Wheelock v. Eyl

This is an interlocutory appeal from the granting of a motion for new trial in an automobile negligence case. Defendants-appellants raise the evidentiary question of whether the bare payment of a traffic ticket fine for a violation involving conduct subsequently at issue in a civil case may be admitted as evidence of negligence in that case. We reverse the trial *76court’s grant of a new trial and hold that neither bare payments of fines nor guilty pleas may be admitted as evidence in a civil trial for the purpose of showing that substantially the same wrongful conduct at issue in the civil…