Kuhl v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.

Liss, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Barry A. Kuhl and Stanley Beutelspacher, appellants, seek by this appeal to overturn a jury verdict returned in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County in which the jury found that the collision of a motor vehicle with the appellants was an intentional act committed by one Leonard Richard Prahl. The case arose out of a declaratory judgment action filed by Aetna Casualty and Surety Company, appellee (hereinafter "Aetna”) in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County in which Aetna sought a determination as to whether insurance coverage existed under two policies of insurance for injuries sustained by the appellants when they were struck by an automobile driven by Prahl on U.S. Route 50 outside of Cambridge, Maryland. The named insured on each of the policies was Sellers Sales and Service, Inc., an automobile dealership which employed Prahl as a salesman and supplied an automobile to Prahl for business purposes.

At the time the injuries were sustained by the appellants, Prahl was operating a vehicle owned by Sellers Sales and Service, Inc. Each of the policies of insurance provided coverage for bodily injuries sustained during an "occurrence.” Each policy defined "occurrence” to mean "an accident . . . which results in bodily injury or property damage neither expected nor intended from the standpoint of the insured.” The appel ⁴⁷⁸ lants and appellees have agreed upon the following statement of facts: In the early morning hours of August 7, 1977, an automobile operated by Prahl and owned by Prahl’s employer, Sellers Sales & Service, Inc., struck and injured Appellants Kuhl and Beutelspacher, as Appellants were walking on the eastbound shoulder of U.S. Route 50 just outside of Cambridge, Maryland. The impact occurred shortly after Prahl had abandoned Kuhl and Beutelspacher and two other passengers on the side of the highway. From the testimony and other evidence produced at trial, the parties agree that the sequence of events leading up to the impact were as follows: In the very late evening hours of August 6, 1977, or in the very early morning hours of August 7, 1977, Kuhl and Beutelspacher left Baltimore in a vehicle driven by Kuhl and were headed for Ocean City. Shortly after their departure, and in Glen Burnie, Appellants developed engine trouble which left them without a means of attaining their destination.

Prahl stopped in Glen Burnie and offered Appellants a ride to Ocean City if Appellants would pay for gas and tolls. Appellants accepted the ride even though Beutelspacher, the only one of the Appellants to testify at the trial, conceded that he did not know Prahl. Between the point of departure from Glen Burnie and the time Appellants and Prahl had reached Cambridge, Maryland, Prahl apparently made a homosexual advance toward one if not both of the Appellants. Beutelspacher testified at trial, after his memory was refreshed from the transcript of his testimony in the criminal case against Prahl, about an advance Prahl made toward Kuhl including the extension of his hand across the gap between the front bucket seats of the vehicle to within an inch of Kuhl’s leg.

In response to this, Kuhl picked up a ⁴⁷⁹ hairbrush and held it above his right ear. Thereafter, Kuhl changed seats with Beutelspacher. Shortly after the threesome had crossed the Choptank Bridge and continued on U.S. Route 50, Prahl, at the insistence of Appellants, stopped the vehicle to pick up two young ladies, Mary Benbow and Deborah Walker, who were hitchhiking on the side of the highway. After the fivesome had proceeded only some 5 or 10 minutes, Prahl stopped the vehicle on the shoulder of U.S. Route 50, so that everyone could get out to relieve himself (or herself).

While the vehicle was stopped on the shoulder of U.S. Route 50, something developed between Prahl and Kuhl which resulted in Prahl being knocked to the ground with various of his possessions being scattered on the shoulder of U.S. Route 50. Prahl got up, ran to the vehicle and, thereafter, sped off eastbound on U.S. Route 50, leaving his four passengers stranded on the shoulder of the highway. The two young ladies and Appellants began to walk eastbound on the shoulder of U.S. Route 50, hitchhiking as they went, with the two young ladies walking backwards facing the traffic and Appellants walking some distance ahead of them with their backs to the traffic. Only several minutes later and after the foursome had walked some 100 yards from the point where the altercation had occurred between Prahl and Kuhl, the vehicle driven by Prahl approached the hitchhikers.

Prahl, who had sped off from the scene of the altercation, went "full circle” on U.S. Route 50 and now was headed back eastbound toward the pedestrians. As the vehicle approached the four pedestrians, and in the testimony of the two young ladies, the only ones in a position to observe the approaching vehicle, Prahl’s vehicle came right at them. Walker testified that the sound of the engine increased as the vehi ⁴⁸⁰ cle approached which she attributed to Prahl’s putting his foot on the gas. Benbow and Walker, who were facing the approaching vehicle, and although in fear for their lives, were able to get out of the way.

