Court Opinion

ID: 9575608
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:15:21.297887+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:48:38.508947
License: Public Domain

Sognier, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
Appellant, the investigating officer, and the eyewitness who had been traveling behind appellant all testified that the collision occurred on Colerain Road, a two-lane road. Their testimony and the photographs taken by the officer at the scene established that the collision occurred in the right lane of that road. Both appellant and the eyewitness testified that appellee was driving slowly in a wavering manner, and that he stopped in the travel lane and began to turn in front of appellant, who applied her brakes, leaving a 105 foot skid *611mark. Appellee did not simply have “poor recall” as the majority suggests. Instead, he testified that the collision occurred on Interstate 95. He stated that he was traveling in the right lane of that four-lane interstate highway, that he saw appellant in the left lane, and that the impact occurred when he pulled into the left lane in front of her. He offered no explanation for the difference between his version of the collision, which placed the impact in the left northbound lane of 1-95, and the version proffered by appellant, the officer, and the eyewitness, and confirmed by the officer’s photographs, which clearly depict a two-lane road.
Decided July 13, 1990
Rehearing denied July 30, 1990 — Cert, applied for.
Dickey, Whelchel, Brown & Readdick, Terry L. Readdick, for appellant.
Gibson & Jackson, Douglas L. Gibson, for appellee.
“The testimony of a party who offers himself as a witness in his own behalf is to be construed most strongly against him when it is self-contradictory, vague or equivocal. And he is not entitled to a finding in his favor if that version of his testimony the most unfavora-, ble to him shows that the verdict should be against him.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Bufford v. Bufford, 223 Ga. 133, 134-135 (3) (153 SE2d 718) (1967). “If that most unfavorable position shows that the party is not entitled to prevail, unless other evidence shows compellingly that he should prevail, he must lose. [Cit.]” Veal v. Fraser, 155 Ga. App. 157, 161 (2) (270 SE2d 250) (1980). When appellee’s vague and equivocal testimony is so construed, the undisputed evidence shows that the collision occurred after appellee stopped in the right lane of a two-lane highway and began making a turn, that he was hit broadside rather than in the rear, that appellant applied her brakes and left a 105 foot skid mark, and that the investigating officer found no act of appellant that contributed to the collision. Under these circumstances, I find that the jury’s conclusion was the result of mere speculation, not reasonable inferences from the evidence, see Layton v. Knight, 129 Ga. App. 113-114 (198 SE2d 915) (1973), and accordingly I would reverse the denial of appellant’s motion for judgment n.o.v.