Case Name: Ratcliff v. Myers, Appellant
Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
Decision Date: 1955-05-04
Citations: 382 Pa. 196
Docket Number: Appeals, Nos. 83 and 84
Parties: Ratcliff v. Myers, Appellant.
Judges: Before Stern, C. J., Stearne, Jones, Bell, Chidsey and Musmanno, JJ.
Reporter: Pennsylvania State Reports
Volume: 382
Pages: 196–213

Head Matter:
Ratcliff v. Myers, Appellant.
Argued January 7, 1955.
Before Stern, C. J., Stearne, Jones, Bell, Chidsey and Musmanno, JJ.
May 4, 1955:
Edward B. Bulleit, with him Bulleit & Bulleit, for appellants.
Frank B. Boyle, with him Markowitz, Lwerant, Boyle, Rahauser <£ Kagen, for appellee.

Opinion:
Opinion by
Mr. Chief Justice Horace Stern,
In these proceedings, initially instituted to recover damages arising from a right angle collision between two automobiles, the verdict of the jury has brought about an illogical and therefore untenable result.
At about eleven o'clock in the morning of a clear March day, one Lawrence Yost was driving a Packard car south on Highway Route 194 in the Borough of East Berlin, Adams County. At the same time one Sterling Myers was operating a Chevrolet car west on Highway Route 234 in that Borough. The two cars collided at the intersection of these two highways which forms the "Center Square" of the Borough. Joseph Ratcliff, a passenger in the Yost car, was injured in the collision and brought suit to recover damages against Sterling Myers and the latter's father, Albert, on whose business Sterling was driving the Chevrolet. The defendants brought in Yost and his employer, the Bryant Air Conditioning Corporation, as additional defendants. In so joining them Sterling Myers claimed also to recover from them the damages which he himself had suffered in the accident, and Albert Myers claimed to recover the damages to his automobile. Yost, on the other hand, filed a counterclaim against Sterling and Albert Myers to recover the damage to Ms automobile.
The court allowed tbe jury to view tbe scene of the accident. The testimony at the trial disclosed that the two automobiles, each proceeding at a reasonably low rate of speed and traveling on the right side of their respective roadways, reached the intersection at about the same time. They met at or near the center of the intersection, the left front of the Yost car and the right front of the Myers car coming into contact. There was a traffic light overhanging the center of the intersection; it showed a green light for Myers proceeding westward on Route 234 but no light at all to Yost coming south on Route 194 as the red light was out of order and was not functioning. Yost testified that as he started to enter the intersection he could see about 40 or 50 feet to his left; he looked and saw nothing coming; he went ahead and when he was about half way into the intersection he looked again and the Myers car was then about 20 feet away. Sterling Myers testified that Tie looked, saw the green light in his favor, and the next thing he knew he "was in the intersection and we were in collision"; he said that when he first noticed the Yost car "seeing and hitting was just one."
The trial judge held that Sterling Myers was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law and entered compulsory nonsuits as to his and his father's claims against the additional defendants. However, he left to the jury to determine, in plaintiff's action against the original defendants, whether Myers was in fact negligent. He also submitted to the jury whether Yost was negligent, and whether plaintiff was entitled to recovery against the original defendants, the additional defendants, or both, and whether Yost was entitled to recover on his counterclaim. The jury re turned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff in the sum of $12,500 against the additional defendants, Yost and the Bryant Corporation, hut a verdict in favor of the original defendants, Sterling and Albert Myers. The latter moved to take off the compulsory nonsuits entered in their actions against the additional defendants; this motion the court denied. The additional defendants moved for judgment n.o.v. against the original defendants with respect to plaintiff's claim and also with respect to Yost's counterclaim; this motion the court also denied. The additional defendants also moved for a new trial on the ground that the court should have charged the jury that the original defendants were negligent as a matter of law and therefore jointly liable to the plaintiff with the additional defendants; the court granted a new trial, limiting the issue to the liability of the original defendants in conjunction with that of the additional defendants for the happening of the accident. Two appeals to this court have resulted from those rulings, — one, that of the original defendants from the grant of a new trial; the other, that of the additional defendants from the refusal of their motion for judgment n.o.v. against the original defendants.
