Opinion ID: 2263694
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Motions for a Directed Verdict

Text: The defendants first argue that the trial justice was in error in denying defendants' motions for a directed verdict. In Pimental v. D'Allaire, R.I., 330 A.2d 62 (1975), this court reiterated the rule governing the denial of a directed verdict. Therein we stated that the trial justice must view all the evidence in a light most favorable to the adverse party and is obliged to give such party the benefit of all reasonable and legitimate inferences which may be properly drawn therefrom without sifting or weighing the evidence or exercising the justice's independent judgment as to the credibility of witnesses; and, if after taking such a view, he finds that there exists issues upon which reasonable persons might draw conflicting conclusions, he should deny the motion and the issues should be left to the jury to determine. When the Supreme Court reviews the trial justice's decision on a motion for a directed verdict, the court looks at the evidence in the same manner and fashion as the trial justice and is bound by the same rules which govern him. In reviewing the record by this standard, we are convinced that the trial justice followed these strictures carefully. The first question to be decided by the trial justice was whether defendant driver was negligent. This issue was a factual question for the jury. There were some uncontradicted facts from which reasonable persons could come to different conclusions as to how the accident happened. In addition there were conflicting versions of the accident which created a question of fact as to whether defendant driver saw the child early enough to avoid the accident or failed to see the child when she should have. The trial justice also had to pass on the question of whether plaintiff child was guilty of negligence as a matter of law. [2] The plaintiff child was 3½ years old at the time of the accident. He was hit in the middle of a street 24 feet wide, and there was conflicting testimony as to how and when he arrived at that point. The trial justice concluded that the court could not rule that a 3½-year-old child running across a street is guilty of negligence as a matter of law in these circumstances. In Rosenthal v. United Electric Rys., 79 R.I. 11, 82 A.2d 830, 83 A.2d 918 (1951), this court considered the question of contributory negligence related to the conduct of a 5½-year-old child. We stated therein that the standard of ordinary care as applied to children of such tender years is only that degree of care which children of the same age, education, and experience would be expected to exercise in similar circumstances, and held that whether the minor plaintiff exercised due care conformable to the standard in such cases was a question of fact for the jury. See also Murnigham v. Dark, 107 R.I. 457, 268 A.2d 274 (1970), and Reek v. Lutz, 90 R.I. 340, 158 A.2d 145 (1960). Such a factual issue was presented here. Thus, the trial justice had a sufficient basis in both fact and law to deny defendants' motion for a directed verdict and to submit the case to the jury on the question of plaintiff child's contributory negligence. The record also supports the trial justice's ruling denying defendants' motion for a directed verdict at the close of all the evidence. One of the witnesses called by defendants was defendant operator's mother, who was a passenger in the car at the time of the accident. She testified that she saw the child as he came out of a yard, crossed the 5-foot-wide sidewalk, and then entered the street. The defendant operator then gave another version as to what she saw or failed to see. Thus it is clear that the trial justice was justified in denying defendants' motion at that juncture, since the foregoing evidence raised questions of fact to be determined by the jury.