Swartley v. Tredyffrin Easttown School District

430 A.2d 1001, 287 Pa. Super. 499, 1981 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2805
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 5, 1981
DocketNo. 1991
StatusPublished

This text of 430 A.2d 1001 (Swartley v. Tredyffrin Easttown School District) 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
Swartley v. Tredyffrin Easttown School District, 430 A.2d 1001, 287 Pa. Super. 499, 1981 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2805 (Pa. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinions

VAN der VOORT, Judge:

This is an appeal by the Tredyffrin Easttown School District from a personal injury judgment against it for Fifty Thousand ($50,000) Dollars. The appellant contends that evidence was improperly admitted and the jury incorrectly instructed. We find no basis for either contention and affirm the judgment of the Trial Court.

The circumstances of the injury to Emily Swartley are not in dispute. On September 11,1975, at about 11:30 a. m., she went to the Devon Elementary School in the Tredyffrin Easttown School District in Devon, Pennsylvania, to pick up her five-year old son, Christopher. The child had been enrolled for one week and this was Mrs. Swartley’s third trip to the school. All parents coming for their children were directed to wait inside a vestibule located just inside the main entrance to the school building. There were two classes of kindergarten students of about 25 members each [502]*502which converged into the lobby at approximately the same dismissal time. There were approximately the same number of adults on hand to pick them up. When the children were dismissed, they walked in a line from their class rooms to the lobby where they were seated with their backs against the wall facing their parents in the vestibule. There they waited for their parents to come in and pick them up.

The vestibule in which the parents waited was approximately 12 feet deep and 16 feet wide. The lobby was somewhat larger, approximately 25 feet wide and 30 feet deep. The vestibule was enclosed by three doors separating it from the outdoors, and by another three doors separating the vestibule from the inner lobby. The three inner doors were glass paneled and wooden framed, each hinged on the right hand side.

Mrs. Swartley entered the vestibule at approximately 11:35 a. m. She moved well to the front of the vestibule and stood in close proximity to the middle door facing the lobby where the children would be assembled. Within a few minutes the vestibule was filled with parents standing shoulder to shoulder and with considerable jostling and hassling.

At about 11:40 a. m., a man dressed in a brown uniform and carrying several packages entered the vestibule from the street and worked his way through the crowd to one of the inner doors, and moved through the door into the lobby carrying his packages. In the process of working his way through the crowd, one of his packages jostled Mrs. Swartley, causing her to lose her balance. In order to prevent herself from falling, she reached out with her left hand and grabbed at the middle door for support. Unfortunately, her hand came to rest in the door jamb just as the door was closing, injuring the top portion of the fifth finger on her left hand.

At thé time of the accident, Mrs. Swartley was employed at West Chester State College as an instructor of the flute. She had spent four years in study at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and graduated with a Bachelor of Music Degree in ñute performance. Later she obtained a Master [503]*503of Music degree from Temple University, also in flute performance. She had taken preliminary steps to continue her studies at the Julliard School of Music. She was an established talent among professional musicians and had performed many concerts with recognized orchestras. Her ultimate goal was to obtain employment as a flutist with a recognized symphony orchestra. Evidence was offered by a cellist with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra that Mrs. Swartley was qualified in skills at the time of her accident to play second chair flute with any orchestra. The base pay for that position was then $26,500.

As a result of the accident, Mrs. Swartley suffered a fracture of one of the joints in the little finger of her left hand, described by her doctor as a fracture of the distal phalynx. She retained a good to normal use of her left hand for most purposes, but after the accident she could not stabilize the fingers of that hand rapidly enough to operate a flute satisfactorily. There was a weakness in spreading the little finger to the side as well as in bringing it against the ring finger.

Subsequent to her injury, Mrs. Swartley visited five medical specialists and underwent an operation in an effort to regain her mobility in her hand, which was a pre-requisite to her skill as a flutist. The evidence was to the effect that, despite her efforts, she would never again be able to play the flute with the skill that she had attained before the accident. Her teaching position at West Chester State College was in jeopardy because of her inability to properly demonstrate flute techniques to her students. She was eligible for tenure after the accident but was passed over.

The Swartley Complaint charged the school district with negligence on several grounds: (1) that it had improperly maintained the school premises; (2) that its system for returning students to their parents was faulty in the overcrowding and jostling that resulted; and (3) that this particular accident had been caused by an employee of the school district or by a workman bringing supplies into the school building at the request of the school authorities.

[504]*504The jury returned a verdict for both Mr. and Mrs. Swartley, awarding Mrs. Swartley $50,000 and her husband nothing. The school district’s Motion for a New Trial was denied and Judgment was entered on the verdict for Mrs. Swartley, from which the school district appeals.

The school district contends that three errors were committed at the trial: (1) that the jury should not have been permitted to consider whether the man who jostled Mrs. Swartley was an employee of the school district or an independent contractor bringing supplies into the school; (2) that Mrs. Swartley should not have been permitted to testify that the day after the accident she returned to the school and noted that the dismissal procedure had been changed so that pupils were brought to the street while their parents waited for them in their cars; and (3) that the jury should not have been allowed to award damages based upon evidence of a loss of future earning capability, because no evidence was offered to show what Mrs. Swartley could earn in her impaired condition.

The evidence as to the identity of the man who jostled Mrs. Swartley was the fact that he was in a working type of uniform, that he was carrying bundles into the school, that his uniform was similar to one worn by a man observed the day before carrying a ladder into the school. It was received without objection. Appellant’s counsel made a general objection when that line of testimony was concluded, by asking Mrs. Swartley if the individual who bumped her was employed by the school. The Court interjected with the caveat, “if you know”, and the witness responded, “I can’t say that”. The objection was not pursued and no other objection was made to this line of questioning, nor did counsel for appellant make a Motion to Strike the preceding testimony concerning the appearance and apparent business of the man. The admissibility of this testimony cannot be reviewed on appeal when no objection was raised at the trial. Carl v. Kurtz, 255 Pa.Super. 198, 203, 386 A.2d 577 (1978).

[505]*505The appellant requested the trial court to direct the jury that there was no evidence which would permit it to find that the man who jostled Mrs. Swartley was either an employee or an agent of the school district.

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Related

Carl v. Kurtz
386 A.2d 577 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1978)
Curry Coal Co. v. M. C. Arnoni Co.
266 A.2d 678 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1970)

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Bluebook (online)
430 A.2d 1001, 287 Pa. Super. 499, 1981 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2805, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/swartley-v-tredyffrin-easttown-school-district-pasuperct-1981.