Court Opinion

ID: 9670766
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:25:25.709297+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:33.759140
License: Public Domain

Grant, J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I fully agree with the court’s decision as to the instruction question presented, but I believe the trial court should have directed a verdict in favor of plaintiff at the conclusion of all the evidence, leaving only the question of damages to be determined by the jury.
In my view, the dispositive fact was admitted by defendant Weyer when he testified that while east of the Seward interchange, he was informed by CB radio of a traffic problem west of the interchange. Upon being informed of this problem and in response to the direct suggestion of his unknown CB adviser, Weyer prudently moved his 72,000-pound tractor-trailer rig from the driving lane to the passing lane. He testified-that at that time he slowed up slightly but that as he reached the crest of the hill — at the bottom of which he knew a problem existed — he was traveling 45 or 50 miles per hour and was overtaking a station wagon which apparently was going to remain in the lane in which Weyer knew a traffic problem might exist. Weyer testified that as he passed the crest of the hill, he did not decrease his speed until he reacted to the McCauley car (which did not apply its brakes) coming into his lane, at which time Weyer was traveling approximately 55 miles per hour. After his reaction time Weyer applied his brakes and left 84 feet of skid marks before striking the rear of the McCauley vehicle. After this contact Weyer’s rig remained connected to the McCauley car and the rig left another 176 feet of skid marks. When it is realized that the McCauley car was going the same direction and approximately the same speed as the rig, and the McCauley car had not braked before the collision, although Robert McCauley had removed his foot from the accelerator, the conclusion is inescapable that Weyer’s rig was not under control and that the resulting collision was, at least in part, the proximate result of Weyer’s negligence.
Unless we attribute to Weyer the disposition intentionally to *411funnel the station wagon directly into the trouble ahead, Weyer’s conduct can be classified as nothing except negligence as a matter of law. Weyer did not have his rig under the control necessary to permit the driver of the station wagon to take the steps which he would have to take to avoid the apparent danger, which danger was known to Weyer and not known to the driver of the McCauley station wagon. The accident that occurred was clearly foreseeable by Weyer. Weyer was aware of possible traffic problems over the crest of the hill he was approaching, and he himself had moved his vehicle to an appropriate safer spot — the passing lane. Weyer could certainly foresee that other drivers in the normal driving lane would shift to the left or passing lane if, as they topped the hill, there was an apparent danger presented to them in their driving lane. Nevertheless, Weyer approached the McCauley station wagon so closely that when the station wagon made the move that Weyer could foresee, Weyer could not control his truck and collided with the rear of the McCauley vehicle.
The action of Robert McCauley in moving to the passing lane in the apparent circumstances confronting him was foreseeable by Weyer, and when Weyer conducted himself so as to deny McCauley room to make that maneuver safely, Weyer was guilty of negligence as a matter of law. As set out in Restatement (Second) of Torts § 302 at 82 (1965), “A negligent act or omission may be one which involves an unreasonable risk of harm to another through . .. the foreseeable action of ... a third person.” Further, as stated in McClelland v. Interstate Transit Lines, 142 Neb. 439, 445, 6 N.W.2d 384, 389 (1942), “ ‘It suffices to charge a person with liability for a negligent act if some injury to another ought reasonably to have been foreseen as the probable result thereof by the ordinarily intelligent and prudent person under the same circumstances ..
The action of Weyer in this case in driving his rig into the McCauley vehicle from the rear was negligent as a matter of law, and a verdict should have been directed in favor of the plaintiff passenger. I would reverse and remand for a new trial on the issue of the amount of damages proximately resulting from defendants’ negligence.