Court Opinion

ID: 9741661
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:00:19.304908+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:25.376627
License: Public Domain

Smith, J.
(concurring). Here again we consider one of the most difficult of the contemporary tort *182problems, the adjustment of the relative rights and duties between the automobile driver on an arterial highway, protected by stop signs or traffic lights, and the driver entering such highway from a subordinate road. The difficulty arises from the fact that if the arterial highway is to fulfill its function it must permit traffic to move in great volume and at relatively high rates of speed. Yet the arterial driver remains at all times under a duty to exercise (and the subordinate driver may lawfully demand that he exercise) due care. What is due care under such circumstances ?
We gave the problem exhaustive consideration recently in McGuire v. Rabaut, 354 Mich 230. There is no need here to repeat what was there held by a unanimous court. It remains only to apply the principles enunciated.
Taking the view of the facts most favorable to plaintiff, as we are required to do in the posture of the case before us, the defendant’s car was being-driven in a northerly direction upon Telegraph road, an arterial highway, at a speed under the maximum rate allowed. The driver, as we know, was under a duty to exercise due care. He must make reasonable allowance for traffic conditions, for fog, snow, or other adverse weather conditions, and for curves and road conditions. But due care for such a driver does not demand that he slacken his speed or prepare to stop at successive street intersections in the anticipation that side-street drivers will contest his right-of-way. Not only would such action impede the flow of arterial traffic but it would be hazardous to both the driver and those following him. Due care, then, for the arterial driver includes his right to assume that he will be accorded the right-of-way. This assumption may be relied upon by him until he is aware, or as a reasonably prudent driver, *183should he aware, that his right-of-way is being challenged.
The weather was clear on the night in question and the visibility good. As defendant’s car approached the Chicago street intersection the driver noted, generally, the intersection conditions. The lights of other cars were visible, as well as traffic lights. There was a restaurant on the right, partially obstructing his view in that direction. On the west side of Telegraph, to his left, there was a drive-in theater. And, although a “definite” observation of traffic to the left was not made, the driver testified, “I recall, as I approached the intersection I could see a ear coming or stopped in the intersection.” We have, up to this point, no testimony from which a jury would be entitled to find warning of hazard, nothing in the situation to require of the arterial driver a slackening of his speed or a change of his course.
When did such duty arise? When must he (in the exercise of due care) take steps to avoid collision with a subordinate driver who ventures into his path? Only, as we have noted, when it becomes obvious, or should become obvious to the reasonably prudent arterial driver, that his right-of-way is, in truth, being contested. “It is at this time that his duty of care with respect to the subordinate driver arises, and his post-observation negligence, or lack thereof, is measured by his actions after this point.” McGuire v. Rabaut, supra, 236. If he, at this point, does not act with reasonable care he may be forced to respond in damages, but reasonable care at this point is the care of one confronted with an emergency not of his creation, in the light of which his actions will be judged. The doctrine of proximate cause, also, must be examined. It may well be that there has been negligence on the part of the arterial *184driver but that his permissible speed, and the traffic conditions, were then such that, -even had he been alert, looked, discovered the danger, and responded instantaneously and properly, no action on his part could have averted collision once the subordinate driver came into his path. If this were the case his negligence in not properly observing or acting could not be a proximate cause of the accident. It is only after consideration of these factors that we reach the problem of contributory negligence on the part of the subordinate driver, a problem which (since McKinney v. Yelavich, 352 Mich 687, 697, 698) is considered not in terms of what a driver “could have seen, as a matter of physical fact, but what he should have seen in the exercise of due care. These are vastly different propositions.” No decision was reached as to this phase of the case before us for reasons that will appear.
The trial court (the decision was made prior both to McGuire v. Rabaut, supra, and McKinney v. Yelavich, supra), confining the discussion upon defendant’s motion for a directed verdict “to the issue of contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff,” granted such motion. Strictly speaking, however, there can be no contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff without negligence for which the defendant is responsible. Upon the facts before us there is the most serious question as to any negligence whatever on the part of the defendant. Nevertheless, we will not disturb the result thus reached, since even if plaintiff’s actions were not the sole proximate cause of her injuries they contributed thereto. "We recognize that the determination of the negligence of a driver crossing an arterial intersection is normally a question for the jury. It involves not only the fact that a car is “there to be seen” on the arterial highway but a weighing of *185many factors such as visibility, the condition of the surface of the road, the speed of the oncoming automobile, the width of the intersection, and other factors, the ultimate question being a matter of human judgment, namely, whether the arterial car constitutes an immediate hazard to a safe crossing. Upon the facts before us, however, the conduct of the plaintiff was such that reasonable men could not differ that the judgment made was palpably inconsistent with the exercise of due care. The question was, therefore, properly taken from the jury and resolved by the court.
Affirmed. Costs to appellee.
Black and Yoelker, JJ., concurred with Smith, J.