115 Ga. App. 168 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1967
Any error in admitting the testimony complained of in the third enumeration of error is harmless in view of the fact that the witness testified without objection to the same facts on cross examination.
Following testimony by a state patrolman who investigated the scene of the collision that skid marks indicated the vehicle in which the plaintiff was riding was partly across the center of the road into the defendant’s lane of travel, and following other testimony by the defendant that the defendant was on his own side of the road and the plaintiff’s vehicle was on the defendant’s side of the road when he first saw it at the crest of the hill, that plaintiff’s car was coming straight at him, that the defendant put on his brakes and cut to the right and was then hit and there was nothing else he could do, he was asked: “Now, if he had not been on your side of the road, would this collision have occurred?” and he replied, “No, sir.” Objections to the question and answer on the ground that they constituted an improper conclusion of the witness invading the province of the jury were overruled. In Bentley v. Ayers, 102 Ga. App. 733 (117 SE2d 633) the statement: “I don’t know of anything I could have done to avoid the collision” was held unobjectionable. To the same effect, see Carter v. Hutchinson,
The facts before the jury were that the road was dirt, unmarked, and 20 feet wide, and that skid marks showed the left wheels of the plaintiff’s vehicle to be 11 feet from the edge of the road and partly on the plaintiff’s side at the time of impact, which of course means that each vehicle had 10 feet of roadway to travel in and that the plaintiff’s vehicle was between 1 and 2 feet into the defendant’s travel lane. The defendant then testified that the plaintiff’s car was on his side of the road, that he was on his side of the road, and that if plaintiff’s car had not been there the collision would not have occurred. All of the evidence for both parties concentrated on
It is not error to receive the verdict in the voluntary absence of defendant’s counsel. Perry v. Mulligan, 58 Ga. 479; Jones v. Bullard, 52 Ga. 145; Ward v. Ward, 144 Ga. 312 (2) (87 SE 17). The trial court here stated, in his order overruling the motion for new trial that after the jury had retired to consider their verdict the defendant’s counsel absented himself without leave or notice to the court. When the court was notified that the jury had reached a verdict he attempted to have counsel located, and, failing this, received the verdict and allowed the jury to disperse, but did not publish the same until after counsel had returned. There was no error in this procedure.
Judgment affirmed.