Court Opinion

ID: 9657076
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:12:31.757236+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:40.575498
License: Public Domain

Williams, J.
(concurring). I concur with my Brother T. E. Brennan and believe the Court of Appeals should be affirmed. However, I think it would be useful for the bench and bar to have the *342pertinent part of the charges given hy the trial court on record. The pertinent part is as follows:
“Now, I will read that statute again. The statute says in any action in any court in this state, when it is shown by competent evidence that a vehicle traveling in a certain direction overtook and struck the rear end of another vehicle proceeding in the same direction or lawfully standing on the highway, the driver or operator of such first mentioned vehicle shall be deemed prima facie guilty of negligence.
“Therefore, if you find that the defendant violated this statute before or at the time of the occurrence, then the law presumes that he was negligent. However, if you find that the defendant was confronted with a sudden emergency, not of his own making, and if you find that he used ordinary care and was still unable to avoid the occurrence because of such emergency, then this presumption of negligence is overcome.
“In deciding whether the presumption is overcome, you must weigh the presumption with all the evidence of claim of sudden emergency. If, after so weighing, you are unable to decide that the presumption has been overcome, then you must find that the defendant was negligent. If you find that the defendant was negligent, you must then decide whether such negligence was a proximate cause of the accident.
“So, the law on negligence, basically, failure to act as a reasonably prudent person under the circumstances at the time of the accident.
“In addition to that, we have, as I state, a statute that says whenever a vehicle is struck from the rear there is a prima facie evidence of the negligence on the part of the driver of the vehicle that strikes the other vehicle in the rear.
“And there is also law, as I pointed out to you, that says that if the defendant was confronted with a sudden emergency not of his own making, and he used ordinary care and was still unable to avoid *343the occurrence because of the emergency, then the presumption is overcome.
“Then, finally, in deciding whether the presumption of negligence is overcome, you must weigh the presumption with all the evidence of claim of sudden emergency. And, if, after so weighing, you are unable to decide that the presumption has been overcome, then you must find that the defendant is negligent.”
T. Gr. Kavanagh, J. concurred with Williams, J.