Court Opinion

ID: 9633585
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:53:39.294312+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:55:03.014651
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice HARNSBERGER
(dissenting).
The reasoning of the majority is as incomprehensible to me as the jury’s verdict seemed to be to the district court which set aside that verdict and rendered judgment for the defendants notwithstanding.
Although I continue to retain a high regard and respect for the views of my colleagues, that must not deter me from setting forth the reasons why it should be apparent they are so gravely in error in this appeal. I believe the record conclusively shows the conclusions reached and relied upon by the majority have only been arrived at by entirely unjustified speculation rather than from evidence or fair inferences justly *601drawn therefrom and in complete disregard of undisputed and unchallenged testimony of witnesses whose credibility has never been questioned, even including plaintiff’s own testimony as to what happened before he lost consciousness. There are at least four such speculations.
L The court speculates that the place where the wrecker turned around, which was some 200 feet distant from the place where the accident occurred, “would have been a good place” to leave the wrecker and set up flares. Section 31-211, W.S.1957, dealing with required use of flares, only makes those provisions applicable to vehicles “disabled upon the traveled portion of a highway or the shoulder thereof.” Even if it be assumed that provision should include any “stopped” vehicle, whether disabled or not, paragraphs (2) (I) and (II), of the statute require a flare to be placed 100 feet, not 200 feet, from the vehicle. Although it is true that the failure to place flares or other warning signals at some proper distance from a stopped or disabled vehicle on the traveled portion of a highway may, independent of statute, be considered negligence under some circumstances when the statute itself prescribes the distance at which such warning signals shall be placed from the disabled or stopped vehicle, a compliance with that statutory requirement would absolve from negligence on that score while placing flares at double that distance would not. However, the discussion is somewhat moot because the wrecker in question was struck from behind by plaintiff’s car not while it was either disabled or stopped upon the highway, but was in lawful operation thereon.
2.The court next speculates that “an ordinarily careful * * * driver would have stopped off the traveled portion of the highway.” Just why this speculation was indulged is unclear when the undisputed fact is that the wrecker was traveling on its own side of the road at the cautious speed of from two to four miles an hour when it was struck from behind by plaintiff’s car. Also, the majority characterization of the wrecker’s travel as “maneuvering” unjustly and inaccurately suggests that the wrecker’s travel-movement was something other than being merely driven slowly on its own side of the highway at the time it was struck from behind by plaintiff’s car. The undisputed and unchallenged testimony of the wrecker driver, whose credibility was not attacked in any way when explaining why no flares were put out, was, “I hadn’t had my vehicle stationed [stopped] yet,” and his further statement that he “was going to put out flares as soon as I got pulled back up into position.” Again the majority’s statement that the wrecker driver had testified he had not put out flares or flashing signals is misleading because it suggests there were no flashing signals used by the wrecker. To the contrary, the undisputed and unchallenged testimony showed the revolving, flashing light-signal on top of the wrecker cab was continuously in operation and continued in operation long after the accident; that all the warning lights required by law for such a wrecker vehicle were in full operation when the wrecker was struck from behind by plaintiff’s car as the wrecker was lawfully in motion traveling on its own side of the highway.
3. The court improperly speculates that the position for the wrecker to pull out the Buick would necessarily be “a position somewhat across the highway.” Even the majority opinion confesses it has “no way of knowing where” that position would be, but nevertheless the opinion contents itself by assuming the court’s speculative premise that the wrecker had to be in “a position somewhat across the highway,” satisfied the jury and “had a part in the jury’s determination.” If the majority is correct in its assumption, then the jury’s verdict was not based on substantial evidence, but was based upon pure, unacceptable speculation.
4. Also, the opinion, after describing the position of the wrecker following the accident, speculates that the position of the wrecker, “means it was far enough on the highway, when struck, so that it made such a turn without going into the barrow pit.” *602This surmise is not only in direct contradiction to undisputed testimony, but it offends against the physical facts as they were testified to by witnesses who described the positions of the vehicles after the accident. Those testimonies all show it was the right front of plaintiff’s car which struck the left rear of the wrecker. There was no evidence that plaintiff’s car approached the wrecker from the left side of the highway or from tire left side of the wrecker. On the contrary, the only evidence was that the wrecker was traveling straight down the highway on its own side of the road, and that plaintiff’s car approached it from the rear, which of course would also be on the plaintiff’s own side of the road. Under these circumstances, in order for the right front of plaintiff’s car to strike the left rear of the wrecker, it was necessary for plaintiff’s car to strike the wrecker either when the car was farther to the left side of the right-hand side of the highway or when plaintiff’s car, in attempting to pass the wrecker, was turning to the left, not coming from the left. This accords with plaintiff’s testimony and the sketch he made, which was received in evidence as plaintiff’s Exhibit 10, that, when he attempted to pass the vehicle he saw in front of him, he turned to the left. Such an approach gives plain inference — not speculation — that plaintiff, coming suddenly upon the slow moving wrecker at a speed of 40 miles an hour, which by plaintiff’s own statement was from five to ten miles an hour in excess of a permissible speed under the blizzard conditions and icy roads, in a split-second effort to avoid striking the wrecker, turned his car as much to the left as was possible, but, nevertheless, struck the wrecker turning it in a clockwise direction, after which the wrecker was again struck by the semitrailer and then came to rest facing in the position in which it remained after the accident. This position of the wrecker was the position testified about by the witnesses who arrived after the accident. It was not the position where the wrecker stopped after being struck only by plaintiff’s car. The plaintiff’s car, after striking the wrecker, came to a stop and remained facing somewhat in the same direction as the wrecker was facing after it had been struck a second time by the semitrailer. These physical facts tend to corroborate the wrecker-driver’s account of what happened.
Finally, the majority opinion is subject to a further just criticism in deciding the case should be remanded for new trial. If its conclusions, even those based upon unjustified speculation and failure to regard undisputed and unchallenged evidence and physical facts, must control the disposition of this case, there is no justice or excuse in remanding for a new trial. The controlling opinion is based upon the jury’s right to decide and this court’s conclusion that there was sufficient, substantial evidence to warrant the verdict they returned. In consequence, the only proper disposition to be made is to remand with direction to reinstate the verdict and render judgment accordingly.