiners) appeal from the order of September 28, 2011 granting summary judgment in favor of Appellees Ralph W. Ralston, Jr. (Ral-ston), executor of the estate of Ralph W. Ralston, Sr. (the Decedent), and Genuine Parts Company in this motor vehicle negligence case.1 We reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

The trial court summarized the facts of this case as follows.

This matter arises out of a vehicle accident which occurred on May, 17, 2007, in Benner Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania. The accident occurred when a pickup truck operated by [the Decedent] struck a Ford Taurus being operated by ... Glenn Shiner. [The Decedent’s] vehicle was leased to [his] employer, ... General Parts Company, by its owner, ... Suntrust Leasing Corporation. At the time of the accident, [the Decedent] was travelling in the southbound lane of Route 6026 when his vehicle left its lane of travel and began moving toward the grassy median dividing the north and southbound lanes. [The Decedent’s] vehicle traveled approximately 260 feet over the southbound rumble strip, through the grassy [3]*3median, then across the northbound rumble strip before striking ... Glenn Shiner’s vehicle. Witnesses to the accident observed [the Decedent’s] vehicle did not take any evasive maneuvers pri- or to the collision and the investigating officer, Corporal F.S. Burkett, found no evidence [the Decedent] performed any evasive maneuvers.... Glenn Shiner was injured in the collision and Mr. Ral-ston was pronounced dead following the accident.
An autopsy and attendant report completed by Gordon C. Handtle, M.D. found [the Decedent] suffered a cardiac dysrhythmia secondary to severe coronary atherosclerosis which caused [the Decedent] to become unconscious while operating his vehicle. [Appellees] retained accident reconstruction expert, Steven M. Schorr, P.E., and forensic pathologist, Dr. Wayne K. Ross, to opine regarding the circumstances of the collision. Consistent with Corporal Burkett, Mr. Schorr found there was no physical evidence to establish [the Decedent] steered, braked or accelerated after his vehicle left the southbound lane of travel. Dr. Ross determined a post mortem examination of [the Decedent’s] heart exhibited significant coronary atherosclerosis (CAD) with overlying fibrosis, which was consistent with Mr. Ralston suffering a cardiac dysrhythmia prior to the collision. [The Shiners] also retained a forensic pathologist, Dr. Bennet I.Omalu, to opine regarding [the Decedent’s] condition. Dr. Omalu also concluded [the Decedent] suffered cardiac syncope due to CAD and hypertensive cardiovascular disease, which resulted in [the Decedent’s] loss of control of his vehicle.

Trial Court Opinion (TCO), 9/28/2011, at 1-2.

Ralston and Genuine Parts Company moved for summary judgment, claiming that the collision was the result of a sudden and unforeseeable medical emergency, and, therefore, as a matter of law neither Ralston nor his employer could be held liable to the Shiners.2 The trial court agreed, and granted Appellees’ motion. The Shiners filed a timely notice of appeal, and both the Shiners and the trial court complied with Pa.R.A.P. 1925.

The Shiners present three questions for our review.

I. Whether the trial court committed error and/or abused its discretion in granting Appellees’ Motion for Summary Judgment as genuine issues of material fact remain.
II. Whether the trial court committed error and/or abused its discretion in finding that Appellees had satisfied the burden of proof required to successfully assert the affirmative defense of sudden medical emergency.
III. Whether the trial court committed error and/or abused its discretion in finding that [the Shiners’] medical expert report prepared by Dr. Bennet Omalu ... was legally insufficient.

Shiners’ Brief at 4 (trial court answers omitted).

As the Shiners’ questions are all interrelated, we address them together, mindful of the following.

Our scope of review of a trial court’s order granting or denying summary judgment is plenary, and our standard [4]*4of review is clear: the trial court’s order will be reversed only where it is established that the court committed an error of law or abused its discretion.
Summary judgment is appropriate only when the record clearly shows that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The reviewing court must view the record in the light most favorable to the nonmov-.ing party and resolve all doubts as to the existence of a genuine issue of material fact against the moving party. Only when the facts are so clear that reasonable minds could not differ can a trial court properly enter summary judgment.

Cassel-Hess v. Hoffer, 44 A.3d 80, 84-85 (Pa.Super.2012) (quoting Englert v. Fazio Mech. Serv’s, Inc., 932 A.2d 122, 124 (Pa.Super.2007)).

The trial court held that Ralston was entitled to judgment as a matter of law under the sudden emergency doctrine.3 The trial court acknowledged that, as the party seeking to avail himself of the doctrine, Ralston “must establish the emergency condition which gave rise to a collision was sudden and unforeseeable.” TCO, 9/28/2011, at 4. However, the trial court then went on to hold that “it was incumbent upon [the Shiners] to adduce evidence from which a jury could find the emergency confronting Mr. Ralston was not sudden or was foreseeable.” Id. at 6.

This confusion results from the fact that Ralston and the trial court improperly conflated “the sudden emergency doctrine” and “the sudden medical emergency defense.” The sudden emergency doctrine in Pennsylvania is not an affirmative defense. It is a legal principle that provides that “an individual will not be held to the ‘usual degree of care’ or be required to exercise his or her ‘best judgment’ when confronted with a sudden and unexpected position of peril created in whole or in part by someone other than the person claiming protection under the doctrine.” Lockhart v. List, 542 Pa. 141, 665 A.2d 1176, 1180 (1995). It does not relieve one of all responsibility to act with reasonable care to avoid an accident and thus, unlike an affirmative defense, the sudden emergency doctrine need not be pled under Pa.R.C.P. 1030(b). Lockhart, supra; Leahy v. McClain, 732 A.2d 619 (Pa.Super.1999). The sudden emergency doctrine merely relates to the standard of conduct applied to “a driver who, although driving in a prudent manner, is confronted with a sudden or unexpected event which leaves little or no time to apprehend a situation and act accordingly should not be subject to liability because another perhaps more prudent course of action was available.” Lockhart, supra at 1180.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
64 A.3d 1, 2013 Pa. Super. 33, 2013 WL 653033, 2013 Pa. Super. LEXIS 79, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shiner-v-ralston-pasuperct-2013.