Court Opinion

ID: 9685354
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:33:32.016218+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:05.041382
License: Public Domain

MADDOX, Justice
(dissenting).
I must respectfully dissent. The majority relies strongly on Blackwell v. Alabama Power Co., 275 Ala. 123, 152 So.2d 670 (1963). There, this Court said the plaintiff had a right to have a jury, not the trial judge, determine whether the Power Company was negligent. It is almost ironic how closely the facts of this case parallel the facts of the Blackwell case. Here, as in Blackwell, the trial judge took the case from the jury. I think the trial judge was wrong in taking the case from the jury in Blackwell. I think the trial judge was wrong here. In other words, the “scintilla rule” should be just as available to defendants as it is to plaintiffs.
I believe there was at least a scintilla of evidence that the wires were not the proximate cause of the injury. I also believe that since the jury saw the minor plaintiff testify at the trial and heard a psychiatrist tell about her IQ that there was at least a scintilla of evidence that she had a mental age of 14. There was at least a scintilla of evidence presented that the child’s mother failed to properly protect her child against a known danger. Failure of a parent to extend such protection can be negligence. Pratt Coal & Iron Co. v. Brawley, 83 Ala. 371, 3 So. 555 (1888). I believe it was a jury question whether the parent was negligent and whether this negligence *500was the proximate cause of the child’s injury.
This child suffered a severe injury. The evidence of negligence was substantial. Nevertheless, I believe that every person has a right to have a jury of his peers pass on that question. Our “scintilla rule” has been jealously preserved even against strong opposition. The “scintilla rule” means that in Alabama it is even harder for a judge to take from a party the right of trial by jury. That is the legal principle involved and that is the reason, and the only reason, I dissent.