Opinion ID: 1318727
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: basis in the evidence to instruct on res ipsa loquitur

Text: For decision of this case we have one final inquiry whether an instruction on res ipsa loquitur was appropriate in light of the evidence that was adduced. It should be kept in mind that the defendant's driver was the only eyewitness to the historical facts, i.e., what transpired. From the driver's account, which was direct evidence, the jury is entitled to draw inferences based on any of the logical inductive or deductive processes by which the brain arrives at reasoned conclusions from given data. There was sharp dispute about the cause of the gasoline vapors reaching the truck's engine and producing the racing that, in turn, resulted in acceleration of the pumping process. The defendant charged the plaintiff with negligence in having a vent pipe that was shorter than allowed by code and having a cap that deflected vapors downward where east wind trapped them against the building so as to reach the truck's engine. The jury could have rejected the driver's testimony that the east wind was blowing so as to trap the vapors in that manner. The driver did not notice gasoline spewing from the fill pipe until after the engine began to race, but because the driver did not know when the tank would be full with normal pumping, it could be found that the gasoline began to spill from the fill pipe by overfill and produced the vapors. Such a finding would be supported by the fact that gasoline came out of the fill pipe and that the pipe was still filled to within eight inches of the top even after the fire. The doctrine of res ipsa loquitur may be invoked to establish both negligence and causation. In many cases the inference to be drawn is a double one, that the accident was caused in a particular manner, and that the defendant's conduct with reference to that cause was negligent. The inference of negligence may arise either where a definite cause is known, or where the accident is more or less a mystery, with no particular cause indicated. When a gasoline filling station mysteriously explodes, many possible explanations can be suggested, but the most likely one may be negligence on the part of those in charge. The plaintiff is not required to eliminate with certainty all other possible causes or inferences, which would mean that the plaintiff must prove a civil case beyond a reasonable doubt. All that is needed is evidence from which reasonable persons can say that on the whole it is more likely that there was negligence associated with the cause of the event than that there was not. (Footnotes omitted.) Prosser & Keeton, Torts 247-48, § 39 (5th ed 1984). That the inferences permissible under the doctrine go to causation as well as negligence was recognized in DeWitt v. Rissman, 218 Or. 549, 559, 346 P.2d 104 (1959), where it is stated: Thus, a party who depends upon the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur must establish facts from which the good sense of the jury can draw a conclusion that the alleged wrongdoer was negligent and in that manner caused the injury. We believe that the key question to be asked by a court is that which we recently approved: Could it have been reasonably found by the jury that the accident which occurred in this case is of a kind which more probably than not would not have occurred in the absence of negligence on the part of the defendant? Watzig v. Tobin, supra, 292 Or. at 649, 642 P.2d 651. Asking that question about the evidence in this case leads us to conclude, as did the trial court and the Court of Appeals, that the plaintiff was entitled to the benefit of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur and that in instructing the jury the trial court did not err in any respect covered by the defendant's objections before the charge or exceptions after the charge.