HARRISBURG – A three-judge panel of the Superior Court has affirmed a trial court decision which denied a motion to exclude evidence surrounding the alleged failure of a minor’s parents to provide him with inflatable swimming armbands when he nearly drowned.
On Aug. 31, Superior Court judges Jack A. Panella Victor P. Stabile and John L. Musmanno unanimously upheld the ruling of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas handed down on April 28, which denied a motion in limine to exclude evidence showing plaintiffs Thomas J. Sak and Maria Sak may have been contributorily negligent on the day their son, A.S. almost drowned in a pool.
The Saks argued that the trial court erroneously denied their motion, which sought to exclude evidence related to their failure to provide A.S. with inflatable armbands known as ‘swimmies’, on the date that A.S. suffered a pool-based drowning experience.
As the jury found defendant Schoolhouse Day Care Centers, Inc. was not negligent, it never reached the causation question of whether the Saks were comparatively and/or contributorily negligent for not furnishing A.S. with those ‘swimmies.’ Therefore, the trial court found admission of the ‘swimmies’ testimony was “harmless error and independent of any adjudication of the defendants’ negligence.”
“Briefly, the defendants operated a field trip to a state park. Five-year-old A.S. was a participant on this trip, which included time spent at an on-site pool. A.S. could not swim and was supposed to be limited to the three-foot-deep section of the pool,” Panella said.
“However, after entering the pool without any flotation device, A.S. was found submerged in the water. Eventually, the pool’s lifeguards pulled him out of the water and resuscitated him. An ambulance then transported A.S. to a hospital and then later a medical center. After treatment, A.S. was released.”
After this incident, the Saks filed a lawsuit against the defendants, claiming they were negligent for failing to properly supervise A.S. while he was in the pool. The Saks, among other things, not only sought damages on behalf of A.S., but they also pursued compensation for themselves to provide for A.S.’s past and future medical expenses.
In response, the defendants, insisted that at least some of the Saks’ claims were barred or limited as a result of the Saks parents’ alleged comparative and/or contributory negligence.
“The Saks filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude evidence that the family did not provide A.S. with ‘swimmies’ for the trip. They argued that such information ‘was wholly irrelevant and not causally connected to the issue of negligence asserted against appellee,” Panella stated.
“In denying the motion, the trial court found the ‘swimmies’ evidence to be relevant to appellee’s comparative and/or contributory negligence averments. Ultimately, the case proceeded to trial, and a jury found appellee not negligent.”
The Saks raised one issue for review by the Superior Court on appeal, which was whether or not the trial court’s denial of the Saks’s motion in limine an error of law or abuse of discretion.
“Although the Saks ably argue that admission of the ‘swimmies’ evidence was wholly irrelevant to A.S.’s injuries, highly prejudicial, and could not have formed the basis for a comparative and/or contributory negligence assertion against the Sak parents, our prior case law establishes that any purported error in admitting this evidence is harmless,” Panella said.
“Here, the jury found that appellee was not negligent and therefore had no opportunity to reach the issue of causation. Accordingly, the trial court’s admission of evidence suggesting the parents’ contributory and/or comparative negligence was harmless and simply did not affect the verdict. As any error related to the trial court’s denial of the Saks’s motion in limine was harmless, the Saks are not entitled to relief.”
Superior Court of Pennsylvania case 886 MDA 2019
Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas case 2014-1257
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com