Guttman v. Civet

WOOD (Parker), J. Action for damages for personal injuries allegedly resulting from an automobile collision. Judgment upon a verdict was in favor of defendant. Plaintiff appeals from the judgment.

Appellant asserts that the court erred (1) in rulings as to [818]the admissibility of evidence; and (2) in making certain remarks in the presence of the jury.

. There was testimony on behalf of plaintiff that on July 21, 1954, defendant drove his automobile against the back of plaintiff’s automobile while plaintiff’s automobile was stopped at the entrance to an intersection where a red signal light required plaintiff to stop her automobile; and that plaintiff, who was in the driver’s seat of her automobile, sustained personal injuries.

Defendant testified that when plaintiff stopped her automobile at the intersection, he stopped his automobile behind plaintiff’s automobile; when the signal light changed to green, plaintiff proceeded across the intersection; defendant followed about “half a car length behind” plaintiff’s automobile; when plaintiff’s automobile had gone about 70 feet beyond the intersection and was at a place near the next intersection, plaintiff stopped her automobile suddenly without giving a signal; then defendant’s automobile struck the rear of plaintiff’s automobile; the impact moved plaintiff’s automobile approximately one foot.

Appellant contends that the court erred “in not permitting a proper showing [by plaintiff] of the psychosomatic injuries of plaintiff I" alow, resulting in her amnesia and consequent inability to recollect clearly the sequence of events and her prior conditions.” Appellant does not refer specifically to the questions, objections, and rulings which are involved in this contention, but she cites three pages of the reporter’s transcript. In order to more clearly understand this contention, certain testimony of appellant on cross-examination should be referred to. It appears that, as a result of such cross-examination, the matter of appellant’s credibility was brought into question. On cross-examination, appellant was asked if she had been in an accident of any kind sine** the accident involved here. She answered in the negative. Counsel for appellant asked her if it was a fact that she had filed a lawsuit in New York for damages for personal injuries arising out of an accident in April, 1955 (a date after the accident involved here). She answered in the affirmative. She stated further that she had misunderstood him (counsel for defendant) and she thought he was referring to a car accident—that the accident in New York was in a subway. Then counsel for defendant referred to her deposition (in the present action) and asked her if she had testified therein that she had not been in any accident since July 21, 1954 (the date