Title: Miller v. Larson

State: north-dakota

Issuer: North Dakota Supreme Court

Document:

95 N.W.2d 569 (1959) Merle R. MILLER and Farmers Mutual Insurance Company, a corporation, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Peter F. LARSON and Herman Anderson, Defendants and Respondents. No. 7801. Supreme Court of North Dakota. March 19, 1959. *570 Lanier, Lanier & Knox, Fargo, and Hjellum, Weiss, Nerison & Ottmar, Jamestown, for plaintiffs and appellants. Nilles, Oehlert & Nilles, Fargo, for defendants and respondents. MORRIS, Judge. On May 14, 1956 at about 7:15 o'clock a. m. a collision occurred on U. S. Highway number 10 near Buffalo, North Dakota between a 1955 Lincoln automobile driven by the plaintiff, Merle R. Miller, and a farm tractor driven by Peter F. Larson who was employed by the defendant Herman Anderson, owner of the tractor. The Farmers Mutual Insurance Company was the insurer of Miller's automobile and is joined in the action as a plaintiff because it claims to be subrogated for the amount paid to Miller as insurance. Miller was severely injured and his car demolished. He sued both the owner and the driver of the tractor for damages for his personal injuries and damage to his car. The defendants deny negligence on their part and allege that the accident was caused solely by the negligence, carelessness and unlawful driving of Miller and that his negligence contributed thereto. The defendants also counterclaim, Anderson for damage to the tractor and Larson for personal injuries. The counterclaim is contested by the plaintiffs' reply. The case was tried to a jury that brought in a verdict in favor of the defendants for a dismissal of plaintiffs' action and awarded the defendants nothing on their counterclaim. From a judgment entered pursuant to the verdict the plaintiffs appeal. Neither the sufficiency of the evidence nor the instructions of the court are challenged. The only questions presented by the specifications of error deal with the admission and the exclusion of evidence. The accident occurred as the plaintiff was proceeding east at a point about one mile west of Buffalo where U. S. Highway 10 is intersected by a road running north and south. The tractor driven by Larson was struck by Miller's car as the tractor, proceeding in a southerly direction, was crossing the highway. Highway 10 is a favored highway guarded by stop signs at the intersections. Neither of the principals involved in the accident is able to testify regarding the speed of Miller's car as it approached the intersection. Miller has little recollection of events immediately preceding the accident and does not know at what speed he was driving that morning. He regularly drove on his morning trips to work at a speed that registered 65 to 70 miles per hour on his speedometer which indicated ten per cent in excess of the true speed. Larson did not see Miller's car until it hit his tractor. The plaintiffs assign as prejudicial error the refusal of the trial court to permit the witness Olsberg to testify over objection regarding the speed of Miller's automobile about two miles west of the point where the accident occurred. This witness was driving a dairy truck. He was proceeding eastward on highway 10. He had seen Miller's Lincoln automobile gradually creeping up on him in his rear view mirror. Olsberg was driving about 45 or 50 miles per hour. Another truck described as a "Hart semi" was proceeding ahead of Olsberg at a distance of about a third of a mile. Miller's Lincoln passed Olsberg's truck and about a mile farther on passed the Hart semi a mile to three quarters of a mile west of the scene of the accident. Objections to questions pertaining to the speed of Miller's car were sustained. Plaintiffs' attorney then made the following offer of proof: Counsel for defendants then said: He stated no grounds for his opposition. However, from the context of the discussion regarding admissibility insofar as it appears in the record there seems to have been no objection to the form of the offer of proof or its contents other than that it pertained to the speed of Miller's car at a point remote from the scene of the accident and was therefore immaterial. This is clearly the view of the trial court, for he said: The offer of proof was made out of the hearing of the jury. After its denial the parties returned to the courtroom where plaintiff's counsel said: The court replied in the affirmative and counsel continued: Counsel for defendant declined to interpose an objection until George Wirth was called. The court stated that this offer of proof would be denied. The witness Olsberg who was still on the stand was then dismissed. Wirth was never called. No other statement as to the contents of Wirth's proposed testimony was made. The offer of proof with respect to Olsberg cannot be made applicable to Wirth in this manner *572 for it is obvious that the testimony of the two witnesses would not have been the same. Under this confused state of the record no adequate offer of proof of Wirth's proposed testimony appears to have been made. Douillard v. Woodd, 20 Cal. 2d 665, 128 P.2d 6, 9. See also Stickel v. San Diego Electric Ry. Co., 32 Cal. 2d 157, 195 P.2d 416. At the time the trial court ruled on the plaintiffs' offer of proof of Olsberg's testimony there was no evidence of speed other than Miller's customary speed in making his morning trip to his place of employment. The witness' last observation of Miller's car was about a mile from where the accident occurred. There is no evidence as to Miller's speed during that last mile. The supreme court of Nebraska has stated the rule to be: Shields v. County of Buffalo, 161 Neb. 34, 71 N.W.2d 701, 704; Buhrman v. Smollen, 164 Neb. 655, 83 N.W.2d 386. Similar statements are made in Schwarting v. Ogram, 123 Neb. 76, 242 N.W. 273, 81 A.L. R. 769 and Showers v. A. H. Jones Company, 126 Neb. 604, 253 N.W. 902. In Ambrozi v. Fry, 158 Neb. 18, 62 N.W.2d 259, 265, the