Court Opinion

ID: 9692825
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:07:29.746429+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:37.141398
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion by
Price, J.:
This case presents a situation in which the appellant’s negligence created a “passive” situation, which was unable to wreak its remorseless destruction until acted upon by an external, independent force. The causation question in this type of situation was examined in depth by our Supreme Court in Flickinger Estate v. Ritsky, 452 Pa. 69, *216305 A.2d 40 (1973). There Justice Pomeroy, writing for a unanimous court, acknowledged that the issue of causation could not be resolved by resort to the label “passive.” Instead, Restatement (Second) of Torts §447 (1965) governs. That section provides that the negligent intervening act of a third person (such as that of defendant Knavel in this case) does not relieve a defendant of liability if:
“ (a) the actor at the time of his negligent conduct should have realized that a third person might so act, or
(b) a reasonable man knowing the situation existing when the act of the third person was done would not regard it as highly extraordinary that the third person had so acted, or
(c) the intervening act is a normal consequence of a situation created by the actor’s conduct and the manner in which it is done is not extraordinarily negligent.”
Comment a to clause (a) of §447 refers the reader to §449, which provides:
“If the likelihood that a third person may act in a particular manner is the hazard or one of the hazards which makes the actor negligent, such an act whether innocent, negligent, intentionally tortious, or criminal does not prevent the actor from being liable for harm caused thereby.” (Emphasis added)
As the majority notes, the record in this case more than adequately supports an inference that the hill and the S-curve were not the only features which made the location of appellant’s phone booth unreasonably precarious. The record supports the inference that the negligence involved was the placement of the booth in an area where drivers were likely to lose control of their automobiles. The fact that the driver of this particular car may have been drinking, the fact that his accelerator may have malfunctioned, and the fact that his brakes may have been in disrepair are all factors which combined to *217cause him to lose control of the automobile. Because an uncontrolled automobile is the hazard to which appellant’s negligence exposed appellee, the manner in which control was lost cannot operate to relieve appellant of liability. Restatement (Second) of Torts §449, supra. Nor can the fact that the automobile richocheted from the train in its path, instead of flying directly into the phone booth, prevent appellant’s liability. Once appellant assumed the risks of an uncontrolled automobile, the manner in which that uncontrolled automobile was directed into the phone booth was also one of the risks assumed. Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, §§435 (1), 442 B.
Because appellant’s negligence was a cause in fact of appellee’s injuries, and the manner in which the accident occurred is exactly the risk which appellant created, I concur in the majority’s decision to affirm the Judgment of the lower court.