Streit v. Kestel

161 N.E.2d 409, 108 Ohio App. 241, 9 Ohio Op. 2d 245, 1959 Ohio App. LEXIS 871
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 2, 1959
Docket8466
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 161 N.E.2d 409 (Streit v. Kestel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Streit v. Kestel, 161 N.E.2d 409, 108 Ohio App. 241, 9 Ohio Op. 2d 245, 1959 Ohio App. LEXIS 871 (Ohio Ct. App. 1959).

Opinion

Hunsioker, P. J.

This is an appeal on questions of law from a judgment for the appellee, Martin A. Kestel, rendered on the verdict of a jury.

Mrs. Emilie Streit, the appellant, filed an action in the Common Pleas Court of Hamilton County, Ohio, for damages which she alleged she suffered as a proximate result of the negligence of Mr. Kestel.

Mrs. Streit was a passenger in an automobile which was being driven west on Spring Grove Avenue in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. Station Avenue forms a “T” intersection with, and runs north from, Spring Grove Avenue. It was at this intersection that the accident occurred.

Mrs. Streit was riding with her daughter, Mrs. Jansen, in a 1951 Mercury automobile owned by Mrs. Jansen. The daughter said she was driving in the lane nearest the curb on Spring Grove Avenue, until she came near the intersection of Station Avenue; and, in order to make a right turn onto Station Avenue, she turned to the left, with her front wheels partly in the middle lane. Mrs. Jansen then made a wide turn right to avoid, as she claimed, a depression made by a storm sewer drain and a car parked on Station Avenue near the intersection. *242 As she made this wide turn, Mr. Kestel, who was behind Mrs. Jansen, in the lane nearest the curb, struck the Jansen automobile at a point almost in the center, thereby causing injuries to Mrs. Streit.

Mrs. Jansen said she gave a signal to turn right and had her indicator light turned on to show that she intended to make a right turn. She also said that a turn from the curb lane into Station Avenue from Spring Grove Avenue could not be made because of the storm sewer depression and the parked auto-' mobile.

Mr. Kestel said he was moving along Spring Grove Avenue (a heavily-traveled street at the time of collision), about four car lengths behind Mrs. Jansen, when she turned her automobile into the middle or second lane of travel. He further stated that, as the front of his automobile came into line with the rear bumper of the Jansen, automobile, Mrs. Jansen suddenly turned to the right toward Station Avenue, and directly into his lane of travel. At the time the cars collided, he was going between twenty and thirty miles an hour.

At the time of the trial, counsel for Mr. Kestel introduced in evidence, over objection of counsel for Mrs. Streit, a motion picture of the intersection of Spring Grove Avenue and Station Avenue, showing a 1951 Mercury automobile making a turn from the curb lane of Spring Grove Avenue into Station Avenue. This automobile was the same type and style of car driven by Mrs. Jansen on the day of the collision. These motion pictures showed the driver of that car making several turns into Station Avenue from the curb lane of Spring Grove Avenue. The pictures were taken from several angles of the approach to Station Avenue on a Sunday morning prior to the trial, when traffic on Spring Grove Avenue was not very heavy, and with other posed features similar to what counsel for Mr. Kestel expected the evidence to show.

The trial resulted in a verdict for, and a judgment thereafter entered for, Mr. Kestel. An appeal to this court was then perfected by counsel for Mrs. Streit, who assigns as prejudicial error the introduction and admission in evidence, by the trial court, of the motion picture offered by Mr. Kestel.

*243 It has long been the rule in Ohio that posed photographs are admissible in evidence where they have been properly identified as being fair and accurate representations of conditions as seen by the witness. Cincinnati, H. & D. Ry. Co. v. De Onzo, 87 Ohio St., 109, 100 N. E., 320; Bailey v. Greeley General Warehouse Co., 52 Ohio Law Abs., 469, 83 N. E. (2d), 244.

In the instant case, we have photographic evidence of experiments (turning from a curb lane into an intersecting street) made out of court, which experiments are introduced for the purpose of impeaching the testimony of a witness.

Our problem, then, resolves itself into a question whether motion pictures of experiments may be introduced into evidence for the purpose of demonstrating visually the fallacy of testimony that this automobile could not make a turn into Station Avenue, from the curb lane of Spring Grove Avenue, without turning into the middle lane.

Testimony relating to experiments made out of the presence of the jury have been admitted in evidence for many years. These experiments must be made under conditions of substantial similarity to the occurrence in issue. Smith v. State, 2 Ohio St., 511; St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Baltimore & Ohio Bd. Co., 129 Ohio St., 401, 195 N. E., 861.

The first and second paragraphs of the syllabus in the St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Baltimore & Ohio Rd. Co., case, supra, say:

“1. Evidence of experiments performed out of court, tending to prove or disprove a contention in issue, is admissible if there is a substantial similarity between conditions existing when the experiments are made and those existing at the time of the occurrence in dispute; dissimilarities, when not so marked as to confuse and mislead the jury, go to the weight rather than the admissibility of the evidence.

“2. The admission or rejection of evidence as to such experiments is a matter peculiarly within the discretion of the trial judge, and when such discretion has not been palpably abused reviewing courts will not interfere.”

Experiments made in the presence of the jury, and out of the court room, have been acoepted where there has been an *244 agreement between the parties to permit one of the parties to conduct such an experiment. Schweinfurth, Admr., v. C., C., C. & St. L. Ry. Co., 60 Ohio St., 215, 54 N. E., 89.

It has also been determined that evidence of tests made at the scene of an accident at a later date, which tests were made under substantially similar conditions, is admissible. Great A. & P. Tea Co. v. Higginbotham, 9 Ohio Law Abs., 721, at p. 723.

It is necessary that such tests, made at a time after the original occurrence, be performed under conditions substantially the same as they were at the time of the accident. Bickley v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 62 Ohio App., 180, 23 N. E. (2d), 505.

We have found two reported Ohio cases where motion pictures have been admitted in evidence. One, North American Aviation, Inc., v. United Automobile, Aircraft & Agricultural Implement Workers of America, 69 Ohio Law Abs., 242, 124 N. E. (2d), 822, involved an injunction arising out of a labor dispute; the other case, DeTunno, a Minor, v. Shull, 75 Ohio Law Abs., 602, 144 N. E. (2d), 669. This latter case concerned the introduction into evidence of motion pictures of the minor child, who claimed he was injured as a result of the acts of the defendant, Shull.

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

Related

Mentor v. Nozik
8 Ohio App. Unrep. 644 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1990)
BALIAN v. General Motors
296 A.2d 317 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1972)
State v. Oldham
438 P.2d 275 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1968)
Reeves v. City of Springfield
171 N.E.2d 178 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1960)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
161 N.E.2d 409, 108 Ohio App. 241, 9 Ohio Op. 2d 245, 1959 Ohio App. LEXIS 871, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/streit-v-kestel-ohioctapp-1959.