Opinion ID: 522306
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Harvey's drinking and driving habits

Text: 65 Finally, as to negligence, Harvey argues that the trial court erroneously allowed testimony of Harvey's drinking and driving habits. By pretrial order, the court ruled that Harvey's driving habits were inadmissible, except that defendant may introduce otherwise admissible evidence of Harvey's driving on the date of the accident in order to show a course of conduct. At trial, GM presented testimonial evidence that within two hours of the accident, Harvey drove 50 m.p.h. in a 25 m.p.h. residential zone. GM also presented evidence that on the date of the accident, Harvey began drinking alcoholic beverages at 10:30 in the morning, and that between 5:00 and 6:00 in the evening he appeared to be under the influence of alcohol. Almost one hour after the accident, Harvey's blood-alcohol level was .171 percent, and GM's expert testified that at the time of the accident, Harvey's blood-alcohol level was very close to .192%. Harvey objected to the evidence on relevancy grounds. He now argues the trial court erred in admitting evidence of the passenger's pre-accident conduct. We are not persuaded by his argument. 66 To support his argument, Harvey cites Meller v. Heil Co., 745 F.2d 1297 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1206, 104 S.Ct. 2390, 81 L.Ed.2d 347 (1984), and Shields v. Carnahan, 744 P.2d 1115 (Wyo.1987). Both of these cases are easily distinguished from the case now before the court. Meller is a wrongful-death product-liability action against the manufacturer of a dump truck bed assembly for damages resulting from the death of plaintiff's husband while he performed routine maintenance on the truck. In Meller the trial court refused to permit defendant to elicit testimony that at the death scene police discovered two hashish pipes containing marijuana residue in the decedent's rucksack. Defendant sought to admit the hashish pipes, claiming that they were probative of the decedent's life expectancy and that they impeached the prior testimony of the plaintiff. The trial court excluded the pipes, concluding that their probative value was substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice under Fed.R.Evid. 403. We agreed, and observed that there was no medical foundation for the claim, the pipes were of questionable value as impeachment material, and it appeared that defendant sought to introduce the pipes for the specific purpose of arousing juror sentiment against the decedent. Contrary to the facts of the instant case, the facts of Meller demonstrate no nexus between the challenged evidence and the issues properly before the jury. 67 Shields is a medical-malpractice action. Plaintiff alleged that defendant failed to properly treat and advise her after she was injured in an automobile accident. At trial, the court permitted evidence that prior to the accident, plaintiff was on a late-night trip with a man who was not her husband. The Wyoming Supreme Court held that evidence regarding plaintiff's activities before the automobile accident was irrelevant to the issue of malpractice, and its admission prejudiced plaintiff. Unlike the instant case, the pre-accident conduct was totally unrelated to the issues in the lawsuit. 68 In our view, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in permitting the testimony of Harvey's reckless conduct prior to the rollover. Even as a passenger, Harvey had a duty to exercise reasonable care for his own safety. Sanders v. Pitner, 508 P.2d 602, 605 (Wyo.1973). Evidence of his recklessness, both as to excessive drinking and unsafe driving, was relevant to the question of Harvey's own negligent encouragement of and participation in this tragic escapade.III. Chevrolet Rollover Tests 69 Harvey asserts the trial court erred when it admitted into evidence a videotape of 1983 Chevrolet Malibu rollover tests. He argues that the out-of-court experiment was improperly admitted into evidence because it was not sufficiently similar to the accident at issue. After reviewing the record, we are not persuaded that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the evidence. 70 During the testimony of one of GM's experts, Kenneth Orlowski, the trial court admitted a scientific study by Mr. Orlowski relating to general principles of occupant motion, or kinematics, in rollover accidents. The videotape was entitled Rollover Crash Tests--The Influence of Roof Strength on Injury Mechanics. Mr. Orlowski's study involved a series of full-scale rollover crash tests conducted at the General Motors Proving Grounds using instrumented anthropomorphic dummies, without restraints, in 1983 Chevrolet Malibus. The film depicted a series of 1983 Chevrolet Malibu sedans on a cradle being pushed sideways down a track. The cars were launched when they reached the end of the track at a speed of 32 m.p.h. The high-speed photos show the roll sequence from various vantage points, and also the two front seat dummies from a camera mounted in the back seat. 71 The trial court ruled that the videotape of some of the scenes of the eight rollover tests was admissible for the limited purpose of showing general principles of vehicle dynamics and occupant kinematics.... In so ruling, the court stated: 72 [T]his exhibit is admissible unless it is a misrepresentation or something that is passed off as a test of the Corvette itself and it's clear to the court that this isn't meant to duplicate or replicate the accident in the case. 73 .... 