Title: Young Candy & Tobacco Company v. Montoya
Citation: 372 P.2d 703, 91 Ariz. 363
Docket Number: 6849
State: Arizona
Issuer: Arizona Supreme Court
Date: June 20, 1962

91 Ariz. 363 (1962) 372 P.2d 703 YOUNG CANDY &amp; TOBACCO COMPANY and John Paul Cox, Appellants, v. Valentin MONTOYA, Appellee. No. 6849. Supreme Court of Arizona, In Division. June 20, 1962. *365 McCarty, Chandler, Tullar &amp; Udall, Tucson, for appellants. Merchant, Parkman, Miller &amp; Pitt, Tucson, for appellee. J. SMITH GIBBONS, Superior Court Judge. The appellee, Valentin Montoya, sued the Young Candy &amp; Tobacco Company and John Paul Cox, appellants, for personal injuries alleged to have resulted from the negligent operation of a motor vehicle. The parties will be designated as they appeared in the trial court. The accident occurred at the intersection of South Sixth Avenue, running north and south, and Pennsylvania Drive, running east and west in the City of Tucson. The defendant, Cox, was traveling north in the lane nearest the center of the road on South Sixth Avenue in a vehicle owned by his employer, Young Candy &amp; Tobacco Company, at a speed of approximately 25 miles per hour. The plaintiff was within a marked pedestrians' crosswalk on South Sixth Avenue on the north side of said intersection. There were no traffic or street lights at this location and defendants concede that the headlights of on-coming traffic affected defendant, Cox' visibility to *366 some extent; that he did not change his speed for reasons of visibility, and that he had considerably less vision in his left eye than in his right. This cause was tried before a jury and a verdict returned for the plaintiff in the sum of $25,000. From the judgment based thereon and the denial of a motion for a new trial defendants appeal. The assignments of error relate to the giving of certain instructions, refusing to declare a mistrial or grant a new trial on the ground of misconduct of plaintiff's counsel in his closing argument to the jury and in denying the motion for a new trial on the ground of excessive damages. Plaintiff's instructions numbered 1 and 3 are as follows: Defendants assign as error the giving of Instruction No. 1 on the grounds, first, that it is repetitious in that it contains some of the same subject matter set forth in Instruction No. 3; and, secondly, that it placed a higher legal duty on the defendants than the law requires, in that it did not limit such duty to act as a reasonably prudent person under the circumstances. The foregoing instructions do contain some of the same rules of law couched in differing language, but the repetition complained of here is not of such a nature as to constitute error on that ground. In the case of Reah v. Jupin, 68 Ariz. 335, 340, 206 P.2d 558, 561, we said: The second objection is without merit. This identical instruction was given and approved by this court in the case of Pearson &amp; Dickerson Contractors Inc. v. Harrington, 60 Ariz. 354, 361, 137 P.2d 381, 384. The same arguments were advanced there as are here presented and in reply thereto we said: Defendants' suggestion that this rule is modified in Krauth v. Billar, 71 Ariz. 298, 226 P.2d 1012, is not true, as an examination of this case will readily disclose. We then held, and now reaffirm, that this instruction correctly states the law in this jurisdiction and in the public interest we see no reason to change it. Defendants complain of plaintiff's Instruction No. 4 relating to the aggravation, by defendants' negligence, of a previously existing condition and that portion of No. 6 referring to a confused or incapacitated person, on the ground that there was no evidence of such facts in the case. This position is not well taken for there is such evidence, some of which is quoted by defendants in their briefs. The weight to be given such evidence is within the province of the jury and it is the duty of the Court to instruct the jury on all phases of the law applicable to the various fact situations developed during the course of the trial. Reah v. Jupin, supra. *368 Defendants further assert error in giving instruction No. 6 for the reason that it placed an absolute liability on a defendant who strikes a pedestrian in a crosswalk. This is sometimes referred to as the negligence per se instruction and it does not tell the jury that the driver of an automobile is absolutely liable for a collision with a pedestrian in a crosswalk under any and all circumstances. As we said in City of Phoenix v. Mullen, 65 Ariz. 83, 86, 174 P.2d 422, 424: The statutory provisions embodied therein are Sections 28-792 and 28-794, A.R.S. Defendants concede the following: That the violation of a statute relating to the operation