Court Opinion

ID: 9571178
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:29:40.214287+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:29:15.477993
License: Public Domain

BIEGELMEIER, Chief Justice
(specially concurring).
I find I am in general agreement with the above opinion, but it will clarify my position to add a note with reference to the testimony of officer McCue. Based on the physical marks on the highway, he was asked in which lane of travel all the significant markings associated with this accident were located; without objection he testified all markings were in the north lane. Then followed a question of his opinion as to the lane of traffic in which the collision occurred; he responded that it occurred in the north lane. The witness was at the scene of the accident soon after it happened, at a time when the cars involved, the debris and the markings on the road had not been disturbed. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting this testimony.
This court has considered the question of opinion evidence in various circumstances over a long period of time and in the many appeals referred to in Justice Winans’ opinion; the opinion points out differences from Kleinsasser v. Gross, 80 S.D. 631, 129 N.W.2d 717, and, therefore, does not modify the law announced in that decision.
Neither do I view the general statements made here as broadening Wentzel v. Huebner, 78 S.D. 481, 104 N.W.2d 695. There the court was considering the evidence of a scientist as to the speed of a car from 35 feet of free flight through the air as it left the road and the point of impact with a power pole. While that opinion may contain some general statements of admissibility of evidence, the court wrote because a “lay mind * * * is capable of approximations (of speed) * * * the computation made by this scientist, which the jury was incapable of making, would be helpful”; on this reasoning it approved the reception of the expert’s opinion in evidence. It is well we keep in mind the actual decision of the court rather than the general language used in the opinion. With this added note I concur in the opinion.