Court Opinion

ID: 9632450
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:15:13.008562+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:38:11.552585
License: Public Domain

TRAYNOR, J.
I dissent.
The facts and issues in these cases are simple and could easily have been presented to the jury in an intelligible manner. The record aptly illustrates how much confusion and prejudice can result when presumptions and inferences are regarded as evidence and a presumption is invoked against the party who already has the burden of proving that the presumed fact does not exist. (See dissenting opinion in Speck v. Sarver, 20 Cal.2d 585, 590 [128 P.2d 16].)
The automobile in which plaintiffs were riding veered from, the right to the left side of the highway and crashed into the bank of a ravine. Plaintiffs were asleep at the time, and defendant driver testified that he had no memory of the occurrence. The automobile was in excellent condition before the accident, and skid marks indicated that the brakes were applied while it was still on the right side of the highway.
To recover judgment it was incumbent upon plaintiffs to prove that the accident resulted from defendant’s negligence in operating the vehicle. To discharge this burden plaintiffs were entitled to rely upon the inference of negligence arising under the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur based on the fact that properly driven automobiles do not ordinarily leave the highway. (Druzanich v. Criley, 19 Cal.2d 439, 445 [122 P.2d 53].)
“An inference is a conclusion as to the existence of a material fact that a jury may properly draw from the existence of certain primary facts.” (Blank v. Coffin, 20 Cal.2d 457, 460 [126 P.2d 868].) Unless the facts are such that only one inference may reasonably be drawn therefrom, it is ordinarily for the jury to determine in a particular ease what inference, if any, should be drawn. (Code Civ. Proc., §1958; Blank v. Coffin, supra, at p. 461.) If the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is to be treated as one dealing with no more than a certain type of circumstantial evidence, the inference arising thereunder should be treated like any other, and even in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the jury should be compelled to draw it only if reasonable minds could not differ.
*403If, however, the facts are peculiarly within the knowledge of one of the parties, or a special relationship exists between them, there may be reason to require of defendant an explanation if he is to escape judgment against him. “Thus, when bailed goods are lost or destroyed, it is reasonable to require the bailee to prove that the loss was not owing to his negligence. (George v. Bekins Van & Storage Co., 33 Cal.2d 834, 839-841 [205 P.2d 1037].) Again, when a carrier has undertaken to carry a passenger safely it is reasonable to enforce that duty by requiring the carrier to explain an accident. (See Prosser, Res Ipsa Loquitur in California, 37 Cal.L.Rev. 183, 185.) The relationship between an unconscious patient and those who have undertaken to treat him may also be one that justifies placing the burden of proof on the attendants if they are to escape liability for an unusual injury inflicted while the patient is unconscious.” (Raber v. Tumin, 36 Cal.2d 654, 664 [226 P.2d 574], dissent.) Since in the ordinary case where an automobile leaves the highway, the driver will be the person best able to explain why the accident happened, it is not unfair to give the res ipsa loquitur inference arising under such circumstances the additional procedural effect accorded to a presumption and direct the jury to find defendant negligent if he fails to make any explanation. (See Druzanich v. Criley, 19 Cal.2d 439, 445 [122 P.2d 53] ; Ybarra v. Spangard, 25 Cal.2d 486, 490 [154 P.2d 687, 162 A.L.R. 1258] ; Dierman v. Providence Hospital, 31 Cal.2d 290, 295 [188 P.2d 12].)
In the present case, however, defendant introduced evidence that he was in no better position than plaintiffs to explain the accident. If the jury should believe this evidence, it would be unfair to give to the inference arising under the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur the procedural effect of a presumption, for the only justification for so doing would have disappeared from the case. On the other hand, the fact that defendant through no fault of his own may be unable to explain the accident in no way weakens whatever probative value the evidence of the happening of the accident and the surrounding circumstances may have. The jury should still be at liberty to draw the inference of negligence if it sees fit.
Accordingly, the jury should have been instructed to find defendant liable if it concluded that he had the ability to explain the accident and failed to do so. It should also have been instructed that if it found that defendant had no memory of the accident because of amnesia, it should base its verdict *404solely on the evidence presented and find defendant liable only if it concluded that the accident was more probably than not the result of negligence on his part. "Under such instructions the mental processes involved in reaching a verdict would not have been difficult. If the jury disbelieved defendant’s evidence that he was suffering from amnesia, his liability would be established. If it believed that evidence, it would then have to decide only whether or not to draw the inference from the occurrence of the accident and the surrounding circumstances that defendant was negligent. If it could not decide whether or not to draw that inference it would find for defendant because of plaintiffs’ failure to discharge their burden of proof.
