Court Opinion

ID: 9763896
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:00:33.441019+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:50.995653
License: Public Domain

STORCKMAN, Judge.
I fully concur in the opinion of the court. Additionally, I would hold the giving of Instruction No. 1, plaintiff’s verdict-directing instruction, to be reversible error.
The chief complaint made against the instruction is that it requires the jury to find the defendant negligent without hypothesizing a necessary statutory element, that the plaintiff’s car was approaching the intersection so closely as to constitute an immediate hazard.
The instruction is in two paragraphs. The first is an abstract statement of the law based on § 304.021(4). It tells the jury that under the law of Missouri an automobile driver approaching an intersection with a through highway at which a stop sign is erected has a duty to stop and “to yield the right of way to other vehicles on the through highway which are approaching so closely on through highway as to constitute an immediate hazard.” Italics supplied.
The second paragraph of the instruction advises the jury, inter alia, that “in this connection” if the jury further finds “that defendant failed to yield the right of way to the automobile of John M. Herr and operated her Lincoln automobile into the aforesaid intersection at a time when the approaching automobile of John M. Herr constituted an immediate hazard,” and further finds that defendant’s conduct was negligent and the direct and proximate cause of the collision and plaintiff’s injuries the verdict shall be in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant.
There is no hypothesis of the statutory element of closeness or proximity either by the use of definite distances or by employing the general 'term of the statute. This much should be minimal. I do not think we should encourage instructing on less than the statute requires. The plaintiff seeks to excuse the omission of the words “so closely” in the second paragraph, the verdict-directing part of the instruction, *652by the fact that they are included in the abstract statement of law contained in the first paragraph.
Instructions containing abstract declarations of law have frequently been condemned by this court but, unless such instructions are clearly misleading, generally .a judgment should not be reversed for that reason. Benjamin v. Metropolitan St. Ry. Co., 133 Mo. 274, 34 S.W. 590, 593.
Mere abstract statements of legal propositions do not make proper instructions, and an instruction authorizing the jury to return a verdict for a party must require the finding of all essential fact issues necessary to establish the legal proposition ón which the right to the verdict is based. Stanich v. Western Union Tel. Co., 348 Mo. 188, 153 S.W.2d 54, 56 [1]; Carson v. Evans, 351 Mo. 376, 173 S.W.2d 30, 31 [1]; Cuddy v. Schenewark, Mo., 231 S.W.2d 689, 690 [1].
A pertinent statutory provision may be hypothesized as an evidentiary fact to be considered along with other facts and circumstances in evidence. Creech v. Blackwell, Mo., 318 S.W.2d 342, 350 [5], But the statutory element denoting proximity does not appear in the verdict-directing part of the instruction before us; it only appears as a part of the abstract statement of the statutory law.
The plaintiff has cited cases such as Reimers v. Frank B. Connet Lumber Co., Mo., 271 S.W.2d 46, 51 [7, 8], and Pohl v. Kansas City, Mo., 238 S.W.2d 405, where it was held there was either no omission or it was cured by the substitution of substantially equivalent language. These cases are not applicable to this case. Here the abstract statement of law in the first paragraph of the instruction cannot aid the verdict-directing part or supply omissions in it; on the contrary, it tends to present a conflict. By virtue of the omission, the jury is authorized to find for the plaintiff without including an essential factual element and a recovery is permitted if the approaching car constitutes an immediate hazard for any unspecified reason, such as, for example, speed, atmospheric conditions and lighting, or natural hazards as hills and curves. Under the statute it is only where the hazard is created by the closeness or proximity of the approaching automobile on the through highway that the defendant is required to yield the right of way. In my opinion the omission presents a conflict between the first and second paragraphs of the instruction which is confusing and misleading.
If a conflict exists I can see no difference whether it occurs in the same instruction of a party, between two instructions of the same,party, or between an instruction of the plaintiff and the defendant. A long line of cases holds that such a conflict between instructions of the plaintiff and the defendant is prejudicial error. In Banta v. Union Pac. R. Co., 362 Mo. 421, 242 S.W.2d 34, 42, this court, speaking of the omission of a statutory element, states: “Thus instruction 1A fails to require a finding by the jury that defendant violated the Act. Our law requires that an instruction submitting plaintiff’s case to the jury and predicating his recovery must include all the essential elements of plaintiff’s case. Griffith v. Delico Meats Products Co., 347 Mo. 28, 145 S.W.2d 431, 435(3); State ex rel. Long v. Ellison, 272 Mo. 571, 199 S.W. 984, 987(4). And the failure to include an element essential to plaintiff’s recovery in an instruction predicating plaintiff’s verdict cannot be cured by any instruction given for defendant. State ex rel. Long v. Ellison, supra.”
I would hold the instruction to be preju-dicially erroneous for failure to hypothesize the proximity of plaintiff’s approaching automobile. Hatfield v. Thompson, Mo., 252 S.W.2d 534, 543 [12]; Lillard v. Bradford, 241 Mo.App. 538, 243 S.W.2d 359, 365-366. In the Lillard case the court held that plaintiff’s instruction was erroneous because “it authorized a verdict against defendant for failure to stop before enter*653ing the intersection, regardless of where plaintiff’s truck was at the time or any other conditions which would lead defendant to believe that a collision would occur if he did not stop.”
There are additional questions not presented on this appeal which might be raised with respect to the propriety of the instruction. In redrafting, it should be considered whether scienter, which is such knowledge as charges a person with the consequences of his act, should be hypothesized, Reimers v. Frank B. Connet Lumber Co., supra, 271 S.W.2d 51 [7, 8], and whether lack of reference to the degree of care required tends to impose a stricter liability than § 304.010 which requires the exercise of the highest degree of care. It should be ■noted that the right of way laws and ordinances do not relieve the operators of motor vehicles at and in an intersection from the exercise of the highest degree of care for their own safety and the safety of others. Witt v. Peterson, Mo., 310 S.W.2d 857; Douglas v. Whitledge, Mo.App., 302 S.W.2d 294; Wilson v. Toliver, 365 Mo. 640, 285 S.W.2d 575, 583 [14], and Burke v. Renick, Mo.App., 249 S.W.2d 513. It should be noted that plaintiff pleads that •defendant failed to exercise the highest •degree of care in not yielding the right of way but he does not submit it in this fashion. Consideration should also be given to the holding in Moore v. Ready Mixed Concrete Co., Mo., 329 S.W.2d 14, that where contributory negligence is submitted, •it is error for the plaintiff not to negative contributory negligence in his instruction. These and perhaps other matters should be critically examined. See generally Brumbach v. Simpson, Mo., 247 S.W.2d 635, 638-639[3], and Sullivan v. Union Electric Light & Power Co., 331 Mo. 1065, 56 S.W.2d 97, 101.
I would reverse and remand for the additional reason that Instruction No; 1 is prejudicially erroneous.