Court Opinion

ID: 9769238
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 14:41:06.298393+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:58.896411
License: Public Domain

Ed. F. McFaddin, Associate Justice, dissenting. As I understand the Majority Opinion the judgment of the Trial Court is reversed solely because the Court refused to give the instruction requested by the appellant on unavoidable or inevitable accident, as copied in the Majority Opinion. Conceding, without admitting, that •the instruction was properly worded, nevertheless I insist that the Trial Court was correct in refusing this instruction because the driver of the appellant’s truck admitted that he failed to sound his horn as required by law. The violation of traffic laws directly connected with the mishap is always evidence of negligence. Mays v. Ritchie Grocer Co., 177 Ark. 35, 5 S. W. 2d 728; Browder v. St. L. SW. Ry. Co., 221 Ark. 773, 256 S. W. 2d 333. James Gathings, who was driving appellant’s truck at the time of the collision, admitted: “I was approaching a blind 90-degree curve . . . Just as I turned the 90-degree turn and topped the hill I met Mr. McDonald coming south . . . didn’t sound my horn before I went into the curve. It hasn’t been my practise to do that ... I didn’t know at that time it was prudent going into a blind situation to sound my horn. I didn’t know that was the law. I didn’t know it was the prudent thing to do. It never occurred to me. I did not sound my horn going into the curve. I knew it was narrow and dangerous there . . These admissions by the driver of the appellant’s vehicle fairly admit the violation of § 75-653 Ark. Stats., which reads: “The driver of a motor vehicle traveling through defiles or canyons or on mountain highways shall hold such motor vehicle under control and as near the right-hand edge of the highway as reasonably possible, and, upon approaching any curve where the view is obstructed, within a distance of 200 feet along the highwav. shall give audible warning with the horn of such motor vehicle. ’ ’ When the driver of the Gas Company truck admitted violation of the traffic law directly connected with the mishap, then the truck owner was not entitled to an instruction on unavoidable accident. It is only when all parties deny negligence that an instruction should be given on unavoidable accident. In Taggart v. Scott, 193 Ark. 930, 104 S. W. 2d 816, this Court approved the following instruction on unavoidable accident: “The court instructs the jury that if they believe from the evidence that the injuries, if any, sustained by the plaintiff were a result of a mere accident, that is, without negligence of any one, then your verdict will be for the defendant.” Mr. Justice Humphreys stated why the said instruction should have been given in that case: “Appellant claimed she was not negligent. Likewise, appellee claimed he was not negligent. If neither was to blame, the collision was necessarily an accident, and it would have been error not to give this instruction. It was so decided in the case of Morgan v. Cockrell, 173 Ark. 910, 294 S. W. 44.” Under the holding in Taggart v. Scott it is proper to give an instruction on unavoidable accident only when both plaintiff and defendant deny negligence. The admission of a violation of the traffic laws is certainly admission of facts from which the jury could find negligence. So the requested instruction in this case should not have been given. In Am. Jur. Vol. 5, p. 939, “Automobiles” § 1100, the holdings are summarized in this language: ‘ ‘ The giving of an instruction that if the injury complained of was the result of mere accident or misadventure, without the fault of anyone, the plaintiff cannot recover, is proper only where there is something in the record tending to show that the casualty resulted from some unknown cause, and is improper where it resulted from known actions of known persons and things, . . . ” In Blashfield’s Cyclopedia of Automobile Law, vol. 1 § 635, in discussing unavoidable accidents, the text reads: “A mere accident being one in which neither party is at fault, the mere fact that neither driver of two automobiles colliding with each other saw the other until too late to avoid the collision is not enough to show that the accident was unavoidable, since in such a case the negligence, if any, producing the situation, determines the liability, so that if either party can avoid an accident by the exercise of proper care it cannot be said to be unavoidable. ’ ’ In 65 A. L. R. 2d 12 there is an exhaustive annotation entitled, “Instructions on unavoidable accident or the like in motor vehicle cases.” In that article the propriety of unavoidable accident instructions is considered in great detail. In Paragraph 3 of the annotation, Arkansas is listed as one of the States in which such an instruction is proper in certain cases; but I find no case which holds that the instruction is proper when the defendant has admitted violation of the traffic rules directly connected with the collision. I maintain that the Trial Court was correct in refusing the instruction on unavoidable accident in this case; and therefore I respectfully dissent.