Court Opinion

ID: 9624032
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:48:59.713271+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:53:57.925962
License: Public Domain

PETERS, P. J.
I dissent.
The facts are fully, fairly and accurately set forth in the majority opinion. Prom these facts the majority correctly conclude that, for purposes of nonsuit, the evidence shows that the defendant Pacific Gas and Electric Company was negligent, and that plaintiff was not guilty of contributory negligence. But the majority also conclude that the evidence shows, as a matter of law, that the negligence of the cab driver was the sole proximate cause of the accident, that is, was an intervening cause that broke the chain of causation. It is with this conclusion that I disagree.
This is an appeal from a judgment of nonsuit. Such a judgment is proper when, and only when, the appellate court can say, after resolving all conflicts in the evidence in favor of the plaintiff, and after indulging in all reasonable inferences from that evidence in favor of the plaintiff, that there is no evidence or no reasonable inference from that evidence that would support a verdict for the plaintiff. It is this fundamental rule that I believe has been violated by the majority.
We are dealing with a question of proximate cause. All of us are agreed that the evidence shows that the taxicab driver was guilty of negligence that was a proximate cause of the accident. The majority hold that such negligence, as a matter of law, was not only “a” proximate cause of the *677accident, but was “the sole” proximate cause. Normally, this is a question of fact and not of law.
The majority are wrong if, under any reasonable interpretation of the evidence, there is an inference that the negligence of defendant in unlawfully parking its truck at the corner of the intersection at right angles to the curb could have contributed in any degree to the • accident. In other words, the problem is not whether the negligence of the taxicab driver was a proximate cause of the accident, but whether there is any reasonable interpretation of the evidence that would support the inference that the negligence of the defendant company concurred in any degree with that of the cab driver to cause the accident.
For present purposes we may assume, as the majority assume, that plaintiff’s own evidence demonstrates that the accident was not caused by the obstruction of plaintiff’s view by the truck. The real problem of causation is whether the obstruction, in any degree, could have contributed to the accident by causing the cab driver to proceed into the intersection in violation of plaintiff’s right-of-way. If it is a reasonable inference from the evidence that the view of the taxicab driver may have been wholly or partially obstructed by defendant’s truck, then we have a case where the jury could have found that the negligent parking of the truck was a contributing factor to the accident. It is my view that the evidence, reasonably, can be so interpreted.
Unfortunately, the taxicab driver was not called as a witness, so we do not know from his testimony whether or not his view was partially obstructed by the truck. But we do have other evidence from which this fact can reasonably be inferred. Plaintiff testified that he first saw the cab after he had proceeded around the truck and had got 5 feet into the intersection. At that moment the cab was 25 feet from the point of impact, traveling 20 to 25 miles per hour. It certainly is a reasonable inference that this was the first time the cab driver could have observed plaintiff, because the testimonial evidence and the exhibits indicate that the cab driver’s view was obscured to the same extent as plaintiff’s. Section 670 of the Vehicle Code fixes 37 feet as the proper distance a vehicle traveling at 20 miles an hour should be brought to a stop if its braking equipment is operating correctly. The same section fixes 58 feet as the stopping distance for a vehicle traveling 25 miles per hour. Thirty-seven feet is 12 feet, while 58 feet is 33 feet, beyond the *678point of impact, which occurred 25 feet after the plaintiff, and inferentially the taxi driver, first observed each other. Looking at the exhibits it can readily be ascertained that, had the truck not been negligently parked, both plaintiff and the taxicab driver could have seen each other a very appreciable distance before they did so. Had the cab driver seen plaintiff many feet before he did we cannot say, as a matter of law, that he would not have slowed down so as to have avoided the accident. While the taxi driver was undoubtedly driving too fast through an obstructed intersection, and should have yielded the right-of-way to plaintiff, it cannot be said, as a matter of law, that the cab driver’s conduct should not have been anticipated by the negligent defendant, or that the defendant’s negligence did not concur with that of the cab driver to cause the accident. While the most reasonable explanation of the accident is that it was caused by the negligence of the cab driver, it cannot be said that such intervening negligence, as a matter of law, broke the chain of causation. Thus, the case is one in which the jury could have found concurrent negligence. This being so, in my opinion, the judgment of nonsuit should be reversed.
A petition for a rehearing was denied July 20, 1955. Peters, P. J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.
Appellant’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied August 17, 1955. Carter, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.