Court Opinion

ID: 9671314
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:34:22.877484+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:09.285287
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, concurring. I concur to say the majority opinion is exactly correct in abolishing the AMI 614 Sudden Emergency instruction. The trial judge in the present case said it best as follows: The 614 problem is going to give the courts in this state a problem until someone of higher power makes up its mind that it is going to get rid of the instruction. Otherwise, the trial courts are in a dilemma. That so-called “higher power” is this court, since it is this court that adopted AMI 614. Only recently our court recognized again the confusion AMI 614 had caused in Frisby v. Agerton Logging, Inc., 323 Ark. 508, 915 S.W.2d 718 (1996), where we stated, “Hence, the instruction (AMI 614) should not have been given. It added nothing to the comparative fault analysis and only injected confusion into complex proceedings.” Such confusion over AMI 614 has flourished, rendering at least eight cases (including the present one) before this court in the ’90s alone. Frisby v. Agerton Logging, Inc., 323 Ark. 508, 915 s.W.2d 708 (1996); Thomson v. Littlefield, 319 Ark. 648, 893 S.W.2d 788 (1995); Druckenmiller v. Cluff, 316 Ark. 517, 873 S.W.2d 526 (1994); Diemer v. Dischler, 313 Ark. 154, 852 S.W.2d 793 (1993); Smith v. Stevens, 313 Ark. 534, 855 S.W.2d 323 (1993); Berry v. Chapple, 309 Ark. 612, 832 S.W.2d 256 (1992); Scoggins v. Southern Farmers’ Ass’n, 304 Ark. 426, 803 S.W.2d 515 (1991). Courts and attorneys alike have been befuddled on its usage (or nonusage), and jurors can only be elated to be rid of such prattle being introduced into a serious negligence case. Other negligence and comparative-fault instructions left after 614’s removal will be more than adequate to guide jurors through their deliberations.