Maier v. Pittsburgh Railways Co.
Maier v. Pittsburgh Railways Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
These are appeals by the Pittsburgh Railways Company from the entry of judgments in favor of the plaintiffs and against it and another defendant in each of two trespass cases after a trial before the court without a jury.
These cases arose out of an accident on Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, at approximately 6 P.M. on July 28, 1959. The plaintiffs’ automobiles were parked on Fifth Avenue. The defendant, Jones, whose automobile was parked to the rear of the plaintiffs’ vehicles, drove his car out of its parked place along the curb onto the tracks of the defendant railways company whose streetcar struck Jones’s automobile, and pushed it into plaintiff Maier’s station wagon, which in turn struck plaintiff Diamond’s automobile. Maier sued Jones and the railways company. Diamond also sued both parties. In a consolidated trial the court found for the plaintiffs against both defendants in the amounts of f!730.46 and |252.50, the agreed damage to each of the plaintiffs’ vehicles. The railways company appealed in each case from the entry of the judgments against it.
The question is whether there was sufficient admissible evidence to find the appellant negligent.
The evidence upon which the trial judge was asked to find negligence was exceedingly sketchy. Maier’s daughter testified that she parked Maier’s station
The streetcar operator testified that he was proceeding downgrade at approximately 15 to 20 miles per hour when the Jones car pulled in front of him from the curb without warning, and that the right front of the streetcar struck the Jones car and pushed it 15 to 20 feet into the parked station wagon. On cross-examination he was asked what Jones said after the accident and replied, “He said, ‘when I looked in the mirror you were at the High School.’ ” The High School is “a good city block” from the scene of the accident. The above related evidence constituted everything from which the negligence of the defendants could be inferred.
In its opinion the court says it ignored the testimony of Diamond as to what Jones said to him because the statement was a conclusion. If the judgments
The plaintiffs’ cases of negligence against the railways company are based entirely upon the narrations of Jones made after the accident with the evident purpose of exculpating himself and placing the blame upon the streetcar motorman. This was hearsay and was not shown by the plaintiffs to be a part of the res gestae. It was error to admit this hearsay evidence.
When an utterance is used to establish that the fact asserted in it occurred as asserted, it is within the prohibition of the hearsay rule. Such utterances are admissible, however, if they are a part of the res gestae, or as Professor Wigmore says, if they are “spontaneous exclamations.”
“This general principle is based on the experience that, under certain external circumstances of physical shock, a stress of nervous excitement may be produced which stills the reflective faculties and removes their control, so that the utterance which then occurs is a spontaneous and sincere response to the actual sensations and perceptions already produced by the external shock. Since this utterance is made under the immediate and uncontrolled domination of the senses, and during the brief period when considerations of self-interest could not have been brought fully to bear by reasoned reflection, the utterance may be taken as particularly trustworthy (or, at least, as lacking the usual grounds of untrustworthiness), and thus as expressing the real tenor of the speaker’s belief as to the facts just observed by him; and may therefore be received as testimony to those facts.” VI Wigmore on Evidence (Third Edition) §1747. Allen v. Mack, 345 Pa. 407, 409, 28 A. 2d 783 (1942).
There is evidence of the position of the vehicles after the accident and the order in which the four vehicles struck each other, but this alone would not establish negligence.
. Having concluded that the utterances of Jones were . improperly admitted, there is no evidence from which the negligence of the railways company can be inferred and judgment must be entered in its favor. Conjecture, guess, or suspicion do not. amount to proof. Lanni v. Pa. R. R. Co., 371 Pa. 106, 110, 88 A. 2d 887 (1952).
Judgments against appellant are reversed and entered in its favor.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.