Instead the jury was presented with a hopelessly confusing task. After instructing the jury on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur and the presumption of due care the court stated: “These instructions direct'your attention to two conflicting rebuttable presumptions relating to the conduct of the defendant (one) that he exercised due care at the time of the accident which presumption arises in the event that you find that as a result thereof he is unable to remember the facts pertaining to the same, and (two) that he was negligent if you find that he was driving on the wrong side of the road, or that he permitted the automobile to leave the road in question entirely, or that he fell asleep at the wheel. If you find the facts to exist which give rise to these presumptions, then these conflicting presumptions constitute evidence, the effect of which is to be determined by you, not by the court; they are to be weighed and considered by you in the light of and in connection with all of the other evidence, and you are to give to them, and each of them, such weight as you deem proper.”
How could the jury understand this instruction in which new evidence is spontaneously generated? By what mental process could it weigh these rules of law or logic against the facts upon which it was told they were based ? . The jury might conceivably make some sense out of the part of the instruction that the presumption of negligence was evidence. That presumption or inference has a logical basis. The jury could understand that a presumption or inference of negligence might be drawn from the fact that the automobile left the highway. It might divine, from the instruction that this presumption constituted evidence that it should weigh, that the court was conveying only the idea that in *405its deliberations the jury should keep in mind that some of the evidence would support an inference of negligence, and that in arriving at a conclusion it should consider that inference as a definite possibility.
When the jury turned to a consideration of the presumption of due care, however, it would find it impossible to apply any such reasoning as it might have applied to the presumption of negligence. Here it would see that there was no rational relationship between defendant’s amnesia and his due care. The proposition that defendant had amnesia does not lead to the conclusion that he exercised due care. Accordingly, the jury could not assume that when the court described the presumptions as evidence, it intended only to call the jury’s attention to the various logical inferences it might draw from the evidence. It could assume only that it must consider two new items of conflicting evidence whose nature it could not understand.
How then would it weigh this substituted evidence ? These presumptions were not witnesses whose demeanor might be observed. The facts upon which they were based were not in conflict, so the jury could not look to them to determine which presumption was superior. It might in desperation conclude that the two presumptions cancelled each other, leaving neither evidence of negligence from the occurrence of the accident nor evidence of defendant’s due care. Its mind now a blank, the jury would remember the instruction that the burden of proof was upon plaintiffs and, acocrdingly, return a verdict for defendant. Herein lies the vice of instructing the jury that a presumption exists that operates against the party having the burden of proof, and that the presumption constitutes evidence.
Upon plaintiffs rested the burden of proving that it was more probable than not that the accident was caused by defendant’s negligence. That burden was enlarged by the instruction that there was a presumption of due care and that the presumption was evidence. Plaintiffs were thus placed under the burden, not only of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that defendant was negligent, but also of somehow dispelling additional “evidence” that the jury could not rationally evaluate. This additional burden was placed upon plaintiffs solely because defendant was unable to remember what happened. It is true that any disparity between the parties with respect to their sources of information may justify placing the burden of proof on one rather *406than the other or creating a presumption in favor of the party with the burden of proof. Thus if the burden had been upon defendant to prove that he was not negligent, his inability to present evidence because of his amnesia might justify a presumption in his favor that he was exercising due care. Similarly, in jurisdictions where the burden is upon the plaintiff to prove that he was not guilty of contributory negligence, it is not unfair to create a presumption in his favor, if he is dead or otherwise unable to testify. In this case, however, defendant received all the procedural protection to which he was entitled when the burden of proof was placed upon plaintiffs. There is no general rule of law that the quantum of proof required of the party bearing the burden of proof increases beyond the usual preponderanee of probabilities because his opponent happens to be ignorant of the facts. Even if one assumed the wisdom of such a rule, its operation should be explained to the jury in an intelligible manner. The' jury should be instructed, not that there is a presumption that is evidence, but that because of defendant’s inability to testify they should demand of plaintiffs a higher degree of proof. But should plaintiffs be required to prove their ease by clear and convincing evidence or even beyond a reasonable doubt ? Clearly, no such burden could in justice be imposed upon plaintiffs in this case. They were in no better position than defendant was to explain the accident. There was no danger that they might fabricate testimony that defendant would be helpless to refute. The evidence with respect to the accident was found only in the physical facts. Plaintiffs were entitled to have the jury consider those facts and then decide, unhampered by any presumption against them, whether it was more probable than not that defendant’s negligence caused the accident. The evidence of defendant’s amnesia was of course properly in the case. If believed, it served to prevent a directed verdict for plaintiffs on the basis of res ipsa loquitur. By showing why defendant could not explain the accident, it prevented the jury from inferring from his silence that if he spoke he would confess.his case.
I would reverse the judgments.
Edmonds, J., concurred.