185 Pa. Super. 155 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1958
Opinion by
On September 8, 1953 plaintiff, Florence I. Under-hill, while driving her automobile on Washington Road in Allegheny County was stopped by a red traffic light at Main Entrance Drive, an intersecting street. Although there were four lanes in Washington Road, a trailer truck owned by Frank Koloczinski and operated by defendant Cantalano for Hayes Freight Lines, Inc., approached from the rear and crashed into this plaintiff’s car after it had stopped at the intersection. This action- was brought to recover damages for personal injuries suffered by the wife and for medical and hospital expense incurred by her husband. The verdicts were for the husband-plaintiff in the sum of $1,-345 and for the wife in the. sum of but $953.30 although, ignoring an allowance for pain .and .suffering,
There is evidence that the driver immediately after the accident stated that the brakes of the truck were defective and that for that reason he could not control its operation in time to avoid the collision. The defendants clearly were chargeable with negligence and the question of contributory negligence was not in the case.
By the force of the impact the wife-plaintiff was thrown backward and then forward in the driver’s seat; her head struck the steering wheel and she immediately was conscious of pain in her neck. She consulted her family doctor and later, when her condition did not respond to treatment by him, she was sent by the defendant, Hayes Freight Lines, Inc., to Dr. J. Hubert Wagner on October 29, 1953. From his examination Dr. Wagner believed that she was suffering from a severe sprain of the muscles of her neck and right shoulder and a sprain of the lower back in the lumbosacral region. At his direction she entered St. Francis Hospital and remained there under his care from November 5 to December 5, 1953 when she was discharged as improved. She continued to receive treatments, however, as an outpatient until June 1954, when on the advice of Dr. Wagner, that she attempt to rehabilitate herself, she went back to work and continued in her former employment until May 1955. Although her condition was not normal she apparently did not receive medical treatment during the period. On June :9, • 19.55, when. she. again consulted Dr. Wagner he returned her to the hospital where she received addition
The contested issue in this case was the amount of the damages to which the wife-plaintiff was entitled to recover from the defendants. At the trial O. E. Weitzel, the personnel manager of the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, the wife-plaintiff’s employer, was permitted to read into the record an excerpt from the business records of the company, over plaintiff’s objection, as follows: “The nature of illness or injury, wrenched neck, and in answer to the question ‘Where did the accident occur?’ it says, ‘Outside of store, at home. Reported to be under care of Doctor Wagner, whose office address is St. Francis Hospital.’ This form is signed ‘Florence Underhill, per Betty Ross, head cashier.’ ” This entry was made on the company records after the wife-plaintiff left her job immediately before returning to the hospital for the second time on June 9, 1955. The purpose of the entry is not clear; it may have been made to account for her absence from work without the intention on the part of her employer of terminating her employe relationship; or it may have been made by someone, in the interest of her employer, to forestall a possible claim by her for workmen’s compensation. But whatever the purpose, its admission in evidence was error as purest hearsay.
Under the Act of May 4, 1939, P. L. 42, §2, 28 PS §91b “A [business] record of an act, condition or event shall, in so far as relevant, be competent evidence if the custodian or other qualified witness testifies to its identity and the mode of its preparation, and if it was made in the regular course of business at or near the
The Act of May 4, 1939, supra, conditions the admissibility of a business record upon evidence supporting the court’s opinion “that the sources of information, method and time of preparation were such as to justify its admission.” Haas v. Kasnot, 371 Pa. 580, 92 A. 2d 171. A comprehensive enumeration of the requirements of proof of a business- record, under the
In our view since a new trial must be granted on the above ground, we need not discuss the question of inadequacy of the wife’s verdict.
Judgments reversed with a venire.