Court Opinion

ID: 9469229
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:35:43.575364+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:17.792724
License: Public Domain

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. In my opinion the trial court committed reversible error in refusing defendant’s request for an instruction on sudden emergency. It is undisputed that the requested instruction was a fair and correct statement of the applicable Louisiana law, and it is clear from the facts recited in the majority opinion that the question of sudden emergency was raised by the evidence.1
*1328The majority opinion rests on the theory that the general charge adequately covered the matter because it contained the standard definitions that negligence was “the failure to use ordinary care under the circumstanced’ and that ordinary care “must be viewed in the light of all the surrounding circumstances” [emphasis added]. Of course, such or similar general definitions are given in nearly every negligence case, whether or not there is any question of sudden emergency. The majority opinion is therefore in effect holding that a sudden emergency instruction need never be given.
The majority rationale is that conceptually a sudden emergency is a circumstance, and hence is adequately covered by a plain vanilla “under the circumstances” charge. A certain logical force here cannot be doubted, but, to borrow long familiar phrases, “[u]pon this point a page of history is worth a volume of logic,” New York Trust Co. v. Eisner, 256 U.S. 345, 349,41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921), or, as Justice Holmes said on another occasion, “[t]he life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.” O. Holmes, The Common Law (1881).
In Hickman v. Southern Pacific Transport Company, 262 La. 102, 262 So.2d 385, 389 (1972), the Louisiana Supreme Court, in discussing the sudden emergency doctrine, correctly observes that:
“The principle embodied in this rule enjoys almost universal acceptance in the courts of the nation, founded as it is upon common sense and a proper recognition
of prudent standards in human conduct. 65A C.J.S. Negligence § 123; 57 Am. Jur.2d, Negligence, § 90. The rule applies to the defendant’s as well as the plaintiff’s conduct; it is therefore, appropriate in a consideration of fault as it bears upon contributory negligence.” [Emphasis added.]
The court in Hickman decided the case before it expressly upon this doctrine: “Applying the doctrine of sudden emergency to lies’ [plaintiff’s] conduct, we conclude . .. lies was not, therefore, contributorily negligent.” [Id. at 389.] Other Louisiana cases are similar. For example, in McMullan v. Allstate Insurance Company, 242 So.2d 921 (La.App. 1st Cir.), writ denied, 257 La. 990, 244 So.2d 859 (1971), the trial court ruled in favor of the defendant because it “found that both drivers were faced with a sudden emergency, acted accordingly, and were not negligent.” [Id. at 923.] On appeal, the judgment was affirmed, the court quoting with approval from the opinion in Bautista v. Maryland Casualty Company, 201 So.2d 122, 124 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1967), in part as follows:
“ ‘... similar to the doctrine of last clear chance, or discovered peril, sudden emergency is an element of the law of negligence which may be considered and evaluated by the trier of fact in reaching a conclusion relative to the standard or degree of care required of the defendant and the breach thereof under the individual facts of the particular case.’ ” [242 So.2d at 924; emphasis added.]2
*1329As “sudden emergency” is an old doctrine almost universally accepted in negligence cases by the courts of Louisiana and the rest of our nation, we must assume that experience has proved its utility to judges and juries in the disposition of these cases. While in a conceptual or theoretical sense, the general “under the circumstances” rubric may be broad enough to encompass “sudden emergency,” it is evident that in the practical task of deciding negligence cases it has been found helpful and useful, to both fact finders and law appliers, to group in a separate, special class those cases which involve sudden emergencies. Such an emergency is, of course, a circumstance, but it is one that experience teaches is sufficiently different from other classes of circumstances to warrant, as a practical matter, the special focus and highlighting which is afforded by the doctrine of sudden emergency. It aids the process of decision making for the judge and jury to be cautioned to pause a minute and in effect remind themselves, if this is a sudden emergency then we should not expect from the actor quite as much as we normally would, because this is a special circumstance.
I am aware of no decision of this Court holding that, where it is raised by the evidence and proper under applicable law, a requested sudden emergency charge need not be given. Opinions in other circuits seem to point in a contrary direction. In Hopkins v. Metcalf, 435 F.2d 123 (10th Cir. 1970), the trial court was reversed for failure to instruct on sudden emergency. In Chandler v. Edgar W. Long, Inc., 623 F.2d 1139, 1141 (6th Cir. 1980), the court stated:
“We conclude that this testimony presented questions of fact for the jury to determine which required the trial judge to instruct the jury on the law of sudden emergency.” [Emphasis added.]
In Sanchez v. Safeway Stores, 451 F.2d 998, 1000 (10th Cir. 1971), the opinion contains the following in regard to a sudden emergency instruction: “In our opinion, the instruction was required by the evidence and was properly given.” [Emphasis added.]3
