Court Opinion

ID: 9741749
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:01:20.0302+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:25.905150
License: Public Domain

MORGAN, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent. As I read the majority opinion it holds that respondent was contributorily negligent as a matter of law. With this holding I agree. In such case, however, appellant was entitled to proper instruction narrowing the issue to whether or not such contributory negligence was more than slight. Instead he got the potpourri of instructions regarding negligence, contributory negligence, and comparative negligence. Since we cannot determine on what theory the jury returned its verdict we are unable to affirm it. They may have found that respondent was not negligent at all, directly contrary to the majority holding.
This case is singularly similar to Nugent v. Quam, 82 S.D. 588, 152 N.W.2d 371 (1967), for in both cases the respondents, who were pedestrians injured by a motor vehicle, had observed the oncoming vehicle in the distance and then apparently failed to keep a lookout. In Quam the jury was instructed properly as to comparative negligence only, but this court struck down a substantial verdict holding that the contributory negligence was more than slight as a matter of law. In the instant case, I would at least grant appellant a new trial under proper instruction.