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Sanchez v. Wiley9/19/1997
WECHSLER, Judge.
{1} Plaintiff Laura Lee Sanchez appeals the trial court's ruling granting the motion for directed verdict of Defendants Robert Wiley and Western Excavators with respect to Plaintiff's claim for punitive damages. Plaintiff also appeals the trial court's ruling which precluded references to Defendant Wiley's driving record for purposes of impeachment. We reverse on the first issue and affirm on the second.
Facts
{2} Plaintiff was driving on a residential street when Wiley struck her vehicle while operating a backhoe. Two witnesses heard the crash but did not actually see the accident. Plaintiff's friend, seventeen-year-old Ulises Hernandez, was one of those witnesses. Hernandez confronted Wiley face-to-face after the accident and smelled alcohol on Wiley. Hernandez also noticed that Wiley staggered and that his speech was slurred. Hernandez testified that he had seen intoxicated persons before and that, in his opinion, Wiley was drunk.
{3} Plaintiff filed a claim for personal injury . She deposed Wiley and asked him in his deposition about previous arrests for driving while intoxicated (DWI). He admitted to having three prior DWI convictions and stated that he had not driven while his license was suspended. Prior to trial, the trial court granted Defendants' motion in limine preventing Plaintiff from inquiring into Wiley's "former and subsequent DWIs and his former or subsequent drinking habits." The order also stated that Plaintiff is "prohibited from impeaching . . . Wiley with driving records or drinking habits." The trial court's order further provided that "Defendants' Motion in Limine concerning . . . Wiley's driving on a revoked license is granted subject to the right of Plaintiffs' counsel to ask . . . Wiley at trial whether he had a valid driver's license . . . at the time of the accident and . . . whether the accident would have occurred had . . . Wiley not been on the roadway with a front end loader."
Thereafter, Plaintiff obtained information from the New Mexico Technet/Legalnet system that, just prior to his deposition, Wiley had received two additional DWI convictions and had driven with a suspended license, resulting in a suspension of his driving privileges for one hundred years. She filed a motion to reconsider the order in limine which the trial court denied.
{4} Plaintiff argued in closing that evidence of Wiley's negligence included indications that he was intoxicated. At the close of Plaintiff's case, the court granted Defendants' motion for a directed verdict on the claim for punitive damages. The jury returned a verdict on Plaintiff's claim for compensatory damages for $29,453.00. It attributed twenty-five percent of fault to Plaintiff, reducing the award to $22,089.75, which Defendants paid to Plaintiff. After accepting the payment, Plaintiff filed this appeal.
Waiver of Right to Appeal
{5} Defendants argue that Plaintiff waived her right to appeal by accepting payment of the judgment. They claim that the punitive damages issues and the liability issues are so closely related that they will be prejudiced if Plaintiff is allowed a new trial on the punitive damages issue.
{6} The general rule is that a party cannot accept the benefit of a judgment and then appeal from the judgment when the effect of the appeal could be to annul the judgment. See ); . An exception to the general rule is that, if there is no possibility that the appeal may cause the plaintiff to recover less than Plaintiff has received under the judgment, the right to appeal is not impaired. See . The exception applies in this case. The only issue raised on appeal concerns punitive damages. No
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