Court Opinion

ID: 9474798
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:09:00.076773+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:20.323751
License: Public Domain

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Ordinarily a panel majority’s view “that the issue of the plaintiff’s possible negligence should have been submitted to the jury” evokes at most a mild disagreement from the third panel member who may see the facts differently. In this case, I am concerned not only because I do indeed disagree with the majority’s view of the relevant facts and the inferences to be drawn therefrom, but because I believe that the majority errs in its view that Pennsylvania’s adoption of comparative negligence throws into question the appropriate-néss of ever using a directed verdict for a plaintiff. It may be useful to articulate the opposing view so that the Pennsylvania courts can correct the majority’s interpretation, if they are inclined to do so.
Initially, I assume that the majority has rejected the appellant’s position that Rule 50(a) does not allow a judge, sua sponte, to grant a directed verdict for the plaintiff. On its face, Rule 50(a) neither requires a motion by a party nor prohibits a judge from directing a verdict sua sponte. There is no reason to superimpose such requirements on the Rule. See Peterson v. Peterson, 400 F.2d 336, 343 (8th Cir.1968).
Of course, I do not disagree with the majority that a directed verdict, particularly in favor of the party bearing the burden of proof, must be used sparingly. Nonetheless, it has long been an accepted principle that in an appropriate case the court has a responsibility of directing the verdict. As the Supreme Court of the United States stated in Brady v. Southern Railway Co., 320 U.S. 476, 479-80, 64 S.Ct. 232, 234, 88 L.Ed. 239 (1943):
When the evidence is such that without weighing the credibility of the witnesses there can be but one reasonable conclusion as to the verdict, the court should determine the proceeding by non-suit, directed verdict or otherwise in accordance with the applicable practice without submission to the jury, or by judgment notwithstanding the verdict. By such direction of the trial the result is saved from the mischance of speculation over legally unfounded claims.
The courts have provided various formulations of the directed verdict standard. See, e.g., Kim v. Coppin State College, 662 F.2d 1055, 1059 (4th Cir.1981) (“the district court is entitled to grant a directed verdict even though some evidence supports the *1039opposite position so long as ‘there are no controverted issues of fact upon which reasonable minds could differ’ ”); Gutierrez v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 372 F.2d 121, 122 (10th Cir.1966) (“the court should direct a verdict where the evidence is without dispute, or is conflicting but of such conclusive character that if a verdict were returned for one party the exercise of sound judicial discretion would require that it be set aside”).
This court has described the standard as viewing the record in a light most favorable to the opposing party and determining “whether, as a matter of law, the record is critically deficient of that minimum quantum of evidence from which a jury might reasonably afford relief.” Denneny v. Sie-gel, 407 F.2d 433, 439 (3d Cir.1969). See also Mihalchak v. American Dredging Company, 266 F.2d 875, 877 (3d Cir.1959) (in granting a directed verdict, a judge “must be able to say not only that there is sufficient evidence to support the finding, even though other evidence could support as well a contrary finding, but additionally that there is insufficient evidence for permitting any different finding”).
Pennsylvania also accepted the general principle that a directed verdict may be granted in appropriate cases. For example, in Lott v. Guiden, 205 Pa.Super. 519, 523, 211 A.2d 72, 74 (1965), the court affirmed a directed verdict for plaintiff, stating, “[i]n directing a verdict against one party the court must accept as true all the evidence of that party which supports his contention, except such testimony as is inherently improbable, or is contradicted by unimpeached writings or unquestioned physical facts, and must reject all the adverse testimony of the party seeking a directed verdict.”
The majority suggests that the advent of comparative negligence has effected a major change in this regard, and that a directed verdict, at least for a plaintiff, may no longer be permissible. See Majority at 1037-1038. I see no reasoned basis for such a suggestion. The distinction between comparative negligence and contributory negligence for this purpose is illusory. In a contributory negligence jurisdiction, any negligence by plaintiff would bar plaintiff’s recovery. Thus, if there were any evidence of plaintiff’s negligence as to which reasonable minds could differ, a directed verdict for plaintiff would be improper. In a comparative negligence jurisdiction, plaintiff’s negligence would bar recovery only if plaintiff’s negligence was greater than the causal negligence of the defendant. See 42 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. § 7102(a) (Purdon 1982). If there were any evidence of plaintiff’s negligence as to which reasonable minds could differ, once again the issue would have to be referred to the jury, this time not only to determine if plaintiff were completely precluded from recovery but to determine the amount of plaintiff’s preclusion.
