Title: Cole v. Todd
Citation: 355 So. 2d 292
Docket Number: 49692
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: November 30, 1977

355 So. 2d 292 (1977) Jerry COLE, Sue Bratcher and Kathlyn McGriff, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Myrtle (Jones) TODD and Standard Home Shopping Service Corporation, Defendants-Appellees. No. 49692. Supreme Court of Mississippi. November 30, 1977. Rehearing Denied March 8, 1978. Miller &amp; Miller, Harold Leon Miller, Pearl, Robert L. Williams, Water Valley, for plaintiffs-appellants. Daniel, Coker, Horton, Bell &amp; Dukes, C. Michael Ellingburg, John M. Roach, Jackson, Alfred G. Nicols, Jr., Brandon, for defendants-appellees. Before PATTERSON, ROBERTSON and SUGG, JJ. PATTERSON, Chief Justice, for the Court: Jerry Cole, Sue Bratcher and Kathlyn McGriff appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Rankin County which dismissed *293 their cause against Myrtle (Jones) Todd and Standard Home Shopping Service Corporation for the wrongful death of their father, J.C. Cole. The judgment resulted from a jury verdict for the defendants although there is no evidence disputing the fact that a vehicle driven by Mrs. Todd struck and killed Cole. The primary assignments of error concern the court's refusal to grant a peremptory instruction for the plaintiffs, to sustain a motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict and to find the jury's verdict against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. At approximately 8:50 p.m. on June 12, 1975, Mrs. Todd, while about the business of Standard Home Shopping Service Corporation, was driving a 1973 Ford Econoline van east on Highway 80 in Pearl, Mississippi. According to her, she was proceeding at twenty-five or thirty miles per hour with her headlights on in clear weather when the following occurred: An employee in the nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant observed, intermittently, for about two hours, a person later determined to be J.C. Cole, as he sat and stood on the shoulder of the road near the intersection of Highway 80 and Valentour Road. Her testimony was that Cole acted "weird." She saw a white van pull to the edge of the highway and observed the driver looking back. Immediately thereafter she noticed a man lying on or near the road and watched the van as it sped through a red light and passed from view. An officer promptly arrived on the scene and found Cole lying unconscious about eighteen inches from the edge of the traveled portion of Highway 80 and bleeding from the right side of his head and right arm. At the time Cole was wearing a light lavender shirt and dark colored trousers. The officer observed no skid marks at the scene. Cole died from his injuries some fourteen hours later. The right rear-view mirror of the van driven by Mrs. Todd was found to be broken and was removed for examination. The record does not disclose the distance the mirror projected from the van's side although it does appear from photographs that the projection was no more than ten or eleven inches. The laboratory test of the rear-view mirror revealed bloodstains upon it although they were too small for confirmation as human blood. Mrs. Todd testified she did not remember her activities after the accident. However, out of the jury's presence an employee of the police department testified that Mrs. Todd turned herself in on June 14, 1975, for hitting a man, stating "she had heard it on the news" and "couldn't live with herself any longer knowing that she did it." At the time she made an oral statement and wrote the following: Objections were interposed to both statements which were sustained in part, the court permitting into evidence the written statement with the exception of the reference to a Mr. Thrash and the time and excluding all of the oral statement except "I hit the man." *294 Although we are loath to disturb a jury verdict, the evidence leaves no alternative to setting it aside because there is no evidence contrary to Mrs. Todd's testimony concerning the accident and it is sufficient, in our opinion, to establish a case of liability as a matter of law. In Layton v. Cook, 248 Miss. 690, 160 So. 2d 685 (1964), we stated: And in Robertson v. Welch, 242 Miss. 110, 134 So. 2d 491 (1961), a motorist negligently struck two pedestrians while they were crossing a highway in a closely built-up area. After noting that the accident occurred in the late hours of a rainy night while the motorist had his headlights on, this Court reversed a jury verdict for the defendant and entered judgment for the plaintiffs, stating: Appellees' defense was that Cole was intoxicated and his negligence was the sole proximate cause of the accident. There was evidence from which it could be reasonably inferred that Cole was intoxicated, but without more, this does not