Court Opinion

ID: 9537305
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:15:33.801386+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:56:24.377737
License: Public Domain

COWAN, Judge (concurring in part and dissenting in part). I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion on the questions of the stop sign and sudden emergency instructions. I dissent because of the banishment of unavoidable accident as an affirmative defense. The majority opinion adopts the reasoning in Williamson v. Smith, 83 N.M. 336, 491 P.2d 1147 (1971), where our Supreme Court more or less exiled the affirmative defense of assumption of risk, the theory being that this defense was included within the defense of contributory negligence. The majority opinion reasons that unavoidable accident is included in the defense of a general denial or lack of negligence on the part of the defendant. It seems to me that the true underlying reason for the courts’ action in Williamson and now in this case is reflected in Justice Oman’s specially concurring opinion in the former case, where he stated, referring to the defenses of assumption of risk and contributory negligence: “Unfortunately, the differences between these two concepts seem not to have been fully understood by many of our lawyers and judges, and this lack of understanding has unquestionably caused confusion and doubt in the application of these defenses to many factual situations. . . .” Merely because some lawyers and judges fail to understand the fine distinction between some defenses seems to me small reason for either exterminating or combining them. I am of the opinion that this defense of unavoidable accident all too frequently has been applied erroneously in casualty cases by both courts and trial attorneys. There are, however, evidentiary situations where the defense is not only appropriate but is necessary for the jury’s clear understanding of the issues. The same is true of the defense of assumption of risk. Both defenses should be retained in our civil trial procedure and jury instructions. Change does not necessarily equate with reform.