court commented: In Ritchey v. Watson, 204 Cal. 387, 268 P. 345, 347, it is said: This rule with respect to the discretion of the trial court has been applied in sustaining the discretion of the court in Ackel v. American Creamery Company, 12 Cal. App. 2d 672, 55 P.2d 1195, where the proffered evidence was excluded and in Pruitt v. Krovitz, 59 Cal. App. 2d 666, 139 P.2d 992, where the evidence was admitted. The discretion of the trial court in admitting or in rejecting evidence similar to that under discussion has been sustained in these cases. Utility Trailer Works v. Phillips, 249 Ala. 61, 29 So. 2d 289; Tobin v. Van Orsdol, 241 Iowa 1331, 45 N.W.2d 239; Anderson v. Elliott, 244 Iowa 670, 57 N.W.2d 792; Slate v. Saul, 185 Va. 700, 40 S.E.2d 171. Other cases of like import are cited in a note 46 A.L.R.2d 35. The rule under discussion is generally applied in the federal courts. Comins v. Scrivener, 10 Cir., 214 F.2d 810, 46 A.L.R. 2d 1. In David Bilgore & Co., Inc. v. Ryder, 5 Cir., 211 F.2d 855, 858, the court in *573 sustaining the discretion of the trial judge in excluding evidence similar to that involved in this case commented: In this case the witness Olsberg testified that at the time of the impact he was in a ravine about one-half or three quarters of a mile west of the scene of the accident and that he did not realize what had happened until he had proceeded a short distance after he came up out of the ravine because of the truck that was preceding him. He also said that at the time Miller's car passed him he was just coming out of a curve. The maximum permissible speed on highway 10 at the place where the accident occurred was 65 miles per hour. When the offer of proof is considered in the light of the facts and circumstances appearing in the record at the time the offer was made, we reach the conclusion that the admission of the proffered testimony was clearly a matter within the discretion of the trial court and its exclusion did not constitute an abuse of that discretion. The plaintiffs contend that the court erred in allowing a highway patrolman, Donald O. Peterson, to testify over objection as to a conversation he had with Miller at a hospital in Valley City between eleven and twelve o'clock in the forenoon of the day of the accident. Miller had testified that he remembered very little as to what happened on the day of the accident. The only things that he remembers are that he was in an ambulance, that he was on the operating table and that Ted Dobler, foreman of the job where he worked, brought him his check at the hospital that evening, but he doesn't remember what they talked about. The doctor that attended Miller testified that he treated the patient for shock but gave no testimony as to his mental condition. Miller's wife testified that when she arrived at the hospital about noon on the day of the accident her husband was unconscious or sleeping. The witness Peterson testified that he was admitted to Miller's hospital room by a sister or a nurse. He was in uniform, identified himself to Miller and told him that the witness would ask him a few questions pertaining to the accident. When Peterson was asked on the witness stand if Miller was conscious the question was objected to as calling for a conclusion. The objection was overruled and the answer was affirmative. The witness was further permitted to testify that Miller appeared to him to be rational. The objection to this was that the question called for a medical conclusion not within the scope of the witness' knowledge. Peterson was permitted to testify further over objection as follows: *574 The plaintiffs argue that it was error for the court to permit the highway patrolman to testify that Miller was conscious and appeared to be rational and to further testify as to what Miller said to him on the ground that the statements purported to have been made by Miller were not competent to be used against him because of his physical and mental condition. The statements of the witness as to Miller's condition when considered in the light of the background circumstances upon which they are founded appear to be within the field of evidence that is part fact and part conclusion. The true picture could not be presented to the jury by recitation of purely factual observations. It is generally held that under these conditions it is not error for the court to admit such testimony. Jones Commentaries on Evidence, 2nd Ed., Sec. 1251; 20 Am. Jur., Evidence, Sec. 823; Wigmore on Evidence, 3rd Ed., Sec. 1919; Emerine v. Ford, Ky., 254 S.W.2d 938. This court passed squarely on the question in Hoffer v. Burd, 78 N.D. 278, 49 N.W.2d 282, and held such evidence to be admissible. The plaintiffs further contend that by other evidence Miller was shown to have been either unconscious or irrational at the time of the interview. We are unable to agree with this contention. It is supported only by a vague inference derived from testimony that when he was attended by a doctor earlier in the forenoon he was suffering from shock, that Miller remembers little that happened that day after the accident and that his wife testified he was either unconscious or asleep when she reached the hospital about noon. On the other hand the witness Ted Dobler, who was the foreman under whom Miller worked and who brought Miller's check to him on the evening of the accident, testified without objection that he believed Miller was conscious and pretty much rational when Dobler talked to him and that in reply to the inquiry as to what had happened Miller told him that he had gotten into an accident, that he was going about 70 or probably 75 miles an hour. The trial court did not err in permitting the witness Peterson to testify as he did with regard to Miller's observable mental condition and upon that foundation in admitting Peterson's testimony regarding his interview with Miller. The judgment appealed from is affirmed. SATHRE, C. J., and BURKE and TEIGEN, JJ., concur.