absolve their liability. In Robertson, supra, we held intoxication did not release the motorist from compliance with the law or from the observance of reasonable rules of care. We held: The record reveals that Mrs. Todd was driving at slow to moderate speed with unobstructed vision when Cole was struck. The area was developed and some of the nearby business establishments were lighted. Indeed, the employee of the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant testified, without objection, that she believed there was a light near the area where Cole was standing. Considering the condition of the highway, the unobscured vision of the driver as well as the nearness of Cole to the traveled portion of the road, we conclude that reasonable care dictates that Mrs. Todd should have seen Mr. Cole. We are fortified in this conclusion by the absence of any statement by the driver that she did not have an excellent view of the highway and its periphery. The only explanation that we fathom for the accident is that she was not maintaining a proper lookout for pedestrians and this negligence was the proximate cause of Cole's death. We are of the opinion the trial court erred in not granting the plaintiffs' motion for a peremptory instruction. The next assignment of error is that the trial court erred in not allowing Mrs. Todd's statements to the police into evidence. We think they were admissible because they impeached her prior testimony of not remembering anything concerning the accident subsequent to it, thereby affecting the credibility of her testimony. In brief, her testimony was that she hit the man, panicked, fled the scene and remembered nothing afterward. However, the statements to the police reveal that she did remember, though belatedly, and sought legal advice. The other numerous assignments of error are found to be without merit and since they are largely procedural and not likely to recur, we decline comment upon them. *295 We are of the opinion the trial court erred in not granting a peremptory instruction for the plaintiffs on the question of liability. The cause is reversed and remanded on the sole question of damages. REVERSED AND REMANDED. INZER and SMITH, P. JJ., and ROBERTSON, SUGG, WALKER, BROOM, LEE and BOWLING, JJ., concur. ROBERTSON, Justice, dissenting: A majority of the Court is of the opinion that the Petition for Rehearing filed by Myrtle (Jones) Todd and Standard Home Shopping Service Corporation, should be denied. I am of the opinion that the Petition for Rehearing should be granted, the original opinion withdrawn, and the judgment of the trial court, which was based on a jury verdict for the defendants, affirmed. Therefore I respectfully dissent. It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the judgment of the Circuit Court of Rankin County for the defendants was based on a jury verdict after a full trial of all the issues. The jury was properly instructed that: The jury was properly instructed on contributory negligence. This was as it should be, because Mississippi Code Annotated section 11-7-17 (1972) provides: These are the undisputed facts that the jury had squarely before it: Mrs. Myrtle (Jones) Todd was driving a white 1973 Ford Econoline van east on Highway 80, about 8:50 p.m. on the night of June 12, 1975. U.S. Highway 80 is a four-lane highway with two lanes going east and two lanes going west. The weather was clear, and Mrs. Todd had her headlights on as she traveled east in the south lane of traffic. She was watching the road ahead in her lane of traffic when she heard a thump on the right side of her Econoline van. She drove a short distance down the highway and turned off on the frontage road, returning to the spot where she heard the thump. J.C. Cole was lying on the shoulder of the road. Denise Allen, an employee of the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, called as a witness for the plaintiffs, testified that she had observed Cole for about two hours before the accident. She testified that the shoulder of the highway slopes into a ditch and that he had been slumped down on his elbows along the shoulder of the road; that he at times was just lying down, then he would sit down, then he would prop back on his elbows, then he would stand up and face the sun, then he would face straightforward, and then he would sit down for awhile. Her testimony was that Cole acted "weird", that it was her impression that he was drunk. An officer who promptly arrived on the scene found Cole lying unconscious about 18 inches from the edge of the paved portion of Highway 80, and bleeding from the right side of his head and right arm. Cole was promptly rushed to a hospital in an ambulance and died some 14 hours later. The only damage to Mrs. Todd's van was a broken right rearview mirror. Denise Allen also testified that she observed a