Of course, the onset of comparative negligence increases the number of cases to be sent to the jury and decreases the number of directed verdicts (or nonsuits) for a defendant because the jury must now weigh the amount of plaintiff's negligence in relation to that of defendant’s. The two Pennsylvania Superior Court cases cited by the majority, Beary v. Pennsylvania Electric Co., 322 Pa.Super. 52, 469 A.2d 176 (1983), and Peair v. Home Association of Enola Legion No. 751, 287 Pa.Super. 400, 430 A.2d 665 (1981), do nothing more than illustrate this obvious fact. They do not suggest that comparative negligence effected any change in the appropriateness of a directed verdict ./or a plaintiff, since under either system such a direction can be granted only when reasonable minds could not differ on the lack of evidence to show plaintiff’s negligence. The trial judge’s authority to determine if a directed verdict for plaintiff is appropriate has not changed one iota by the adoption of comparative negligence.
In reviewing the evidence, it is important to note that the plaintiff’s version of the manner in which the accident occurred is uncontradicted. Defendant did not testify or offer any contrary evidence. Plaintiff was driving to work in Scranton in the *1040southbound lane of Route 307, a two-laned paved highway. As Gilpin approached the creek bridge, defendant Langan’s car came around the curve and also approached the bridge. When the two cars were about 200 feet apart, defendant’s car moved over the center line into plaintiff’s lane. Plaintiff testified that he immediately hit his brakes and moved as far right as possible but was unable to leave the road because of the bridge and its concrete abutment. Defendant’s car collided with his and plaintiff was thrown into the windshield, striking his left leg, hip, shoulder and elbow.
Officer Ulkoski, the Falls Township police officer who investigated the accident, testified that when he arrived at the scene of the accident, defendant’s car and plaintiff's car were both on plaintiffs side of the road, and that there was debris from the accident in the center of the road. Officer Ulkoski also testified that when he asked defendant Langan if she had any memory of what happened, she stated, “No. I either fell asleep or passed out. I don’t remember what happened.” App. at 70a. He also testified that he found skid marks from plaintiff’s car measuring 41 feet and no skid marks for defendant’s car.
After testimony was completed, the district court directed liability for plaintiff because
there is no testimony in the record which would constitute negligence on the part of this Plaintiff in the case.
There is uncontradicted and undenied testimony that the Defendant’s car crossed over the center line at a point where both automobiles were passing over a bridge and upon which the Defendant, in my judgment, was found to have been negligent and caused this accident.
App. at 170a.
There is absolutely no evidence in this case from which any reasonable juror could find negligence on the part of plaintiff. This is not a case like Polhemus v. Water Island, Inc., 252 F.2d 924 (3d Cir.1958), cited by the majority, where plaintiff’s testimony showed he was standing on the running board of a station wagon when he was injured. Instead, these facts fit directly into the Pennsylvania precedent holding that “[i]n ‘wrong side of the road’ accidents, i.e., where one car suddenly enters the lane of oncoming traffic and an accident occurs____our courts have held that unless the defendant can explain his presence in the wrong lane, negligence can be inferred.” Fair v. Snowball Express, Inc., 226 Pa.Super. 295, 298, 310 A.2d 386, 388 (1973). See also Campbell v. Fiorot, 411 Pa.Super. 157, 191 A.2d 657 (1963).
The uncontradicted evidence showed that defendant was on plaintiff’s side of the road. Defendant did not explain her presence there; indeed, she presented no evidence about the accident and had admitted to the investigating police officer that she had no knowledge of how she came to be there because she either “fell asleep or passed out.” Defendant’s argument that she nonetheless is not liable because plaintiff was contributorily negligent by not pulling off the road is based on pure speculation.
The district court’s rejection of that argument is persuasive:
We recognize that the Defendant skillfully argues that on cross-examination the Plaintiff indicated there were some areas just prior to entering the bridge where he perhaps could have turned off the highway in order to avoid the accident. A review of the testimony however, reveals that this would be no better than a Hobson’s choice for the Plaintiff since turning off the highway just prior to this accident would have given him choices which might have ended up in his turning into the creek or running into the bridge abutment even if one were to conclude by a liberal reading of the cross-examination that he indeed had time at all to turn to his right prior to entering the bridge. A more appropriate reading of the testimony shows strongly that the Plaintiff had no choice but to continue along his route and that he tried his best within the confines of the bridge area to turn to the right and to brake, *1041but could not avoid the accident because the Defendant ran directly into his car while he was properly proceeding in his own lane.
This was one of those instances where there was no testimony on record upon which the jury could reach a different conclusion.
App. 184a-185a.
If this is not an appropriate case for a directed verdict for plaintiff, then I am hard pressed to imagine one.