Court Opinion

ID: 9776538
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:38:48.473409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:39.553236
License: Public Domain

ROBERTSON, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. In so doing, I adopt the unanimous opinion of the Court of Appeals, Western District, reversing the judgment of the trial court. That opinion, authored by the Honorable Anthony P. Nu-gent, Jr., follows without further attribution.
On August 29,1983, plaintiff Lucille Foster was walking northbound on the shoulder of 15th Street in Blue Springs. Ms. *146Poster’s mother walked on her left. Fifteenth Street is a two lane, paved road with gravel shoulders approximately five to seven feet wide.
Ms. Foster testified that the right rear corner of the tailgate section of a large pickup truck, approximately ten to fifteen feet in length, struck her as she was walking. She said that she first saw the truck when it was thirty to forty feet away, that she was walking about a foot from the pavement and that the truck was six to twelve inches from the edge of the pavement. She also testified that the truck was traveling about thirty-five miles per hour, that she did not see any part of the truck extending over the shoulder, and that to her knowledge the truck never left the pavement.
At the close of plaintiffs evidence, defendant filed and the trial court overruled a motion for a directed verdict. The court entered judgment on a jury verdict in favor of plaintiff and thereafter modified the judgment on its own motion. Defendant filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, for a new trial. The court overruled both motions and the defendant appealed.
Defendant argues in its first point that the trial court erred in giving Instruction No. 5 because the evidence was insufficient to support a finding to keep a careful lookout. In its second point, defendant contends that the trial court erred in overruling defendant’s motions for directed verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict because the evidence was insufficient to permit the jury to find that the driver was negligent in any way. The second point requires disposition of the case without reference to the defendant’s first argument.
On appeal we review the evidence in light most favorable to the plaintiff and disregard defendant’s evidence except as it supports the verdict. Bayne v. Jenkins, 593 S.W.2d 519, 521 (Mo. banc 1980). In fact, defendant adduced no evidence.
Ms. Foster testified that the day was sunny and clear and the pavement dry, that she saw a large pickup truck approaching from thirty to forty feet away, and that she moved slightly to the left as it approached. She further testified that the front part of the truck passed her safely and that she was struck by the right rear tailgate. Ms. Foster said that she did not step onto the pavement and that she did not see the truck move off the roadway.
Plaintiff’s case must fail because the accident could not have occurred as she related it. She testified that she did not step onto the pavement, that she did not see truck leave the pavement, that nothing protruded from the pickup, but that, nevertheless, the truck hit her. The truck could not have hit her, however, if she remained off of the pavement, and the truck remained on it.
Plaintiff argues that because the truck hit her, the jury could have drawn the inference that the truck “somehow” left the road. That inference is, however, inconsistent with her testimony that she watched the truck while it approached her, that it did not swerve, and that it remained on the road at least until the front of the truck passed her. Plaintiff further admitted that less than a half-second passed between the time the front of the truck passed her and the tailgate hit her.
For her theory to be consistent with her testimony, the following facts would have had to occur. After the front of the truck passed her, with the truck traveling thirty to thirty-five miles per hour in a straight line, the driver would have had to maneuver the rear of the truck off of the road in a space of less than ten feet and still have sufficient control of the vehicle to continue traveling down the road. We cannot reasonably conclude that such a maneuver is possible.
Obviously, then, one of her observations is incorrect. For the truck to have hit her, either she must have stepped into the truck’s path on the pavement or the truck must have been driven in a manner other than that which she described (that the truck was traveling straight down the road and did not swerve as it approached her). The latter theory is consistent with a finding of negligence on the part of the pickup *147driver, Skiles v. Schlake, 421 S.W.2d 244 (Mo.1967) (evidence that defendant drove off the roadway would support finding of negligence), but the former is not. Which portion of her testimony is correct is left to conjecture, and allegations of negligence based on conjecture or speculation do not establish a submissible case. Webb v. City of Clayton, 494 S.W.2d 662, 664 (Mo.App.1973) (“If evidence supports inconsistent conclusions of equal probability, one in favor of a party’s claim of negligence and one against, then the party has failed in that event to establish his case, or to remove it from the realm of speculation.”)
In my view, the trial court erred in failing to direct a verdict for the defendant. Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment and remand to the trial court with directions to set aside the judgment in favor of the plaintiff and enter judgment for the defendant. I dissent.