white van pull off on the gravel at the edge of the highway and saw the driver looking back. She watched this van as it sped through a red light and passed from view. She testified that this was not Mrs. *296 Todd's van, and of course she was right because Mrs. Todd's undisputed testimony was that she turned back on the frontage road and returned to where she had heard the thump on the right side of the van. In my view the jury properly applied the principles of law involved (as instructed by the court) to these undisputed facts in returning its verdict for the defendants. In setting aside the jury's verdict for the defendants, and in ruling as a matter of law that the defendants are liable, we are departing from a long-established principle of law that was well stated in the recent case of Shelton v. Coleman, 323 So. 2d 90 (Miss. 1975), in these words: In Gulf Oil Corporation v. Turner, 235 So. 2d 464 (Miss. 1970), this Court said: See also: Sprayberry v. Blount, 336 So. 2d 1289 (Miss. 1976); Hubbard v. Morris, 275 So. 2d 858 (Miss. 1973); Maness v. Illinois Central Railroad Co., 271 So. 2d 418 (Miss. 1972); McCollum v. Randolph, 220 So. 2d 310 (Miss. 1969); Spell v. Ruff, 217 So. 2d 7 (Miss. 1968); Southern Pine Superior Stud Corp. v. Herring, 207 So. 2d 632 (Miss. 1968); Dendy v. City of Pascagoula, 193 So. 2d 559 (Miss. 1967). Applying this long-established rule to the case at bar, we should have no hesitancy in affirming the jury verdict for the defendants. Smith v. Kilpatrick, 254 Miss. 155, 180 So. 2d 607 (1965), is very similar to the case at bar. This Court summarized the testimony in this way: In upholding a directed verdict for the defendant, this Court said: Hebert v. Lenart, 247 Miss. 494, 153 So. 2d 658 (1963) is also very similar to the case at bar. Hebert was the driver of a school bus, and, after discharging some children on the right side of the street, he checked his rear-view mirrors and pulled away from the curb. He had gone only a few feet when he heard a noise and felt something like a bump. He stopped and discovered that the left rear wheels of the bus had passed over a small boy on a bicycle. The area was one in which many children played and rode their bicycles in the street. This Court, speaking through Judge Kyle, reversed a judgment for the plaintiffs, stating: Furr v. Brookhaven Creamery, 188 Miss. 1, 192 So. 838 (1940), is almost an identical case. In Furr, a 16-year-old boy was attempting to board a milk truck as it was proceeding down the road. The plaintiff, decedent's mother, was the only person examined as to the details, as the trial court granted the defendant a directed verdict at the conclusion of the plaintiff's case. The Court summarized her testimony as follows: In holding that the directed verdict for the defendant was properly given, this Court said: The principal fault I find with the majority opinion in the case at bar is that we are not only ignoring and disregarding the undisputed facts which support the jury's verdict for the defendants, but also speculating and conjecturing as to how the accident happened in order to find that, as a matter of law, the defendants are liable. The most that could be said in the case at bar is that it was a jury issue. Invariably we have affirmed the jury verdict. In Morris, by next friend, v. Boleware, 228 Miss. 139, 87 So. 2d 246 (1956), this Court said: We affirmed a jury verdict for the defendants in Oglesby et al. v. Bagby Hall Motors, Inc. (and Olen McKay), 209 So. 2d 644 (Miss. 1968). The amazing thing about the Court's decision in the case at bar is that, while in Morris and Oglesby the victim was in front of the defendant's car when hit yet we affirmed jury verdicts for the defendants; while in the case at bar the victim apparently backed into the side of the defendant's van with no chance for the defendant to avert the accident, yet we are finding as a matter of law that the defendant was liable. The physical facts prove that the only way Cole could have been hit on the right side of his head by the rearview mirror on the right side of defendant's van was to move backwards from the shoulder of the highway into the right side of the van. Robertson v. Welch, 242 Miss. 110, 134 So. 2d 491 (1961), cited in the majority opinion, is clearly distinguishable. In Robertson, four people were crossing the highway from south to north. Welch was proceeding west in the north lane. As they neared the north edge of the pavement Mrs. Raines was hit by the right front headlight and fender of Welch's car. In the case at bar, Cole backed into the right side of Mrs. Todd's van as she was abreast of him in her proper lane on the highway. She had no chance whatsoever to avert the accident, and the jury so found. I would affirm the verdict of the jury for the defendants. SMITH, P.J., and BROOM, J., join in this dissent.