Court Opinion

ID: 9528982
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:45:57.207272+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:34.244786
License: Public Domain

BURKE, J.
I dissent, for I believe that this was not an appropriate case for application of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. Under settled law, acknowledged by the majority, in any case wherein the facts as to the cause of the accident and the care exercised by the defendant are undisputed, resort to the inference or presumption of negligence is rendered unnecessary. (Akins v. County of Sonoma, 67 Cal.2d 185, 195 [60 Cal.Rptr. 499, 430 P.2d 57]; Di Mare v. Cresci, 58 Cal.2d 292, 299 [23 Cal.Rptr. 772, 373 P.2d 860]; Keeton v. Henning, 1 Cal.App.3d 50, 54-55 [81 Cal.Rptr. 424].) As stated in Akins, a case involving an accidental fall from bleachers owned and maintained by defendant county, “. . . the facts are undisputed as to how the accident happened and the care exercised by defendants. There is no dispute as to the condition of the bleachers from which plaintiff fell. The issue is whether the undisputed conduct of defendants constituted negligence which proximately [caused] plaintiff’s injuries, and there is no room for resort to inference as to what defendants did or did not do. Accordingly, the court was correct in ruling that the res ipsa loquitur [instruction] did not apply.” (P. 195.)
The Akins’ rule is controlling here, for the facts regarding the cause of the accident and the care exercised by defendant are undisputed. The jury was presented with uncontradicted facts regarding defendant’s design, construction, maintenance and inspection of the wall. Thus, in this case the jury knew precisely what defendant did, and did not do, to prevent the accident which occurred, and accordingly the jury was directly faced with the question whether, under the uncontradicted evidence, defendant’s conduct constituted negligence.
I submit that whenever the facts regarding defendant’s conduct are known and uncontradicted, there is no reason whatever to instruct the jury on res ipsa loquitur.1 Such an instruction, with its presumption of negli*602gence (see Evid. Code, § 646, subd. (b)), could significantly confuse the jury which already has before it sufficient facts to make its determination on the negligence issue. Moreover, unlike the case involving an unexplained accident, in the instant case the instruction is wholly unnecessary to balance the equities between an ignorant plaintiff and a knowledgeable defendant. In the traditional example of the sponge inexplicably found inside an ailing patient’s stomach, the res ipsa instruction would properly assist plaintiff in surmounting a difficult proof problem. However, if the uncontradicted evidence disclosed that, for one reason or another, defendant physician intentionally left the sponge in place, resort to the doctrine would be unnecessary, and the jury’s sole remaining function would be to determine whether defendant’s admitted conduct constituted negligence. In the instant case, the jury found otherwise.
I would affirm the judgment.
McComb, J., concurred.

The majority appear to assume that the Akins’ rule is inapplicable when the evidence presents various different theories of defendant’s negligence (e.g., in designing, *602building, maintaining and inspecting the wall). But the only essential ingredient of Akins is that the jury know precisely what defendant did in causing plaintiff’s injuries. With such knowledge, the jury is fully equipped to determine whether (on one or many different theories) defendant was negligent.
The majority also suggest that it is significant that the evidence did not conclusively establish why the wall fell. But logical analysis confirms that the Akins’ rule does not require exact proof of the cause of the accident so long as the evidence does establish precisely what role defendant played in the event. It is defendant’s conduct alone which the jury must measure and adjudge, and a res ipsa loquitur instruction is justified only where evidence of that conduct is lacking or in conflict.