It must be immediately apparent that, as the result of the jury's verdict, there exists an anomalous situation in that, on the one hand, the court declared that Sterling Myers was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law and that therefore he could not recover from the additional defendants, but, on the other hand, the Jury found him not guilty of negligence as a matter of fact and therefore the plaintiff could not recover from him and his father. Certainly he was either negligent or not negligent, and his legal rights and liabilities in relation to all the other parties in volved in the accident should follow a consistent pattern. The court, recognizing this, and obviously and properly regarding the jury's verdict exculpating Sterling Myers as perverse, granted a new trial in order to have a jury again pass on the fact of his negligence.
Was the court right in declaring Sterling Myers negligent as a matter of law in the matter of his claim against the additional defendants? It is well established that an operator of a motor vehicle who does not look for moving traffic on an intersecting street as he approaches the intersection is guilty of negligence as a matter of law even though he proceeds across the intersecting street with a traffic light in his favor: Lewis v. Quinn, 376 Pa. 109, 101 A. 2d 382. Myers himself admitted that "seeing and hitting was one," which is proof positive that he could not have looked up Highway Route 194 before entering the intersection; it must also be borne in mind that the Yost car, coming from the right, had the right of way. It is true that the jury viewed the scene of the accident but this was merely in order to enable them the better to understand the testimony and to visualize the occurrence; if they saw anything which might tend to relieve Myers of liability it is not a part of the record and cannot weigh against the evidence. The court was therefore justified in declaring Myers guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law, and indeed he has not appealed from that ruling. Under such circumstances there was nothing for the court to do but grant a new trial in plaintiff's action since a verdict so incompatible with the decision of the court and so patently contrary to the weight of the evidence could not be allowed to stand.
Yost and the Bryant Corporation, the additional defendants, do not challenge the propriety of the verdict that has been rendered against them in favor of the plaintiff. By thus admitting that Yost was negligent it is clear that they have no right to judgment on their claim against the original defendants. However, they do have the right to make the original defendants share their liability to the plaintiff if those defendants Avere in fact also guilty of negligence which helped to cause the accident, and therefore, while plaintiff himself has not asked for a new trial against the original defendants it was proper for the court to grant one on the motion of the additional defendants. It was also proper for the court to restrict the new trial solely to the determination of the question of the liability of the original defendants, leaving undisturbed plaintiff's verdict against the additional defendants as well as the amount of the recovery to which he will be entitled against the original defendants should it be adjudged that Sterling Myers was negligent: Trerotola v. Philadelphia, 346 Pa. 222, 226, 227, 29 A. 2d 788, 790; Felo v. Kroger Grocery & Baking Co., 347 Pa. 142, 145, 31 A. 2d 552, 554; Jones v. Williams, 358 Pa. 559, 562, 58 A. 2d 57, 59; Frank v. W. S. Losier & Co., Inc., 361 Pa. 272, 277, 64 A. 2d 829, 831.
The original defendants urge that, since plaintiff and Yost were fellow-employes of the Bryant Corporation and were at the time of the accident engaged on a business mission for their employer, the negligence of Yost should be imputed to the plaintiff. However, it is well established that this did not constitute Yost and the plaintiff participants in a joint enterprise such as to make the negligence of Yost imputable to the plaintiff: Mayo, Executrix v. Fahs, 339 Pa. 180, 186, 187, 14 A. 2d 105, 108; Marmar v. Farrell, 116 Pa. Superior Ct. 586, 177 A. 224; Ward v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co., 117 Pa. Superior Ct. 120, 124, 177 A. 485, 486; McDougall v. Schaab, 117 Pa. Superior Ct. 285, 288, 289, 178 A. 168, 169; Kocher v. Creston Transfer Co., 166 F. 2d 680, 685; Restatement, Torts, §491, comment d.
The order of the court denying the motion of the additional defendants for judgment n.o.v. against the original defendants is affirmed. The order of the court granting a new trial, in which the issue shall be limited to the liability of the original defendants in conjunction with that of the additional defendants for the happening of the accident, is affirmed.
It seems that plaintiff was, like Yost, an employe of the Bryant Corporation, and the latter so pleaded in its answer to the complaint of the original defendants and that therefore plaintiff could recover from it only under the AVorkmen's Compensation Law. However, neither at the trial itself, nor in any of the subsequent proceedings, nor on this appeal, has it raised that issue.
The jury apparently returned no verdict on Yost's counterclaim, presumably because they had found him guilty of negligence and Myers not guilty of negligence.