Opinion ID: 1400611
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: APPEAL OF DEFENDANT McKENZIE

Text: 1. Since the decedent was a guest of the defendant McKenzie it was incumbent on the plaintiff to establish that her death was proximately caused by his gross negligence or reckless disregard of the rights of others in the operation of his automobile. No question is made here as to the sufficiency of the proof to take the case to the jury. All the assignments of error are based on exceptions taken to instructions given by the court. The first five assignments present practically the same contention, namely, that the court instructed the jury on ordinary negligence and the statutory rules of the road in such a way as to confuse the jury and leave them in doubt as to the duty of the plaintiff to show that the accident was caused by the defendant's gross negligence. The instructions which are the subjects of these assignments of error may be summarized as follows: The court defined negligence as it is usually defined. The court charged the jury that it was the duty of the defendants to exercise reasonable care in the circumstances and explained what reasonable care means. The court told the jury of the statutory rules of the road applicable under the evidence, and that a violation of any of these provisions by an operator of a motor vehicle would be negligence per se or negligence in and of itself, and that if the jury should find from a preponderance of the evidence that defendant McKenzie violated any one or more of such rules of the road, then they must find that he was guilty of negligence. The court instructed the jury upon the duty of a driver of an automobile to maintain a reasonably constant and continuous lookout, and upon the designated speed at the place of the accident, and that any speed in excess of such designated speed is prima facie evidence of a violation of the basic rule as previously defined. These instructions, it is said, are contradictory to instructions which the court gave later advising the jury that they could not find against the defendant McKenzie unless satisfied that the death of the decedent was caused by McKenzie's gross negligence. It is argued that, in view of this inconsistency, it is impossible to say which instructions the jury followed and that the judgment should therefore be reversed. In order to consider these contentions in their proper light it is necessary to review the instructions as a whole. The court first explained to the jury the issues as made by the pleadings, which included allegations of gross negligence against the defendant McKenzie and of negligence against defendants Southern Pacific and Holzkamp, as well as charges by the latter two that the negligence of McKenzie was the sole proximate cause of the collision, and a like charge by McKenzie against his co-defendants. Immediately thereafter the court defined negligence, proximate cause and reasonable care, following these instructions with an explanation of the statutory rules of the road, then with the instructions on lookout and designated speed. The court then read to the jury the statute governing the liability of the operator of an automobile to his guest, following which he said: Because of this law I instruct you that defendant McKenzie would not be liable if he was guilty of only ordinary or simple negligence. Before you would be warranted in returning a verdict against him, you must find that he was guilty of gross negligence or reckless disregard of the rights of others, etc. The instructions then proceeded for nearly three pages of the transcript with an explanation of the meaning of gross negligence and reckless disregard of the rights of others. The instruction that the jury could not find against the defendant McKenzie unless they found him guilty of gross negligence or reckless disregard of the rights of others was repeated. The jury were told that it was not enough that the plaintiff show that defendant McKenzie did not watch as carefully as ordinarily prudent drivers would do, and that they could not return a verdict for the plaintiff against the defendant McKenzie based upon speed alone, and that in both these particulars gross negligence or reckless disregard of the rights of others must be established. Again, the jury were told that if the gross negligence of the defendant McKenzie combined with the negligence of the other defendants to cause the death of the decedent, the jury's verdict should be for the plaintiff and against all the defendants. In another instruction the court spoke of negligence as distinguished from gross negligence, and once more, before the court gave certain instructions affecting the defendants Southern Pacific and Holzkamp, the court repeated, The defendant Lloyd L. McKenzie can be held liable only in the event it is established by the plaintiff to a moral certainty or conviction that he was grossly negligent, etc. 2-4. This was a three-cornered controversy. The defendants Southern Pacific and Holzkamp were charged with negligence, hence it was necessary to instruct upon that subject. Apart from this, it is entirely proper in a gross negligence case to instruct the jury on the meaning of negligence. In its simplest definition gross negligence means nothing more nor less than great negligence. How it is possible to reach the conclusion that a party has been guilty of gross negligence without an understanding of the meaning of the term negligence is something difficult to conceive. So, also, as to the applicable statutory provisions governing the operation of a motor vehicle. Plaintiff was entitled to have the jury informed about them by the court and that their violation constitutes negligence. When such a violation is established to the jury's satisfaction it is for the jury to determine whether the defendant's conduct in that particular was of such an aggravated character as to constitute gross negligence. In Turner v. McCready, 190 Or. 28, 222 P.2d 1010, 1023, decided since this case was argued, it appears that nearly nine hours after the case had been submitted to the jury the court, at the jury's request, gave further instructions at length upon ordinary negligence alone, no mention being made of any rule concerning gross negligence. We held that this was reversible error. But that was because of the peculiar circumstances of the case, and our opinion recognized that when a trial court is instructing the jury in a guest case it is not necessarily error to define negligence in one paragraph and gross negligence in another. The rule which requires that the instructions should be construed as a whole will normally be applied, although we think it the better practice for the court in the very instructions which define negligence to caution the jury that negligence alone is not ground for recovery. 