Court Opinion

ID: 9643543
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:32:28.768+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:01.272030
License: Public Domain

STEWART, Judge
(dissenting).
I dissent from the opinion because I believe it sets forth principles on the subjects hereinafter discussed which are *39so contrary to the established law that trial courts and members of the bar will be confused as to what the law is, or how this Court will react in the future, when these subjects come up for a determination.
Although the driver of the dump truck testified he was traveling at a speed of five miles per hour, and there is no rebutting evidence on this point, the opinion asserts there was an “inference” he was proceeding at an excessive rate of speed because “the best efforts of the driver” required 60 to 72 feet in which to stop the truck. It is my view this statement is based upon mere conjecture.
In referring to the speed of the dump truck appellant admits in his brief: “There was nothing to indicate excessive speed at the time of the accident.” He then proceeds to argue that the truck should have stopped. The opinion wobbles around with this idea and finally comes up with the suggestion that the driver should have lowered the speed of the truck to an irreducible minimum.
Obviously the driver must move his dump truck along at some time. The truck in fact had already passed the position where the child was concealed behind the ice-cream wagon when (and we use the language of the opinion) “the child ran from behind it into the side of the dump truck on front of its left rear dual wheels.” I do not believe the speed of the dump truck played any part in, and consequently was not a proximate cause of, the accident. Nor do I believe we can speculate that the injurious consequences would have been less severe if the truck had been moving more slowly.
The principles announced in the following cases would seem to be controlling in respect to the facts presented: Hoskins v. Hoskins, Ky., 316 S.W.2d 368; Jordon v. Clough, Ky., 313 S.W.2d 581; Hatfield v. Sargent’s Adm’x., 306 Ky. 782, 209 S.W.2d 306; Lieberman v. McLaughlin, 233 Ky. 763, 26 S.W.2d 753; Knecht v. Buckshorn, 233 Ky. 329, 25 S.W.2d 727.
We come now to the opinion’s holding that the act of stopping the ice-cream wagon on the street gave rise to a condition that imposed a duty on those in charge of it “to warn the children present in the immediate area of the attraction or make such other reasonable effort to prevent their being injured as may be necessary in the circumstances.”
This Court has never passed on the exact set of facts adduced by the evidence in this case. A recent Ohio case that is very much in point is Sidders v. Mobile Softee, Inc., Ohio App., 184 N.E.2d 115. The petition alleged that the defendant corporation was operating on the public streets of Xenia, Ohio, at night, a brightly illuminated ice-cream truck, equipped with a bell and loudspeaker; that a seven-year-old girl was thereby induced to cross the street from her home; and that, as she was undertaking to return home, she was struck by a passing automobile, because her view of the approaching automobile was obstructed by the ice-cream truck. The trial court sustained a demurrer to the petition. Upon an appeal the action of the trial court was upheld, the appellate court stating:
“The defendant is accused of being a sort of modern Pied Piper and as such responsible for any and all mishaps to its young customers. It is not an insurer of the safety of its patrons. Nor is it charged with a violation of law. The operation of an ice cream vending truck attractive to children is admittedly not a nuisance. ^ ^
At common law, or in the absence of a prohibitive statute, a motorist can stop his car whenever and wherever he wants to. This is incidental to the right to travel. See 8 Am.Jur.2d, Automobiles and Highway Traffic, sec. 816, p. 373.
The Court of Appeals of Maryland in Bloom v. Good Humor Ice Cream Co. of Baltimore, 179 Md. 384, 18 A.2d 592, passed on the exact question raised by the causation issue in the case now before this *40Court. In that case the defendant’s ice-cream truck was parked about eight feet from the right-hand curb of a public thoroughfare in the City of Baltimore. The infant plaintiff, a boy ten years of age, crossed the street and purchased some ice cream. As he was returning to the other side he was struck by a passing car. Suit was filed against the Good Humor Ice Cream Company. A recovery was denied; an appeal was taken. The Court of Appeals of Maryland held that the acts charged to the defendant-appellee were not the proximate cause of the plaintiff-appellant’s injuries and found for the defendant-appel-lee. That court said on that point:
“From the alleged facts in this case, it appears very clear that the accident to the appellant was brought about entirely by reason of the appellant leaving the ice cream truck, walking behind it to a place between the truck and the east sidewalk, and the sudden appearance of the automobile. That act on the part of the appellant, and the approaching automobile, were the separate and intervening causes of the accident. * * * ”
The Henry Bickel Company case, the facts concerning which are set forth in some detail in the opinion, had this to say on the question of the immediate cause of the death of the six-year-old child involved, who was struck by a truck driven by one Bell:
“The question narrows down to this: Can the Henry Bickel Company be held responsible for the death of this child, who was not struck or injured by any of the obstructions it placed in the street, and the most that can be said against it is, it created the conditions that caused her to have to cross to the north side of the street, in doing which she was struck and killed by an independent agency, to wit, the truck owned and driven by Bell. The answer is, ‘No.’ * * * ”
Continuing, the Court made this observation which applies in a most particular way to the esoteric generalities that are formulated to support the opinion. That case stated at page 1010 of 57 S.W.2d:
“If once we pass the immediate cause, we enter a limitless field of speculation. Lord Bacon puts it this way: ‘It were infinite for the law to consider the causes of causes and their impulsions one of another; therefore it contenteth itself with the immediate cause, and judgeth of acts by that, without looking to any further degree.’ ”
The issue of proximate cause presented in the Henry Bickel Company case is exactly the same as the issue of proximate cause presented in this case. The only possible way that case is distinguishable from the instant one is that the child was not attracted to the scene by a vehicle purveying ice cream.
The opinion admits, however, that the case at bar is not an attractive nuisance case. Nevertheless it follows attractive nuisance principles in arriving at the conclusion it reaches. I call attention to Burkett v. Southern Belle Dairy Co., Ky., 272 S.W.2d 661, where the matter of attractive nuisance in this type of case is laid to rest, and where, incidentally, the ice-cream truck involved was parked on the public street. See also Ice Delivery Company v. Thomas, 290 Ky. 230, 160 S.W.2d 605.
I would affirm the judgment.
MONTGOMERY and MOREMEN, JJ., join me in this dissent.