Court Opinion

ID: 9712339
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:51:53.807122+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:10.233216
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Justice Roberts:
I am of the opinion that Mrs. Cerino cannot be said to have been guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law. I reach this conclusion both on the basis of the factual scenario painted by the majority and on the basis of the facts as I think they should have been developed and considered.
My first difficulty with the majority’s opinion stems from their unspoken approval of the trial court’s action in excluding as inadmissible the answers to interrogatories given by Mrs. Cerino before her death.
Rule 4005(c) of the Pa. R. C. P. provides that: “Interrogatories may relate to any matters which can be inquired into under Rule 4007 and the answers may be used to the same extent as provided in Rule 4020 for the use of the deposition of a party.” Turning to Rule 4020 of the Pa. R. C. P., we find that: “(a) At the trial, any part or all of the deposition, so far as admissible under the rules of evidence, may be used against any party who was present or represented at the taking of the deposition or who had notice thereof if required, in accordance with any one of the following provisions: * * * (3) The deposition of a witness, whether or not a party, may be used by any party for any purpose if the court finds (a) that the witness is dead . . . .”
In spite of the clear mandate of these rules the trial judge refused to admit the answers to the interrogatories into evidence. In support of this refusal the court asserted that the answers were self-serving, that *361their introduction deprived the defendant of the right to cross-examine, and that the federal practice was similar.1 Were we now debating the rules’ wisdom these arguments might have some weight. Depositions and interrogatories are not identical, and dissimilarities in the permissible scope of their use at trial could logically be supported. The question of the rules’ wisdom, however, is not before us. We have the rules. They are clear and unambiguous. To read into them a distinction between the permitted use at trial of depositions and interrogatories is to defy the English language. Until such time as the rules are specifically altered we must heed their command. The trial court clearly erred in refusing to give them effect.
If this evidence had been included it is probable that the trial court would not have found Mrs. Cerino guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law. The trial judge laid heavy emphasis on the fact that there was not “a scintilla of evidence that Mrs. Cerino was crossing in the midst of people to the front and to the rear of her so that she was effectively prevented from keeping a proper lookout.” This assertion could not have been made if the decedent’s answers to the interrogatories had been in evidence, since they indicate that Mrs. Cerino was crossing with other people.
*362I am also of the opinion that, even if the additional evidence is not considered, Mrs. Cerino was not guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law. “[T]he generally stated test of freedom from contributory negligence is whether the plaintiff has acted as a reasonably prudent person would have acted under the circumstances.” P.L.E. Negligence §92. We do not demand that suspicion and caution accompany a pedestrian’s every step. We require only that a person act with reasonable regard for his own safety. Mrs. Cerino tripped when she stepped into a large, shallow depression in the middle of a crosswalk. The depression was only three inches below grade level and was not at all irregular or rough looking. Given the non-hostile appearance of the depression, the location of the crosswalk, the heavily trafficked nature of the intersection, and the other circumstances surrounding the mishap I do not believe that Mrs. Cerino was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law. “. . . [T]he ‘reasonable man,’ that standardized man to whose assumed conduct in like circumstances the plaintiff’s conduct must conform, is not altogether devoid of human frailties.” P.S.C. of New Hampshire v. Elliott, 123 F. 2d 2, 7 (1st Cir. 1941) (Magruder, J.). The defendants had the burden of proving contributory negligence; the question was properly given to the jury and their decision in Mrs. Cerino’s favor ought to be allowed to stand. In depriving the plaintiff of the benefits of the jury’s verdict the majority is imposing upon the plaintiff a more rigid and higher standard of conduct than that properly expected of the reasonble man.
I dissent from the conclusion of the majority and would reverse the judgment for defendant non obstante veredicto and reinstate the jury verdict.

 The trial judge quoted at length from 4 Moore’s Fed. Prac. §33.29 [1], n.7, wherein the author opines that similar federal rules do not authorize the admission into evidence of answers to interrogatories. Reliance on this federal analogy is misplaced. First, the other leading commentator on the federal rules has no such reservations. 2A Barron and Holtzoff (Wright, ed. 1961) §778, p. 391. Secondly, the only federal case that I could find that ever dealt with the situation, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific R.R. Co. v. Alva Coal Corp., 365 F. 2d 49, 56 (7th Cir. 1966), specifically held that a party’s answers to an adversary’s interrogatories were perfectly admissible under Fed. R. Civ. P. 33 and 26(d), and that the objection that the answers were self-serving was no objection at all.