Court Opinion

ID: 9635728
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:01:49.808213+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:21:08.337048
License: Public Domain

Hammond, J.,
delivered the following opinion, dissenting in part.
I concur fully with the opinion of the Court down to the last paragraph, which remands the case. It seems entirely clear that the appellants’ claim of error is based on refusal to admit that the trial court was right in holding that there was no evidence of negligence on the part of Teer and Eastern and continued reliance on the fixed belief that the jury *147should have been allowed to decide that question on the plaintiff’s evidence. The appellants made no proffer to the court below as to additional evidence of negligence of the impleaded defendants; and, indeed, did not even suggest informally what they could produce. Neither in brief nor in argument before this Court — although the direct question was asked — was there any suggestion as to what could be proven if the case were remanded. The recital in the opinion of the Court as to the facts of the accident make it plain that unless there were additional facts not even hinted at in the record as it stands, the appellants were not prejudiced by the lack of opportunity to hold the codefendants. This is substantiated by their refusal to even offer testimony and so, in effect, to admit liability. After the court had ruled that Teer and Eastern were no longer in the case, the appellants could have offered testimony in their own behalf and, if that testimony had shown the evidence of negligence on the part of Teer or Eastern, the trial court, under the rules, could have reversed its decision and reinstated the impleaded defendants in the case.
This Court has held repeatedly that even if there were some technical error below, judgment will not be reversed if prejudice is not shown. I think it was not shown here, and that the judgments should be affirmed.