Court Opinion

ID: 9559753
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:35:08.252932+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:11:38.472123
License: Public Domain

SPENCE, J.
I concur in the judgment.
The situation presented here is quite similar to that which was before this court in Girdner v. Union Oil Co., 216 Cal. 197 [13 P.2d 915]. While that case and the present one appear to be “border line cases” (see Poncino v. Reid-Murdock & Co., 136 Cal.App. 223, 231 [28 P.2d 932]), the peculiar facts here, shown by the testimony most favorable to the application of the doctrine of last clear chance, justified the submission of that issue to the jury. The trial court therefore did not err in giving an instruction on that subject.
I adhere, however, to the views expressed in Poncino v. Reid-Murdock & Co., supra, 136 Cal.App. 223, and in Johnson v. Sacramento Northern Ry., 54 Cal.App.2d 528 [129 P.2d 503], which views need not be repeated here. The review of the authorities made in those decisions shows that the last clear chance doctrine is ordinarily inapplicable to a situation involving the collision of two moving vehicles, for in such cases the negligent act of plaintiff• which creates the peril usually occurs practically simultaneously with the happening of the accident, and neither party may be said to have had a last clear chance to avoid the consequences.
There is language in some of the decisions, and some implication in the majority opinion here, indicating that a last clear chance instruction should be given whenever there is any evidence tending to show that defendant, after discovering plaintiff’s peril, had a chance “to do something” to avoid the accident. Such is not the rule, for it is only where there is evidence tending to show that defendant had a last clear *114chance, as distinguished from a hare possible chance, to avoid the accident that the doctrine may be applied.