Opinion ID: 1982219
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Proximate cause as an affirmative defense.

Text: The plaintiff challenges the district court's instruction (No. 14) encompassing the defendant's affirmative defense that the intoxication, if any, of the assailants was not a proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries. He asserts there was no evidence to support its submission because there was undisputed testimony that the assailants never fought unless they were intoxicated. We disagree. Generally, proximate cause is a question for the jury and it is only in exceptional cases that it may be decided as a matter of law. Iowa R.App.P. 14( f )(10); Johnson v. Junkmann, 395 N.W.2d 862, 864 (Iowa 1986). As previously stated, Gremmel and Mark Kohn had been involved in a prior incident at The Wheelhouse bar. That incident, coupled with the exchange of words between Mark Kohn and Gremmel in Junnie's Lounge and Gremmel's conduct outside the lounge, supported a reasonable inference that the ill-feeling between the two, rather than the intoxication, led to the assault. Moreover, there was testimony that all three assailants had propensities to fight even when they were sober. The district court did not err in submitting this defense.