American Family Mutual Insurance v. Shannon

The issue in this case is whether a trial court, sitting as the trier of fact, can rely on an unrequested, unannounced, unaccompanied and unrecorded view of an accident scene in assessing- the evidence produced at trial.

At approximately 12:01 a.m. on the morning of August 15, 1981, a collision occurred in the town of Mount Pleasant in the northbound lane of Highway 32, also known as Racine Street. David J. Wodicka stated to police who arrived at the scene that he had been traveling northbound on the street, preparing to stop and turn left into a parking lot, when his car was struck from the…