Court Opinion

ID: 9763561
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:49:31.192087+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:46.093830
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Weight, J.:
It is my view that the lower court erred in not granting a new trial generally. Appellant asserted in the court below, and with considerable justification, that there was insufficient evidence to establish negligence on his part. He raises the same contention on this appeal. It is manifestly unfair to afford the plaintiffs a second chance on the question of damages, without also affording appellant a second chance on the question of liability. See Esposito v. Henderson, 185 Pa. Superior Ct. 479, 137 A. 2d 902.
The three cases cited by the court below, and principally relied upon in the majority opinion, can be readily distinguished. In Baraonfski v. Malone, 371 Pa. 479, 91 A. 2d 908, there was a default judgment which established liability, and the original trial concerned only the question of damages. In Van Buren v. Eberhard, 377 Pa. 22, 104 A. 2d 98, the charge of the trial judge on the question of damages was prejudicial to the defendants and they, not the plaintiffs, were given a second chance on that issue. Similarly in Hanus v. K. M. B. Construction Co., 392 Pa. 307, 140 A. 2d 454, the verdict was excessive and the defendants, not the plaintiffs, were given a second chance on the question of damages.
None of the other eases cited in the majority opinion rule the question involved in the present appeal and with one exception, they will not be separately mentioned. The writer was the author of the opinion for this court in Lutz v. Force, 185 Pa. Superior Ct. 610, 139 A. 2d 566. Tn that case the new trial was *388limited to the husband’s claim for property damage, but the question of negligence was definitely not eliminated. In the case at bar the defendant-appellant is vigorously complaining with regard to the determination of the question of negligence. He is clearly entitled to a re-trial of the entire action.