Title: Creel v. Brown
Citation: 508 So. 2d 684
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: April 24, 1987

508 So. 2d 684 (1987)
Connie H. CREEL and George D. Creel
v.
Roger Steve BROWN.
85-403.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
April 24, 1987.
Rehearing Denied June 5, 1987.
*685 George H. Howell of Howell, Sarto and Howell, Prattville, for appellants.
James H. Anderson of Hill, Hill, Carter, Franco, Cole &amp; Black, Montgomery, for appellee.
ALMON, Justice.
This appeal presents an issue of whether there was a scintilla of evidence of contributory negligence upon which to submit the question to the jury. At the conclusion of the trial of this suit for personal injuries and loss of consortium arising out of an automobile accident, the jury returned a verdict for defendant, finding contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff.
Connie H. Creel and her husband, George D. Creel, own and operate the Prattville Memory Gardens Cemetery. On May 3, 1983, Mrs. Creel was driving her automobile on Highway 14, preparing to turn left into the cemetery. The first driveway provides access to the office, and Mrs. Creel testified that she switched on her left turn signal and prepared to turn left at this first driveway. She stated that she then saw her husband working in the cemetery in an area reached by the second driveway into the cemetery, so she proceeded along the highway to this second driveway, which she said was about 200 feet past the first one. When she reached it, she came to a stop to wait for oncoming traffic to clear her way, and as she waited an automobile operated by defendant Roger Steve Brown struck her automobile from the rear.
There was very little evidence as to liability, because most of the proof concerned Mrs. Creel's injuries. Therefore, we are able to quote substantially all of the proof regarding liability. The pertinent testimony by Mrs. Creel is as follows:
The police officer who investigated the accident testified: "I asked both drivers could they tell me briefly what happened from their point of view. And he said he just didn't see her when she was trying to make her turn."
Mr. Brown's testimony on direct examination about the accident was as follows:
Brown's testimony on cross-examination clearly demonstrates that there was no proof of any negligence on the part of Mrs. Creel which proximately contributed to the accident:
At the close of the evidence the parties moved for directed verdicts. The trial court granted Brown's motion for directed verdict on the wantonness count and denied it otherwise. The court then said to the Creels' attorney:
The court instructed the jury on contributory negligence and on the rules of the road, including the following, based upon Code 1975, § 32-5A-133:
Contributory negligence on the part of a plaintiff which proximately contributes to the plaintiff's injuries will bar *688 recovery. Brown v. Piggly-Wiggly Stores, 454 So. 2d 1370 (Ala.1984). However, the defendant must plead and prove contributory negligence:
Alabama Great Southern R.R. v. Evans, 288 Ala. 25, 30, 256 So. 2d 861, 865 (1972); American Furniture Galleries, Inc. v. McWane, 477 So. 2d 369 (Ala.1985); United States Fidelity &amp; Guaranty Co. v. Jones, 356 So. 2d 596 (Ala.1977).
While the question of contributory negligence is normally one for the jury, it has been held that "Where the facts are such that all reasonable [people] must reach the same conclusion, contributory negligence may be found as a matter of law." Brown v. Piggly-Wiggly Stores, supra, at 1372. See Alabama Digest, Negligence, Key No. 136(26). Conversely, if a defendant does not present a scintilla of evidence of contributory negligence, he should not be entitled to submit the question to the jury. Banks v. Harbin, 500 So. 2d 1027 (Ala.1986).
Brown's evidence does not present a scintilla of evidence that Mrs. Creel was negligent. He testified that when he first saw her car it was stopped and the turn signal was on, not that she suddenly turned on her signal and came to a stop. He testified that it was apparent that she was stopped waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear. His testimony that the accident happened in a split second is not attributable to Mrs. Creel's operation of her vehicle, but to his perception of the situation. The trial court's observation that there was no evidence of how long she had had her signal on ignores her testimony that she had it on from the time she passed the office until the time she reached the second driveway. Even assuming that Mrs. Creel failed to give a signal for the required 100 feet (although there was no proof of this), such a failure under the facts of this case could not have proximately caused the accident, because Brown testified that when he first saw Mrs. Creel's automobile her signal was on.
Because there was not a scintilla of evidence that Mrs. Creel was negligent, the trial court should have granted a directed verdict for the Creels on Brown's plea of contributory negligence. Because the jury specifically returned the verdict for Brown on its finding of "Contributory negligence on [the] part of the plaintiff," the trial court should have granted the Creels' motion for new trial. The judgment denying that motion is reversed and the cause is remanded for a new trial.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
TORBERT, C.J., and MADDOX and BEATTY, JJ., concur.
HOUSTON, J., concurs specially.
HOUSTON, Justice (concurring specially).
Does a witness's isolated answer to a particular question, removed from the totality of the testimony of that witness which explains or qualifies that answer, satisfy our scintilla-of-evidence sufficiency standard? To me, it does not. I believe that we must review all of the testimony of a particular witness to determine whether there is any evidence to take a plaintiff's case or a defendant's affirmative defense to the jury. In this case, if I read only certain of Brown's answers to certain questions addressed to him, I could arrive at a metaphysical judgment that I saw a gleam, glimmer, spark, or trace of evidence from which I could logically infer that Mrs. Creel was contributorily negligent. If I analyze all of Brown's testimony and all other evidence introduced, that gleam, glimmer, spark, or trace disappears, and I am of the opinion that it would be logically unreasonable for a jury to conclude that Mrs. Creel was contributorily negligent. Therefore, I agree that the affirmative defense of contributory *689 negligence should not have been submitted to the jury.