Court Opinion

ID: 9794654
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:09:11.229586+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:17:20.909417
License: Public Domain

WADE, Chief Justice
(concurring and •dissenting in part).
I concur on the first question determined in the prevailing opinion on the grounds therein stated, subject to the following comments :
The trial judge in directing a verdict .against plaintiff indicated his doubt that a preponderance of the evidence showed that the Power Company had been requested to turn the power off for this operation. I agree with the prevailing opinion that whether there was a preponderance of the evidence on this issue is a jury question and •does not justify a directed verdict. A directed verdict on this issue would be justified only where the losing party fails to show by substantial evidence that there is a reasonable basis for a finding in his fa-vor. However, I doubt that the evidence on this issue is sufficiently substantial to furnish a reasonable basis for a finding in plaintiff’s favor. I wonder if the trial judge did not use the term “preponderance of the evidence” inadvertently, intending to indicate a lack of sufficient substantial evidence from which the jury could reasonably find in plaintiff’s favor. Had the trial judge so stated, as he probably intended, since he heard and observed the witnesses and was in a better position to determine their credibility than we are, and in view of the very doubtful nature of the evidence on this issue, I would not hesitate to agree that as a matter of law the Power Company was entitled to a finding in its favor on this issue.
A hasty glance at plaintiff’s evidence suggests that a finding that the Power Company had refused when requested by the Construction Company to turn the power off would be unreasonable. The only evidence in plaintiff’s favor on this issue is the uncorroborated testimony of the Construction Company’s foreman, an interested witness. This testimony was positively denied by the Power Company’s witnesses. It is also inconsistent with the undisputed evidence that the Power Company had gone to great lengths to cooperate with the Construction Company for the safety of the employees on this project. The Power Company had changed the line so that the power could be turned off and on when necessary, it had gone to the trouble of *289placing a power line pole in the center of the river bed to avoid danger, and had shut the power off previously at the request of the Construction Company. No reason whatever is even suggested why the Power Company would become uncooperative in this instance and refuse to shut the power off in view of the danger which would thereby be created. I do not understand that the mere fact that an interested witness, who testifies to a fact which is highly favorable to his position, in view of the strong evidence to the contrary, furnishes a reasonable basis for a finding to that effect. So I am inclined to conclude that the evidence shows no reasonable basis for a finding in plaintiff’s favor on this issue. Of course, if this is correct, then the trial judge’s action in directing a verdict against plaintiff is supported by the evidence and would terminate the case in favor of the Power Company.
As to the second question determined in the prevailing opinion, I dissent, adhering to my dissenting opinion in McMurdie v. Underwood.1 In that case I pointed out “that the original tort-feasor’s negligence is a contributing proximate cause of injuries resulting jointly from the original passive negligence of a third person if the original tort-feasor could reasonably anticipate the intervening negligence” of another.2 In the McMurdie case there was no disagreement on the above stated rule; the disagreement was on the instructions given which attempted to apply that rule to the facts there presented. I agree with the rule of the Hillyard v. Utah ByProducts Company case,3 that under the facts there shown, “it is not reasonably to be foreseen nor expected that one who actually becomes cognizant of a dangerous condition in ample time to avert injury will fail to do so.” The Hillyard case also recognized as the determining factor the question of whether the original tort-feasor could reasonably foresee the danger he had created in determining whether his negligence was a contributing proximate cause of the accident. In that case, a car was driven into the rear of a large truck parked on the street, killing a passenger in the car. In a suit by the heirs of the passenger to recover damages for his death from the truck owner, the determining question was whether the car driver actually saw or could not fail to see the parked truck in time to avoid the accident. Answering that question in the negative, we held that there was a jury question on whether the negligence of the truck driver in parking the *290truck was a contributing proximate cause of the death, and we affirmed the verdict against the truck owner. Under the facts there presented I agree with that decision that a person who parks a large truck on the highway cannot reasonably foresee that a car will be driven into its rear if the driver of the car sees the parked truck in time to avoid the accident.
Here, the facts are very different from the facts in the Hillyard case. The rule that a person who does a static negligent act cannot reasonably foresee that such act will be a contributing cause of an accident where the person who does the intervening act knew of the static negligence is only applicable where the static negligence creates danger which is so obvious, and the likelihood that it will be avoided so clear, that the accident cannot be reasonably foreseen. This rule is only invoked under those circumstances and in applying it we must keep in mind that foreseeability is the standard test and that knowledge of the static negligence by the intervening tort-feasor can make his negligence the sole proximate cause only where with such knowledge it is clear that the original actor could not reasonably foresee that such an accident might occur.
In this case the fact that the Construction Company knew that there was a live wire in the neighborhood, especially if the Construction Company knew that the Power Company had refused to turn the electricity off when requested to do so, thereby indicating that the danger was not serious, in my opinion would not indicate to the Power Company that the Construction Company would discontinue its construction work and thereby eliminate the foreseeability of this accident.
To me it seems very clear that if the Power Company refused to turn the power off when requested, it could not help but clearly foresee that a great danger of an accident was thereby created. This is especially true in view of the knowledge which the Power Company must have that it is not unusual for hay derricks and other high machinery to be accidentally brought into contact with live power lines.
So I conclude that this case should be affirmed only if we conclude that plaintiff failed to produce substantial evidence from which the jury could reasonably find that the Power Company was requested to turn the power off. Otherwise, I think we should reverse this judgment.
HENRIOD, J., did not participate herein.

. See my dissenting opinion in McMurdie v. Underwood, 9 Utah 2d 400, 346 P.2d 711, 714.

. See Knight v. Wessler, 67 Utah 354, 248 P. 132; Hollow v. Ogden City, 66 Utah 475, 243 P. 791; Oaperon v. Tuttle, 100 Utah 476, 116 P.2d 402, 135 A.L.R. 1399.

. Hillyard v. Utah By-Products Co., 1953, 1 Utah 2d 143, 263 P.2d 287, 292.