5. Reading the instructions in this case as a whole, we think that they sufficiently apprised the jury that the defendant McKenzie's duty to his guest was to be measured by the standards fixed by the guest statute. There was no contradiction in the instructions as there was in Smith v. Laflar, 143 Or. 65, 69, 20 P.2d 391, which is relied on by the defendant. There a judgment for the plaintiff was reversed for the reason, among others, that the court in a guest case instructed the jury as follows: The driver of a motor vehicle owes to those riding with him the duty to exercise ordinary and reasonable care and not to increase the danger or to create any new danger. This instruction was properly held to be absolutely contradictory and inconsistent with those given relative to gross negligence. In view of this inconsistency the court was unable to say with any degree of certainty by which standard of care the conduct of the defendant was measured. In the instant case no such inconsistency appears in the instructions. It is true that Smith v. Laflar appears to have been decided also upon the ground that the court in defining negligence failed to tell the jury that such definition was given for the purpose of distinguishing it from gross negligence. While that is the safer course, it does not necessarily follow that its omission is always ground for reversal. The question in every case is whether, upon a view of the instructions as a whole, it can be reasonably said that the jury was probably misled, and, as already stated, we are of the opinion that that is not true of the instructions under consideration. The only other assignment of error in defendant McKenzie's brief is based upon the following instruction to which his counsel duly excepted: It is contended by plaintiff that defendants Holzkamp and Southern Pacific Company were negligent in that they failed to sound any warning by whistle, bell, or otherwise, of the approach of the freight train. I instruct you, however, that there is no evidence to sustain this charge and you must, accordingly, disregard the same in your determination of the case. Assuming, what the plaintiff contests, that the defendant McKenzie is in any position to challenge the instruction, we are of the opinion that, for reasons to be stated in our consideration of the appeal of the plaintiff, the instruction was free from error. An objection to the instruction on designated speed not covered by what has been said should be noticed. The instruction was as follows: If you find that defendant McKenzie was driving and operating his automobile at a rate of speed in excess of 20 miles an hour when approaching within 100 feet of the grade crossing of defendant Southern Pacific Company's steam railway, and that his view of such crossing or of any traffic on such railway within 400 feet in either direction then and there was obstructed, then you must find that he was driving in excess of the speed designated by statute for that particular location. In this connection, you are instructed that any speed in excess of such designated speed is prima facie evidence of a violation of the basic rule as I have defined that rule to you. Prima facie evidence, or primary evidence, is defined as follows: That evidence which suffices for the proof of a particular fact until contradicted and overcome by other evidence. The defendant McKenzie excepted to the instruction on the grounds, among others, that it was not applicable and that a violation of the statute would not be the proximate cause of the accident. Chapter 458, Oregon Laws, 1941, § 1 (b), contains provisions fixing the designated speeds for motor vehicles in various described localities. Twenty miles an hour is designated When approaching within 100 feet of a grade crossing of a steam, electric or street railway where the driver's view of such crossing or of any traffic on such railway within a distance of 400 feet in either direction is obstructed. The same statute (§ 1 (b)) makes speed in excess of a designated speed prima facie evidence of a violation of the so-called basic rule. Ch. 458, Oregon Laws, 1941, § 1 (b). The defendant McKenzie argues that because the train was occupying the crossing at the time his automobile approached it the driving of an automobile at a rate of speed in excess of twenty miles per hour while the driver's view of any traffic on said railway within four hundred feet in either direction from said crossing was obstructed could not have been a proximate cause of said collision. 6. We think the argument unsound. There was evidence that at this crossing the view of a driver approaching from the west was obstructed to the south within 400 feet. The statute makes no exception of an occupied crossing. Therefore, the area 100 feet immediately west of the crossing was an area to which the twenty-mile designated speed applied. Now, while it is true that the obstructed view to the south did not cause the accident, the speed of the automobile did, and, therefore, a law regulating speed in that area is pertinent. Had it been observed by McKenzie, there might have been no accident.