Appellants, who were walking with their backs to the traffic, were struck. There were no skid marks at the scene of the impact and Prahl left the scene, without stopping, immediately after the impact. Later that same day representatives of the Maryland State Police received a tip that Prahl had left the State of Maryland and had gone to Chester, Pennsylvania. The Police were able to contact Prahl in Chester and Prahl agreed to return to the Maryland State Police Barracks in Cambridge.

There, after receiving Miranda warnings, Prahl signed a written statement, prepared by Sergeant Donald H. Cox of the Maryland State Police. In that statement, which Appellants proffered at trial, Prahl admitted striking Kuhl and Beutelspacher. Prahl was placed under arrest and subsequently tried and convicted in the Dorchester County District Court for assault and battery upon the persons of Kuhl and Beutelspacher. Prahl’s convictions were final.

At the trial in this case (and after the transcript of the criminal proceedings had been used to refresh the recollections of two witnesses, one of whom was Appellant Beutelspacher) Aetna offered into evidence a certified and true copy of the convictions and related docket entries of the District Court of Maryland for Dorchester County on the criminal charges of assault and battery upon the persons of Kuhl and Beutelspacher arising out of the events of August 7, 1977. Prahl had pled not guilty to the charges but declined to testify in his own defense at the criminal trial. Over objection of Appellants, the court admitted a certified copy of docket entries and convictions into evidence. ⁴⁸¹ The Appellants in their case attempted to have Sergeant Cox (after he had testified to the circumstances preceding his questioning of Prahl and his taking of a written statement) testify as to what Prahl had told him as contained in the aforesaid signed statement, but the court sustained Appellee’s objection to such testimony. The Appellants then offered the signed written statement of Prahl taken by Sergeant Cox, but again, the court sustained Appellee’s objection to the statement.

The statement was then proffered and marked for identification. Defendant Prahl did not file an Answer to the Declaration nor did he make an appearance at trial. At the time of the trial, all parties understood him to be residing out of the State of Maryland. The parties are in agreement that as a consequence of his act, Prahl was convicted in the District Court for Dorchester County of separate offenses for assault and battery upon the persons of Kuhl and Beutelspacher.

Prahl was named as a defendant by Aetna in the declaratory judgment action and although he was served he neither filed an answer to the action nor made an appearance at trial. At the close of appellants’ case at the initiative of appellants and appellee the trial judge submitted the following special verdict question to the jury: "Was the striking of Barry Kuhl and Stanley Beutelspacher expected or intended by Leonard Richard Prahl?” The jury answered the question in the affirmative. It is from that special verdict judgment that this appeal was filed. Appellants raise the following three issues to be determined by these proceedings: I. Did the lower court err in admitting into evidence a certified true copy of the conviction of Prahl together with related docket entries on criminal charges of assault and battery arising out of the same incident? ⁴⁸² II.

Did the lower court err in refusing to admit into evidence a signed written statement Prahl had given to the Maryland State Police approximately 12 hours after the incident resulting in injuries to appellants?

III

Did the lower court err in refusing to admit the oral testimony of a Maryland State Police Officer as to Prahl’s oral statement to said officer, which statement was memorialized in the written statement referred to in Issue II? I. At trial the presiding judge permitted the appellee, over objection, to place into evidence in the case in chief a certified copy of the docket entries in the District Court which established that Prahl had been accused of criminal charges of assault and battery arising out of the aforementioned incidents in this case. In addition, the trial judge, over objection, permitted the appellees in their case in chief to put into evidence a certified true copy establishing that Prahl was convicted of assault against each of the appellants. Appellants argue that the admission of these records into evidence was reversible error.

In support of their contention, appellants offer a number of cases decided by the Court of Appeals in which it was held that as a general rule a judgment in a criminal prosecution is not competent evidence to establish the truth of the facts in dispute in a civil action for damages occasioned by the offense of which the party stands convicted. See General Exchange Insurance Corporation v. Sherby, 165 Md. 1 , 165 A. 809 (1933). In Sherby , the Court of Appeals expressed the reasons for the general rule as follows: The reasons for this exclusion of the judgment in a criminal case as evidence of the plaintiff’s claim against the traverser are various. There is a weighty difference in the parties, objects, issues, procedure, and results in the two proceedings, with ⁴⁸³ different rules with respect to the competency of the witnesses and the relevancy, materiality, and weight of the