Court Opinion

ID: 9628766
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:31:41.553409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:11.033822
License: Public Domain

TRAYNOR, J.
I concur in the judgment. I cannot subscribe, however, to the view that when a jury determines standards of care in negligence cases it is simply finding facts. It is a question of law what the rule or standard of conduct should be for adjudging the actions of men as lawful or unlawful and for determining the consequences of those actions. A question of fact relates to what acts or events have occurred or what conditions exist or have existed. (See Thayer, Preliminary Treatise on Evidence at The Common Law, 183-262.) Questions of fact in this country, where there is a constitutional right to a jury trial, are for -the jury, while questions of law are ordinarily' for the judge. In the field of negligence it is common practice for the jury to determine not only the facts but the standard of- conduct to be applied within the compass of the rule that the conduct pre•seribed must b& that- of a reasonably-' prudent -man-- under- the *365circumstances. To determine whether given conduct should impose liability or bar a recovery is to make law. If the court has formulated a standard of reasonable conduct that is applicable to the case, the jury’s sole concern is to determine whether a person’s conduct has met that standard, a question of fact. If the court has not formulated such a standard, it becomes the jury’s responsibility to do so, and thereafter to determine whether a person’s conduct has met that standard. The decision as to whether the standard should be fixed by the court or left to the jury rests with the appellate courts and turns upon whether the jury would be at an advantage in arriving at a standard by virtue of being a cross-section of the community and therefore representative of the community views and attitudes. (See Clinkscales v. Carver, 22 Cal.2d 72 [136 P.2d 777]; Sioux City & Pacific R. R. Co. v. Stout, 17 Wall. (84 U.S.) 657, 664 [21 L.Ed. 745]; Grand Trunk Railway Co. v. Ives, 144 U.S. 408, 417 [12 S.Ct. 679, 36 L.Ed. 485]; Restatement: Torts, § 285; Holmes, The Common Law, 120-129; Holmes, Law in Science and Science in Law, 12 Harv.L.Rev. 443, 457.)