Yeager v. Farmer

1976 OK 44, 549 P.2d 345, 1976 Okla. LEXIS 430
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 6, 1976
Docket46538
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1976 OK 44 (Yeager v. Farmer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Yeager v. Farmer, 1976 OK 44, 549 P.2d 345, 1976 Okla. LEXIS 430 (Okla. 1976).

Opinions

SIMMS, Justice.

This appeal is brought by plaintiff in a personal injury action where verdict favored one of the two defendants. The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court and remanded the cause for a new trial. We Grant Certiorari, vacate the opinion of the Court of Appeals, and affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Plaintiff, Charles Yeager, brought suit against Fred King and Eugene Farmer to recover for injuries sustained in a car-pickup truck collision around midnight on February 14, 1972, in the 10100 block of N.E. 23rd Street, in Spencer, Oklahoma.

Plaintiff’s petition alleged that he was a passenger in Eugene Farmer’s vehicle (a pickup truck); that as they drove north onto N.E. 23rd Street from a private drive, Defendant Fred King, who was driving his automobile west on N.E. 23rd Street, collided with them in the west bound lane of N.E. 23rd Street. Plaintiff alleged that this collision resulted from the combined negligence of the defendants in the following particulars:

“(a) Defendant King was traveling between 60 and 70 mph which was greater than the posted speed limit of 55 mph and greater than reasonable, and greater than would permit him to stop within the assured clear distance ahead.
(b) Defendants were driving while under the influence of alcohol.
(c) Defendants failed to use their brakes and steering mechanism to avoid the collision.
(d) Defendant Farmer failed to- yield the right of way when he entered said street from a private drive.”

Defendant King’s Answer denied any and all negligence on his part and for affirmative defenses he alleged that the negligence of the plaintiff and the plaintiff’s driver, Eugene Farmer, proximately caused the accident; that he (King) was con[347]*347fronted with a sudden emergency to which he reacted as a reasonable and prudent person and further that the accident was unavoidable.

Eugene Farmer answered denying all material allegations of the plaintiff’s petition. Plaintiff’s Reply to King’s Answer denied the material allegations therein and plaintiff likewise replied to Defendant Farmer’s Answer.

The issues were thus joined, and the cause tried to a jury.

The evidence concerning the accident was disputed. Plaintiff and Defendant Farmer both testified that they had been drinking beer and shooting ■ pool in the Sanopa Lounge at 10100 N.E. 23rd Street for several hours preceding the accident. Both testified that they had consumed only a few beers, but witnesses who had been in the tavern at the time testified that both plaintiff and Farmer were very drunk when they left just before midnight.

Plaintiff suffered head injuries in the accident and could not remember anything except that Defendant Farmer was driving the pickup.

By way of defense, Defendant Farmer testified that at the time of the accident, his license was under suspension for the offense of driving under the influence; that he was abiding by that suspension and plaintiff was driving the pickup when the accident occurred. According to Defendant Farmer, the pickup’s headlights were on when they pulled out of the parking lot onto 23rd Street.

Ffowever, King and three eye-witnesses to the accident testified that the lights of the pickup were not on. King stated that he was driving within the 55 mph speed limit and that the pickup pulled out in front of him so suddenly that he did not have time to apply his brakes or avoid the accident. The three eyewitnesses confirmed Defendant King’s account of the accident and they were of the opinion that King could not have avoided the accident.

The investigating officer arrived at the scene within two minutes after the accident happened. After speaking with King, he checked the light switch on Farmer’s pickup and found that it was in the “off” position.

The jury found in favor of Defendant King and against Defendant Farmer.

Plaintiff appeals urging error in the trial court’s ruling that excluded from evidence the result of a blood alcohol test performed on Defendant King after the accident. While blood alcohol tests were performed on both defendants pursuant to the Implied Consent Law, 47 O.S.1971, §§ 751, et seq., plaintiff made no attempt to introduce the result of Farmer’s test, so that matter is not before us.

The last sentence of 47 O.S.1971, § 752 concerns the admission of blood alcohol test results in a civil action and states that:

“The results'of the test or tests as provided for herein shall not be admissible in civil actions.”

After the jury was impaneled, a hearing was held in chambers out of the presence of the jury. There, over objections by King, plaintiff adduced the testimony of H. E. Maxey, a chemist, about an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Chemical Analysis Report. The Report reflects that one William J. Caveny performed a blood alcohol test on a sample of blood taken from one Freddy King, Jr., on February 15, 1972, at 1:45 a. m., and that the test showed a blood alcohol content of .19% w/v. Mr. Maxey was also allowed to testify as to the significance of this test result. He stated that in order to achieve such a score, one would have to consume slightly over nine bottles of beer or nine ounces of 100 proof whiskey. It was Mr. Maxey’s further opinion that such consumption of alcohol would have influenced Fred King’s driving ability.

Under the exclusionary provisions of § 752, supra, the trial court held that the [348]*348results1 of the chemical analysis and Mr. Maxey’s testimony concerning same were not admissible, stating:

“I want everybody here to understand that the testimony, the results of this chemical examination are not admissible in this Court in this case. They are admissible in a criminal case, however. And they — they could be used if the testimony — if the testimony of ariy witness varies from what these tests would indicate. They could be used as a basis for perjury prosecution.
“Now, I just want everybody to understand that; that these chemical tests, while they are not admissible in this action, in this case, they could be used in a criminal case. Does everybody understand that? Mr. King, do you understand that?”

In his case-in-chief, King testified that he had consumed only two beers during the afternoon preceding the accident.

Plaintiff asserts as error that the trial court erred in failing to allow plaintiff to call Maxey as a witness to impeach King’s testimony.

King argues in response that even if § 752, supra, would allow the admission of blood alcohol test results for impeachment purposes, plaintiff did not preserve that issue for review on appeal. That while plaintiff made an offer of proof of Maxey’s testimony during plaintiff’s case-in-chief, no offer of proof was made following King’s testimony. King’s position is that since plaintiff made no attempt to have the testimony admitted at that time, the trial court not only committed no error, but in fact, had no opportunity to err.

Clearly the trial court was correct in its ruling which excluded the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Chemical Analysis Report, and Maxey’s testimony insofar as plaintiff’s case-in-chief is concerned. In R. W. Rine Drilling Co. v. Fer

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Related

State ex rel. Moss v. New Day Tabernacle
1990 OK CIV APP 93 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 1990)
Callison v. Callison
1984 OK 7 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1984)
Yeager v. Farmer
1976 OK 44 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1976)

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Bluebook (online)
1976 OK 44, 549 P.2d 345, 1976 Okla. LEXIS 430, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yeager-v-farmer-okla-1976.