74 ... I think that this video would assist the Court and jury in understanding the testimony of Mr. Orlowski as well as the general principles of vehicle dynamics and occupant kinematics as well as the pattern of injury mechanics and the occupant motion patterns. 75 Before permitting the jury to view the test film, the trial court cautioned the jury that the test film was not to be considered a re-creation of the Harvey accident. The court stated: 76 THE COURT: Members of the jury, there will now be displayed to you Defendant's Exhibit DD-2. In viewing this film, the Court has admitted it because it thinks that it would be helpful to you in understanding the oral testimony of Mr. Orlowski as well as the general principles of vehicle dynamics and occupant kinematics in patterns of injury mechanics to which Mr. Orlowski has testified. 77 But let me point out to you and instruct you that this involves a Chevrolet Impala [sic] with a solid roof, not a 1978 T-top Corvette, and you are not to ignore the distinctions between this demonstrative evidence and the actual event that is the subject matter of this action. You must make allowances for the differences between the actual event and the demonstrative evidence. 78 The trial court could not have given a more clear limiting instruction. 79 Harvey relies on two cases to support his contention that the trial court erred in admitting the evidence: Jackson v. Fletcher, 647 F.2d 1020 (10th Cir.1981), and Shipp v. General Motors Corp., 750 F.2d 418 (5th Cir.1985). Neither of these cases persuades us that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the evidence. Jackson is a personal injury suit for damages sustained in an automobile which was demolished following a collision with a tractor-trailer driven by defendant and owned by his employer. In Jackson, we held that testimony based upon experiments conducted by defendants' experts should not have been admitted because the circumstances of the experiment were different from those of the actual accident. The Jackson holding, however, clearly is limited to experiments which purport to simulate actual events and to show the jury what presumably occurred at the scene of the accident. In Jackson, defendants' experts sought to disprove plaintiff's expert testimony that the truck did not stop at the stop sign which faced it. The re-creation of the accident was conducted with a vehicle of a grossly different weight, a different engine size, and presumed facts some of which were in dispute at trial. In short, the experiment in Jackson was an enactment of defendant's theory of defense, presuming facts favorable to defendant. The experiment was introduced into evidence to disprove plaintiff's theory of liability. In the instant case, the experiment was conducted as an expert's research project independent of the case, and was introduced to assist the jury in understanding the expert's relevant testimony. 80 Furthermore, in Jackson we differentiated the circumstances surrounding our holding from those presented here: 81 In our case the experiment was not primarily to demonstrate physical principles which can be demonstrated on some occasions without a suggestion arising that the experiment simulates actual events. Millers' National Insurance Co., Chicago, Ill. v. Wichita Flour Mills Co., 257 F.2d 93 (10th Cir.1958); Brandt v. French, 638 F.2d 209 (10th Cir.1981). Where experiments such as this are not based on the facts, however, it must be made clear to the jury that the evidence is admitted for a limited purpose.... Where, however, an experiment purports to simulate actual events and to show the jury what presumably occurred at the scene of the accident, the party introducing the evidence has a burden of demonstrating substantial similarity of conditions. They may not be identical but they ought to be sufficiently similar so as to provide a fair comparison. Barnes v. General Motors Corp., [547 F.2d 275, 277 (5th Cir.1977) ]. 82 Id. at 1027. In the instant case there is no question that the results of the experiment were not introduced to recreate the accident. Furthermore, the court gave a clear limiting instruction. Jackson does not apply to paint error in the instant case. 83 Likewise, Shipp does not apply to demonstrate the existence of error. In Shipp the trial court admitted into evidence plaintiff's exhibits demonstrating a drop test of a 1976 TransAm and excluded GM's film illustrating unrestrained occupant movement in a rollover accident. The admission of such demonstrative evidence is within the trial court's sound discretion and will not be disturbed on appeal absent 'abuse.'  Shipp, 750 F.2d at 427. In Shipp the court did not perceive abuse in either the admission of plaintiff's evidence or the exclusion of defendant's evidence, noting that the trial court balanced defendant's evidence under Fed.R.Evid. 403 and determined that a limiting instruction would not defuse an improper influence of the evidence. The Shipp court further stated: Rule 403 determinations are often inextricably bound with the facts of a particular case and thus will not be disturbed absent a showing of 'clear abuse.'  Id. at 427. Contrary to what Harvey argues, the disposition in Shipp does not apply herein to render the trial court's ruling abusive. Evidence properly excluded in one context is not automatically admitted erroneously in a separate context. In our view, the trial court in the instant case did not abuse its discretion in admitting the evidence to help the jury understand the expert testimony.