Court Opinion

ID: 9697436
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:16:28.570907+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:32.374145
License: Public Domain

JONES, Justice
(concurring specially).
Because I initially disagreed with that aspect of the opinion dealing with the “admissibility of the collective facts'” issue, I have chosen to write briefly on this point. It was my original impression, although agreeing fully with the collective facts rule, that the factual context within which the question was posed in this case was altogether different from that of Courson insofar as the conduct of the respective defendants in precipitating the foreseeable risk of harm to the plaintiff. In Courson, there was nothing in the conduct of the defendant railroad in conducting the excursion that gave rise to a foreseeable danger apart from an unruly crowd that might develop which was the very point of the question there in issue. Here, the foreseeable risk of harm lay in the whole of defendant’s promotional scheme.
While this factual distinction is real, I am now convinced, upon further reflection, that it is not so material as to make Courson here inapplicable in light of plaintiff’s first alternative averment of negligence, i. e., “negligently failed to police or control the crowd.” Given the proposition that plaintiff may pursue her remedy or alternative theories (either in the same or separate counts), and the opinion of this Court so holds, the defendant likewise must be permitted its defense as to each of such theories. The offered question, which sought the witness’s observation of the crowd between the second and third drop, was relevant to the issues as framed by the pleading and sought to refute plaintiff’s evidence already adduced as to the condition of the crowd. In my opinion, the trial Court would have correctly ruled against admissibility had plaintiff based her claim *256solely on the alternative averments of negligence listed in the opinion as (2) and (3), and this for the reason that the precedent of Courson is inapplicable to those theories of recovery. I concur fully with the opinion.