Opinion ID: 1852505
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: whether the trial court erred in refusing to grant instruction d-5.

Text: ¶ 40. Belmont Homes asserts that the trial court erred in refusing to grant its instruction D-5 which, according to Belmont Homes, would have instructed the jury on the applicability of the superceding/intervening cause doctrine in this case. Stewart apparently does not contest the applicability of the doctrine but instead asserts that the instruction was abstract and did not adequately set forth the doctrine. ¶ 41. The proposed instruction states: The court instructs the jury that, if you find from a preponderance of the evidence that defendants caused the alleged rutted condition in question on the shoulder of Highway 25 South, but you also find from a preponderance of the evidence that plaintiff's own negligence superceded any act done by defendants by leading in unbroken sequence to the alleged injuries, then your verdict must be for defendants. ¶ 42. The instruction contains no definition of superceding cause and does not recite the facts to be found by the jury which would constitute such a superceding cause. Further, the instruction failed to inform the jury that the superceding negligence must be the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries. See, e.g., Huff v. Boyd, 242 So.2d 698, 701 (Miss.1971). With the omission of this information, the instruction becomes an incorrect statement of the doctrine of superceding cause. Thus, at best the instruction amounts to a vague statement of a principle of law and at worst is a misstatement of that principle. In Fred's Stores of Miss., Inc. v. M & H Drugs, Inc., 725 So.2d 902 (Miss.1998), we stated: The test to determine whether or not an instruction is abstract is to determine whether or not the instruction relates to facts shown by the evidence on the issues involved in the case. If an instruction merely relates a principle of law without relating it to an issue in the case, it is an abstract instruction and should not be given by the Court. Id. at 918. Proposed instruction D-5 does not adequately meet this test. This is not to say, however, that Belmont Homes was not entitled to an instruction regarding superceding cause. Nevertheless, since Belmont Homes did not propose an instruction that passes muster, we do not find the trial court in error for refusing to instruct on superceding cause. We find no merit to this assignment of error.