Court Opinion

ID: 9864763
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 16:10:09.398203+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:31:38.040199
License: Public Domain

Mr. Chief Justice Bakke,
dissenting.
I think the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed because the plaintiff by his own acts justified *277the conduct of the defendant as a matter of law. Counsel for plaintiff states the proposition as follows: “In the final analysis, then, the defendant in this case was guilty of an assault upon the plaintiff unless the plaintiff by his own acts justified the conduct of the defendant.”
The undisputed testimony shows that there was nothing in plaintiff’s appearance to indicate that he was an officer, and that he was regularly employed by the city in “keeping undesirables out of the park, particularly degenerates.” If the city was sufficiently concerned to employ a man for that type of work, I am not in favor of penalizing a woman, driving through a park with a two-year-old child at her side, for fearing a man who was acting peculiarly.
Counsel for plaintiff also admits, at least inferentially, that his client would not have a case “if the plaintiff without warning, had dashed from the curb and thrown himself on defendant’s car or ‘jumped’ on the running board in a careless manner and in such a way as to induce fright.” Í think the record here shows just that. Plaintiff admits running after defendant’s car and that he “jumped” on the running board thereof. On the question as to whether plaintiff was “careless” in so doing, I think if this action had been based upon negligence, the court would have held that he was contributorily negligent as a matter of law. As to inducement of fright, the uncontradicted testimony of a disinterested witness (Bemus) was, that after the affair was over, defendant still was nervous, and that she asked to be driven home.
It is my conclusion that the above is sufficient to indicate that counsel for plaintiff, by his own analysis of the case, concedes that the trial court was warranted in setting aside the verdict.