Court Opinion

ID: 9702461
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:12:20.662934+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:37.713739
License: Public Domain

Baldwin, J.
(dissenting in part). I agree that there was no error as to either of the defendants in the court’s refusal to set the verdict aside on the ground that it was against the evidence. The refusal of the court to respond to the defendant administrator’s request to charge that if the jury found that the Barzetti car crossed the middle line of the road involuntarily and without fault, that crossing would not be in violation of the rules of the road was, as to the defendant administrator, harmful error. McKeithen, the driver of the DeCarlo truck, testified that when he first saw the Barzetti car it was on its own side of the road but that it skidded across in front of his truck and collided with it. It was in the light of this claim, no doubt, that Barzetti filed his request. The court did charge the jury with reference to liability for skidding and the conduct of a driver confronted with an emergency. It then read the statute which required the operator of a vehicle meeting another on a public highway to “seasonably turn to the right so as to give half of the traveled portion of such highway” to the person so met. General Statutes § 2489. When evidence is offered to prove a certain set of facts important to the decision of the case and a party desires the court to charge the law applicable to those facts, it is the duty of that party to request an appropriate charge. It is the duty of the court to comply in substance with the request. Tyburszec v. Heatter, 141 Conn. 183, 187, 104 A.2d 548; Lewandoski v. Finkel, 129 Conn. *476526, 529, 29 A.2d 762; Piascik v. Railway Express Agency, Inc., 119 Conn. 277, 279, 175 A. 919. The charge requested was substantially accurate in point of law. Giancarlo v. Karabanowski, 124 Conn. 223, 226, 198 A. 752; Martin v. Holway, 126 Conn. 700, 702, 14 A.2d 38; Grantham v. Bulik, 137 Conn. 640, 642, 80 A.2d 515. The charge given with reference to skidding and meeting an emergency, while correct, was inadequate to meet the vital issue to which the requested charge was directed.
In this opinion O’Sullivan, J., concurred.