Court Opinion

ID: 9531635
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:13:32.61598+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:33.342488
License: Public Domain

HOWE, Associate Chief Justice,
concurring and dissenting:
I concur in all parts of the majority opinion except in part IIIA, dealing with the unavoidable accident instruction. As to that portion, I partially dissent. I cannot now join the holding that it is never proper to give an unavoidable accident instruction or in the wholesale overruling of all of our eases which hold otherwise.
*1339Neither party has adequately briefed this particular issue on appeal. Utah R.App.P. 24(a)(9); see Ong Int’l (U.S.A.) Inc. v. 11th Ave. Corp., 850 P.2d 447, 461 (Utah 1993). The briefs include only short, superficial statements as to the appropriateness of the instruction. Even appellants do not argue that the instruction should never be given. In view of that void, it seems hasty to reach the majority’s sweeping conclusion. While I agree that the giving of the instruction in this case was erroneous for the reasons stated by the majority, there may be cases where it would be proper if there is evidence supporting a theory of unavoidable accident.
The majority concedes that sometimes accidents do happen without the negligence of anyone. In those cases, it would seem to me that an unavoidable accident instruction might well be of assistance to the jurors in clarifying their options as they deliberate. This issue should be left open for another day when it has been thoroughly briefed and argued.
ZIMMERMAN, J., concurs in the concurring and dissenting opinion of Associate Chief Justice HOWE.