Court Opinion

ID: 9625531
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:43:46.079563+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:10.486369
License: Public Domain

HERNANDEZ, Judge (dissenting). I respectfully dissent for the following reasons: One of the points upon which appellant bases his appeal is that: “Point I — -the trial court erred in denying defendants Grissom and McCarty’s motion for a directed verdict at the close of the plaintiff’s case based on the failure of the plaintiff to establish proximate cause.” Since the facts in this case were uncontroverted, causation should have been decided as a matter of law. I would rely on Greenfield v. Bruskas, 41 N.M. 346, 68 P. 2d 921 (1937) for a statement of the law: “The ‘proximate cause’ of an injury is ‘the cause which, in natural and continued sequence, unbroken by an efficient, intervening cause, produced the result complained of, and without which that result would not have occurred.’ [Citation omitted] It is an ultimate fact, and it is usually an inference to be drawn by the jury from the facts proved. It only becomes a question of law when the facts regarding causation are undisputed and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn therefrom are plain, consistent, and uncontradictory. “ ‘The question of proximate cause is usually for the jury upon all the facts. Proximate cause is said to be a mixed question of law and fact which must be submitted to the jury under proper instructions. But where the facts are undisputed and the inferences to be drawn from them are plain and not open to doubt by reasonable men, it is the duty of the court to determine the question as a matter of law.’ 1 Cooley on Torts (4th Ed.) SO; [Citation omitted].” I agree with this position. I believe the injury was the result of an independent intervening cause and not the result of defendants’ acts or failure to act. Defendant Grissom disassociated himself from the plaintiff and Rougemont by removing himself and his vehicle from an obviously dangerous place and warning plaintiff to get off the highway or at least put on hazard lights.