Court Opinion

ID: 9581382
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:14:24.085568+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:54.631344
License: Public Domain

Fbomme, J.,
concurring: The giving of Instruction No. 11 was prejudicial error under the facts of this case and properly results in a reversal, but I do not agree that the term, “unforeseeable accident”, used by the trial court can be equated with' the terms “pure accident”, “unavoidable accident” or “inevitable accident”.
As pointed out in the opinion of the court the term unavoidable accident, negates evidence of a negligent act or omission. In other words the defendant did not act or fail to act in a negligent manner.
However, the term, unforeseeable accident, when used in law admits negligence and negates proximate or direct cause. In other words the defendant may have been negligent but the accident or harm resulting was not a natural consequence of defendant’s negligence.
In Elliott v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pac. Rld. Co., 203 Kan. 273, 454 P. 2d 124, it is said:
“The proximate cause of an injury is that cause which in natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any efficient intervening cause, produces the injury, and without which the injury would not have occurred, the injury being the natural and probable consequence of the wrongful act.” (Syl. ¶ 8.)
“The natural and probable consequences of the negligent act are those which human foresight can anticipate because they happen so frequently they may be expected to recur.” (Syl. ¶ 9.)
The consequences of an act which human foresight cannot an*464ticipate are unforeseeable. Unforeseeability may arise by reason of an intervening cause, regardless of defendant’s negligence.
As pointed out in Lee v. Mobil Oil Corporation, 203 Kan. 72, 74, 452 P. 2d 857, the requirement of foreseeability of the consequences places a limitation on the liability for the injury. When harm results from the intervention of an unforeseeable force of nature (act of God) liability does not fall on the defendant. The proximate or direct cause of plantiff’s damage stems from the intervening cause.
There was evidence in this case from which the jury might find the defendant negligent. There was no evidence that the accident was a direct result of some intervening cause. It was admitted that defendant’s trailer crossed over the center line of the highway and caused the accident. The issue to be submitted to the jury was negligence, not intervening cause. If defendant was negligent he was liable for plaintiff’s injuries and damage.
It was prejudicial error for the trial court to interject the question of foreseeability into the deliberations of the jury. Therefore, while disagreeing with the court’s opinion which equates the term, “unforeseeable accident”, with the term, “unavoidable accident”, I concur in the reversal of the case on appeal.
Schroeder, J., joins in the foregoing concurring opinion.