Opinion ID: 1720164
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Instruction Number 6-A

Text: Your verdict must be for plaintiff on defendant's counterclaim, whether or not plaintiff was negligent, if you believe: First, defendant failed to provide adequate warnings of the location of the pipe line, and Second, defendant was thereby negligent, and Third, such negligence of the defendant directly caused or directly contributed to cause any damage defendant may have sustained. Assignment No. 17 alleged error in giving No. 6-A on contributory negligence because it contained no requirement that plaintiff did not know and by the exercise of ordinary care could not have known of the existence of the pipe line. This assignment must be sustained. Instruction No. 6-A is a defensive instruction by which contractor sought to absolve himself from the results of his alleged negligence in rupturing the pipeline by submitting the contributory negligence of pipeline in failing to warn him or his employee of the location of the pipeline. Lack of knowledge on the part of contractor and his employee was the sine qua non of nonliability. The instruction, however, permitted a verdict in favor of contractor on this issue without requiring a finding that contractor and his employee did not have the requisite knowledge (the lack of which would necessitate a warning), and this whether or not plaintiff was negligent. The only negligence on the part of plaintiff to which this last clause could have referred was that described in Instructions Nos. 4-A and 6, namely, negligence on the part of contractor or his employee in failing to avoid striking the pipeline when they knew or by using ordinary care should have known of the existence of the pipeline. Instruction No. 6-A thus authorized a verdict for contractor on pipeline's counterclaim on the basis of lack of the pertinent knowledge even though the jury might at the same time find that contractor or his employee had that knowledge. This conflict in the instructions justified and necessitated the alternative order granting pipeline a new trial of its counterclaim. Other alleged errors in Instruction No. 6-A may be reconsidered and any deficiencies rectified on a new trial. Contractor claims that if a new trial is granted to one party it must be granted to both parties on all issues because the issues are so interrelated and interdependent that the trial of one necessarily involves the trial of the other. Contractor cites Portell v. Pevely Dairy Co., Mo.Sup., 388 S.W.2d 790, and Vogelgesang v. Waelder, Mo.App., 238 S.W.2d 849, and cases cited, including Bramblett v. Harlow, Mo. App., 75 S.W.2d 626. These cases do not require the granting of a new trial on all issues in the situation before us. In the cases cited the prevailing party's error affected the trial of the losing party's case and the erring party was required to surrender his favorable verdict on the offsetting claim because the issues were intermixed, could not fairly be tried separately and there was the possibility of inconsistent verdicts. None of those situations obtains here. There was no prevailing party. Both claim and counterclaim resulted in a defendant's verdict in what is colloquially termed a dogfall. The error requiring a new trial of the counterclaim was not an error which adversely affected the trial of the claim under the petition. Claimant, who wants his case retried if the counterclaim is retried, lost on the claim under his petition in a trial free of error. The error in the trial of the counterclaim was of claimant's own doing. To direct a retrial of the claim under the petition because of error in claimant's defensive instruction in the trial of the counterclaim would allow claimant to benefit from his own error. There is no perceptible reason why pipeline's counterclaim may not be fairly tried independently and separately from contractor's claim. One reason the cited cases required both claim and counterclaim to be retried together on remand was to avoid the possibility of inconsistent verdicts, but that possibility does not exist in the present situation. Whether pipeline prevails or loses on resubmission of its counterclaim the result in either event will not be inconsistent with the denial of recovery to contractor on his petition. Only if contractor had prevailed on his claim under his petition would the possibility of such an inconsistency have arisen. Accordingly, the judgment on the issues raised by contractor's petition and pipeline's answer is affirmed, and the judgment on the issues raised by pipeline's counterclaim and contractor's reply is reversed and the cause is remanded for a new trial of the latter issues. The first judgment referred to is ordered held in abeyance until judgment is rendered on the latter issues, at which time final judgment on all issues and all counts shall be entered. WELBORN and HIGGINS, CC., concur.