The centerpiece of the defense in this case was sudden emergency. By refusing to instruct on this subject, the trial court, in effect, prevented the defense from having its theory of the case adequately presented to the jury.
Our decisions have long recognized that “In a proper case, a party may be entitled to have his theory submitted to the jury, when there is evidence to support it and a proper request therefor has been made.” Paramount Film Distributing Corp. v. Applebaum, 217 F.2d 101, 123 (5th Cir. 1954), cert. denied, 349 U.S. 961 [75 S.Ct. 892, 99 L.Ed. 1284] (1955).
Of course, no party has a right to dictate the precise words the trial judge shall use in charging on a given subject or theory, nor to insist that although the trial judge has instructed on the principle involved in his own language, he must also do so again in the words of the party’s requested instruction.4 But these salutory, common sense rules do not extend so far as to excuse the trial judge, in the face of a proper request, from giving any instruction whatsoever on the party’s theory, if raised by the evidence. Nor can the trial judge fulfill his obligation in this regard by simply charging in the usual boilerplate generalities. The following opinions of this Court clearly recognize these rules.
In Bolden v. Kansas City Southern Railway Company, 468 F.2d 580, 581 (5th Cir. 1972), this Court said:
*1330“A refusal to give a properly requested instruction supported by the pleadings and the evidence is also error. Paramount Film Distrib. Corp. v. Applebaum, 217 F.2d 101 (5th Cir., 1954). It is not error, however, for the court to refuse the precise wording of a requested instruction if its substance has been adequately covered by the court’s charge to the jury.” [Emphasis added.]
And the following appears in Judge Rives’ opinion for the Court in Lind v. Aetna Casualty And Surety Company, 374 F.2d 377, 380 (5th Cir. 1967):
“If the requested instruction in accord with a party’s contention is consistent with the evidence in the case, it must be granted unless the subject matter has been adequately covered in the court’s charge. Richardson v. Walsh Const. Co., 3 Cir., 1964, 334 F.2d 334. Judge Brown pointed out in this Circuit’s decision in Marshall v. Isthmian Lines, Inc., 5 Cir., 1964, 334 F.2d 131, that ‘ * * * it was not enough to leave the whole thing within the vague contours of a general charge with the inescapable boiler-plate instructions on negligence and the like’ ... . ” [Emphasis added.]
In United States v. Lewis, 592 F.2d 1282, 1286 (5th Cir. 1979), approximately the same thought is expressed as follows:
“We have repeatedly held that ‘a defendant is entitled to a charge which precisely and specifically, rather than merely generally or abstractly, points to the theory of his defense’, United States v. Wolfson, 5 Cir., 1978, 573 F.2d 216, 221; United States v. Gilbreath, supra, 452 F.2d [992] at 994; Perez v. United States, 5 Cir., 1961, 297 F.2d 12, 16.”
Here we have no dispute over precise wording, rather the trial court’s instructions wholly failed to touch upon the sudden emergency doctrine in any manner whatsoever. The substance, subject matter and principle of the defendant’s theory of the case — sudden emergency — was entirely omitted from the charge. The defendant was relegated to having his theory of the case left “within the vague contours of a general charge” and the “boiler-plate instructions on negligence.” As reflected in the cited opinions of Judges Brown and Rives, this “was not enough.”
In United States v. Goss, 650 F.2d 1336 (5th Cir. 1981), this Court held it was reversible error in a mail fraud case to fail to instruct on good faith. The reasoning of that opinion is applicable here:
“The trial judge did charge the jury that a finding of specific intent to defraud is required for conviction. The government urges us to find this sufficient to encompass the good faith defense. Indeed, the trial judge relied on United States v. Wilkinson, 460 F.2d 725, 729 (5th Cir. 1972), for the proposition that the giving of the specific intent instruction renders the good faith charge unnecessary.
“ Wilkinson will not support the weight thus rested on it. In that mail fraud prosecution, the trial judge in fact gave an instruction incorporating the good faith defense, although he refused to couch that instruction in the language of the charge offered by the defendant. Thus, Wilkinson does not hold that, if a charge with respect to specific intent is given, then a jury instruction on the defense of good faith is unnecessary. Charging the jury that a finding of specific intent to defraud is required for conviction, while it may generally constitute the negative instruction, i.e., that, if the defendants acted in good faith, they could not have had the specific intent to defraud required for conviction, does not direct the jury’s attention to the defense of good faith with sufficient specificity to avoid reversible error.” [650 F.2d at 1345.]
Of course, both Lewis and Goss were criminal cases, but the parties are no less entitled to instructions fairly presenting their theory of the case in civil actions, assuming proper request and adequate support in the evidence.
Since sudden emergency was plainly raised by the evidence and a proper instruction was requested, I would hold that the *1331trial court committed reversible error by failing to in any way touch on this subject, which was central to defendant’s theory of the case, in its instructions.

