Court Opinion

ID: 9444046
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:39:16.527562+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:14:05.879557
License: Public Domain

PARKER, Chief Judge
(dissenting in part).
I concur in the view that the evidence was sufficient to take the case to the jury and I concur also in the view that under the law of Virginia the doctrine of last clear chance is applicable to the plaintiff as well as to the defendant. This I understand is the law generally, as the last clear chance doctrine has relation to the inquiry as to whose negligence is to be deemed the proximate cause of the injury. I think, however, that the charge of the trial judge correctly applied the doctrine. After correctly charging the jury that negligence on the part of plaintiff which contributed to his injury would bar recovery by him, the judge charged:
“You are told that even though you may believe that Mr. Morris did not exercise proper care, or failed in some duty imposed upon him in attempting to make his left turn into the entrance road, nevertheless, if you believe that the defendant, Friedman, saw or should have seen that the. plaintiff was making the turn and was in a position of peril from which he could not extricate himself, and that thereafter the defendant, in the exercise of reasonable care, should have avoided a collision by reducing his speed or stopping or by pulling to the left, then you should find your verdict for the plaintiff.” (Italics supplied.)
It will be noted that the application of the last clear chance doctrine was made to depend upon a finding that defendant saw or should have seen that plaintiff was “in a position of peril from which he could not extricate himself” and that “thereafter” he failed to use reasonable care to avoid a collision which he could have avoided. Having made the application of the doctrine depend upon plaintiff’s being in a position of peril “from which he could not extricate himself”, and defendant’s having “thereafter” an opportunity to avoid injuring him, it would have added nothing but confusion to have said that if the plaintiff had the last chance to avoid the injury he would be barred of recovery; for the plaintiff could not have had such chance if he was in a position of peril from which he could not extricate himself. The jury had already been told that negligence of the plaintiff which contributed to the injury would bar recovery; and in the *892instruction on the last clear chance the jury was told that there was an exception to the rule if defendant had a last clear chance to avoid the injury and failed to exercise it. This is the usual way in which the charge on the doctrine of last clear chance is given, and I think it sufficient. As pointed out by the trial judge, the departure from the usual charge asked by defendant’s counsel would have served no purpose except to confuse the jury.
The charge of the court is given for the guidance of the jury in determining whether or not the defendant is liable to the plaintiff. The last clear chance doctrine is properly charged in connection with contributory negligence, for under the latter doctrine the jury is charged that contributory negligence bars recovery. This is absolutely true unless the contributory negligence is not the proximate cause of the injury and under the last clear chance doctrine the jury is instructed on this element of proximate cause, i. e., the contributory negligence of plaintiff is not deemed the proximate cause of the injury barring right of recovery, if notwithstanding such negligence defendant was subsequently guilty of negligence in failing to avoid the injury when he saw or should have seen plaintiff in a condition of peril from which he could not extricate himself. Nothing would be added to such a statement of the rule by saying that, if the plaintiff, not the defendant, had the last clear chance of avoiding the injury he could not recover; for the jury has already been told that his negligence bars recovery unless the last clear chance is with the defendant. In such a situation it has been held by the Virginia court that it is error to give instructions applying the last clear chance doctrine to the other party. Umberger v. Koop, 194 Va. 123, 72 S.E.2d 370, 376, 377. The instruction here followed strictly the rule laid down in the case cited, where it is said:
“The basis of the doctrine of last clear chance is that, notwithstanding the prior negligence of plaintiff, the subsequent negligence of defendant is the sole proximate cause of an accident. In order for a defendant to be held liable under this doctrine, it must appear from the evidence that the plaintiff has negligently placed himself in a position of imminent peril and he is either unaware of his perilous situation, or unable to escape therefrom, or both, and defendant was apprised of his presence and realized, or, in the exercise of reasonable care, should have realized, his danger in time to avoid the accident, and failed to do so.”
The charge is in accord also with the rule laid down in Street’s Foundations of Legal Liability quoted in the case cited: as follows:
“It is seen that wherever the court or jury can see that the harm complained of was proximately caused by the negligence of one of the parties, while the negligence of the other was only remotely connected with that harm, the person whose negligence is the proximate cause must be held responsible. If that person is the defendant, then the plaintiff may recover; if that person is the plaintiff, himself, then the action must fall.
“This principle is neatly and accurately summed up in the doctrine of ‘the last clear chance,’ which is to the effect that whenever the respective acts of negligence on the part of the plaintiff and defendant are not actually concurrent, but one succeeds the other by an appreciable interval, the person who has the last clear chance to avoid the impending harm and negligently fails to do so is chargeable with the whole.”
The jury was properly and adequately instructed that plaintiff would be barred of recovery by his contributory negligence unless, in proper application of the last clear chance doctrine, the defendant thereafter could have discovered his peril and avoided the injury. I think the judgment below should be affirmed.