Court Opinion

ID: 9623676
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:39:46.071438+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:52:18.821550
License: Public Domain

Judge PHILLIPS
concurring in result.
Though I agree that the order of summary judgment was correctly entered in that the evidence was insufficient to establish defendant Roberts’ negligence, I do not agree that the evidence established plaintiffs contributory negligence as a matter of law. According to his affidavit, plaintiff had no experience at all and very little instruction in handling the particular type saw he was injured by, and it is a matter of common knowledge that the proper use of machines which require coordinating movements of the operator, as this one plainly did, often depends more upon habit *629and practice than it does thought. In my opinion, plaintiffs failure to do what he had been instructed to do, though evidence of negligence, was also in keeping with his inexperience and inability, and, therefore, no proper basis for concluding that he was con-tributorily negligent as a matter of law. In my view, what the ordinary, reasonable and similarly inexperienced person would do under like circumstances is clearly a question of fact for the jury, rather than a question of law for judges.