. As observed in footnote one of the majority opinion, appellee contends that the sudden emergency charge would have been improper because the doctrine does not apply to one who negligently brings about the perilous situation. This matter was covered in the requested in*1328struction. Under the evidence here, whether Michell was negligent and, if so, whether the sudden emergency was caused by such negligence were clearly fact questions for the jury. Accordingly, appellee’s contentions in this regard present no justification for the trial court’s refusal to instruct on sudden emergency. See Long v. Hank, 457 F.2d 40 (10th Cir. 1972).

. In Alvis v. Davis, 295 So.2d 48 (La.App. 2d Cir.), writ denied, 295 So.2d 446 (1974), the “trial court found that defendant was confronted with a sudden emergency, that he reacted reasonably in the face of the situation, and thus was not negligent.” [Id. at 49.] The judgment was affirmed, and the court quoted with approval from the Bautista opinion, including the passage set out above in the text. [295 So.2d at 50.]
In Fontana v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 173 So.2d 284 (La.App. 3d Cir.) writ denied, 247 La. 1027, 175 So.2d 644 (1965), the court, in an opinion by Judge Tate, now of this Court, held that sudden emergency was a defense which had to be affirmatively pleaded. The courts in Bautista, McMullan and Alvis have rejected this view, holding that sudden emergency, like discovered peril, can come in under a general denial. So far as the writer has discovered, the Louisiana Supreme Court has not resolved this dispute. In federal court, the doctrine need not be specially pleaded. Hopkins v. Metcalf, 435 F.2d 123 (10th Cir. 1970).

. See also, e.g., Starns v. Jones, 500 F.2d 1233, 1236-37 (8th Cir. 1974); Cavallaro v. Williams, 530 F.2d 473, 478 (3d Cir. 1975); Long v. Hank, 457 F.2d 40 (10th Cir. 1972); 3 Devitt and Blackmar, Federal Jury Practice and Instructions § 80.27 (3d ed. 1977).

. See, e.g., McCullough v. Beech Aircraft Corp., 587 F.2d 754, 759 n. 9 (5th Cir. 1979);
“Because the instructions given by the district court covered the principles contained in the refused instructions and were less confusing to the jury than they would have been had the requested instructions been given, the district court did not err in refusing to give the instructions.”