of a motor vehicle is actionable negligence if it is the proximate cause of the injury; that the plaintiff was hit in the crosswalk at a location where there were no traffic control signals or street lights; that the headlights of on-coming traffic affected defendant, Cox', visibility to some extent; that he did not change his speed of 25 miles per hour for reasons of visibility; that he did not sound his horn and that plaintiff's injuries were proximately caused by the accident. In light of these admissions and the doctrine to which we are committed it is apparent that defendants' position has no basis in law or in fact. To adopt their theory would renounce a rule of law of long standing, deeply embedded in our judicial decisions, upon a state of facts that are far from being a model of the care and caution that is needed to reduce the needless loss of life and property on our public highways. Defendants claim error by the trial court in refusing either to declare a mistrial or grant a new trial on the ground of misconduct of plaintiff's attorney in his closing argument to the jury. No objection was made to the statements until after the jury had retired, thereby depriving the trial court of an opportunity to correct any errors it might have made and to cure any prejudicial conduct before the case was submitted to the jury. The presumption is that an admonition to the jury by the court will remove the effect of improper remarks if timely objection is made before the jury retires, unless it appears that the misconduct is so serious that no admonition could undo the damage. Schmerfeld v. Hendry, 74 Ariz. 159, 245 P.2d 420. However, it is the general rule that when no objection is made at the time the remarks were uttered the error, if any, is waived. See Bruno v. *369 San Xavier Rock &amp; Sand Co., 76 Ariz. 250, 263 P.2d 308. The trial court heard the evidence and the arguments in question and had the complete record before it. In denying defendants' motion for a mistrial or a new trial it held that such argument was not so prejudicial as to warrant a new trial. We have examined the record and will not under the circumstance disturb the court's ruling. The last assignment of error is the denial of defendants' motion for a new trial on the ground that the damages were so excessive that the verdict was the result of passion and prejudice, or in the alternative the court should have ordered a remittitur for the reason that the damages awarded were excessive. Early in our judicial history, in the case of Southern Pacific Co. v. Tomlinson, 4 Ariz. 126, 132, 33 P. 710, 711, we laid down the rule: Defendants rely upon alleged excessive damages to support their motion to set aside the verdict on the ground of passion and prejudice of the jury. Under the circumstances here this conclusion has its limitations, for in the case of Miller v. Condon, 66 Ariz. 34, 40, 182 P.2d 105, 109 we said: The question of whether the verdict was based on improper motives and must be set aside, or was an exaggerated measurement of damages and should be reduced, or should stand, must be answered in the light of all the facts and circumstances in the case. There is no rule of thumb by which the courts can determine at what point a verdict becomes excessive and should be reduced or at what level passion and prejudice may be determined therefrom. On this problem Justice Udall, speaking for the Court in the case of Stallcup v. Rathbun, 76 Ariz. 63, 66, 258 P.2d 821, 824 said: The question is whether the verdict rendered here is so manifestly unfair, unreasonable and outrageous as to shock the conscience of the Court. Our answer to this query is in the negative. The remaining question is whether the verdict is an exaggerated measurement of damages and should be reduced or left undisturbed. The jury and the trial court are in a much better position than the appellate judges to measure and determine the damages that will compensate the plaintiff for his injuries. They have an opportunity of seeing him and to discern his manner of testifying, his intelligence and capacity, to note his physical condition and other living evidences bearing upon the issue, including the attending circumstances, the larger part of which the appellate court is deprived. The statement of this court in Ross v. Clark, 35 Ariz. 60, 67, 274 P. 639, 641, and repeated in Rogers v. Bryan, 82 Ariz. 143, 309 P.2d 773 may well be cited here as appropriate to the issue at hand: The trial court, with the evidence and the surrounding circumstances at hand, sustained the verdict of the jury and we have *371 examined the record and find no reasonable grounds to disturb that ruling. Judgment affirmed. JENNINGS and LOCKWOOD, JJ., concur.