Court Opinion

ID: 9659210
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:34:55.131437+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:05.090404
License: Public Domain

Levin, J.
We concur in the majority opinion except for part II which speaks of the "Funk rationale” and the "Funk doctrine” (Funk v Gen*483eral Motors Corp, 392 Mich 91; 220 NW2d 641 [1974]), and to whether it should be "extended”.
The majority opinion does not describe the "Funk rationale” or the “Funk doctrine”. In Hardy v Monsanto Enviro-Chem Systems, Inc, 414 Mich 29, 38-39; 323 NW2d 270 (1982), the opinion of the Court states that "the precise limits of this Court’s opinion in Funk, supra, are unclear”, but that "[u]nder Funk, the defense of contributory negligence is unavailable when a construction worker alleges negligence in the failure to provide adequate safety devices on the job”, and that "[i]n Funk, this Court found the total bar of contributory negligence to be inconsistent with the public policy of promoting safety in the workplace”.1
Funk did not, however, declare that the defense of contributory negligence is unavailable merely because the plaintiff "alleges negligence in the failure to provide adequate safety devices on the job”. (Emphasis supplied.) Nor did this Court in Funk in adverting to and quoting from the opinion *484of the New York Court of Appeals in Koenig v Patrick Construction Corp, 298 NY 313, 318-319; 83 NE2d 133 (1948), adopt every statement and reason advanced by that Court in support of its decision in that case.
In Funk, pp 113-114, in stating the question, we said "we have considered whether the defense of contributory negligence bars recovery where the trier of fact may reasonably ñnd that the failure to provide necessary safety equipment was the cause in fact of the injury”. (Emphasis supplied.) We concluded that there was no reason why the concept that the defense of ordinary contributory negligence is "inapposite to a claim predicated on a breach of a legislatively-imposed safety regulation”, declared in Koenig and other cases, "should not govern if the trier of fact finds that the employer-defendant’s breach of a common-law duty to provide safety equipment is the cause in fact of plaintiff’s injury”. (Emphasis supplied.)
Thus, Funk did not hold that the defense of contributory negligence could not be interposed merely because the worker "alleges negligence in the failure to provide adequate safety devices”. As stated in Funk, the defense of contributory negligence is not available (i) "where the trier of fact may reasonably find that the failure to provide necessary safety equipment was the cause in fact of the injury”, and (ii) "if the trier of fact finds that the employer-defendant’s breach of a common-law duty to provide safety equipment is the cause in fact of plaintiff’s injury”.
In Hardy v Monsanto, supra, p 40, this Court said that "it would be 'anomalous’ to hold a defendant liable for damages in excess of the amount causally related to his negligence”. That was indeed precisely the point that was made in Funk. *485Neither the plaintiff nor the defendant should suffer or be held responsible for loss in "excess of the amount causally related to his negligence”. As stated in Funk, "if the trier of fact finds” that the defendant’s breach "is the cause in fact of plaintiff’s injury” (emphasis supplied), then any negligence of the plaintiff is not a contributory cause of his loss. If, however, the trier of fact finds that the defendant’s breach was not a "cause in fact of plaintiff’s injury”, plaintiff cannot recover at all. And if the trier of fact finds that "the cause in fact of plaintiff’s injury” is both the negligence of the plaintiff and the negligence of the defendant, then the jury should determine the comparative fault, and the defendant should not be held liable for damages in "excess of the amount causally related to his negligence”.
In Hardy, this Court did not say that where there is evidence of the plaintiff’s negligence, the jury must apportion some amount in respect to the plaintiff’s comparative fault. Hardy said rather "that negligence in the failure to provide an 'adequate safety device’ in the workplace is therefore subject to the comparative negligence defense, assuming that any evidence of the plaintiff’s negligence exists”. (Emphasis supplied.)
The introduction of evidence tending to establish plaintiff’s fault does not require the assessment of some amount of comparative fault against the plaintiff. While the plaintiff’s claim is "subject to the comparative negligence defense”, it is ultimately for the jury to determine whether to credit the evidence of plaintiff’s fault and to determine whether, if it finds that the plaintiff was at fault, plaintiff’s fault was a cause in fact of plaintiff’s injury. If the jury rejects the evidence tending to show that the plaintiff was at fault or determines *486that any fault of the plaintiff was not a cause in fact of his injury, it should not reduce the damage award in respect to plaintiff’s fault which was not in the jury’s view evidentially substantiated or a contributory cause of his injury. On the other hand, if the jury finds that plaintiff’s fault was the cause in fact of his injury, then no damages should be awarded because then fault of the defendant was not a cause in fact of plaintiff’s injury. And if the jury finds that the fault of both the plaintiff and the defendant was a contributory cause, then, because plaintiff’s claim is "subject to the comparative negligence defense”, it should determine the comparative fault of both the plaintiff and the defendant.
As set forth in Funk, supra, p 113, "[t]he question of contributory negligence is generally one of fact, not of law”. It is for the trier of fact to decide whether the defendant, in violation of a statutory or common-law duty, failed to provide a safety device or an adequate safety device and whether such a failure was the cause in fact or a contributory cause of plaintiff’s injury.
Where the plaintiff alleges and evidentially supports his claim that the failure to provide a safety device or an adequate safety device was a cause in fact of his injury, the jury should be instructed that if it finds that the defendant failed to provide a safety device or an adequate device in violation of a statutory or common-law duty, then if that failure was the cause in fact of plaintiff’s injury, the amount of any damages assessed should not be reduced on account of asserted fault of the plaintiff — in such a case, fault of the plaintiff was not a contributory cause; that if it finds that the asserted failure to provide a safety device or an adequate safety device was not a cause in fact of *487plaintiffs injury, no damages should be awarded— in such a case, fault of the defendant was not a contributing cause; and that if it finds that both the plaintiff’s fault and the defendant’s failure to provide a safety device or an adequate safety device contributed to plaintiffs injury, then it should determine the comparative fault of both the plaintiff and the defendant and assess damages accordingly.
Kavanagh, J., concurred with Levin, J.
Riley, J., took no part in the decision of this case.

 In Tulkku v Mackworth Rees Division of Avis Industries, Inc, 406 Mich 615, 619; 281 NW2d 291 (1979), the plaintiffs hand was severely injured when a safety device malfunctioned. The trial court refused to instruct the jury that contributory negligence is not a defense "where the defendants have failed to provide a proper, adequate and suitable safety device” and "[y]ou may not consider contributory negligence if you find that there was such a failure on the part of the defendants to provide a proper, adequate and suitable safety device and that such failure was a proximate cause of the plaintiffs injuries”. (Emphasis supplied.)
This Court’s decision in Tulkku went further than Funk and even beyond the requested instruction. It did not merely state that if the trier finds that there was a breach by the defendant and such failure was "the cause in fact” (Funk) or "a proximate cause” (the requested instruction in Tulkku) of plaintiffs injury contributory negligence was not a defense, it declared that "contributory negligence is no bar to recovery where evidence has been presented of defendant’s causal negligence in the design or manufacture of a safety device”. Tulkku, p 623. See also Tulkku v Mackworth Rees Division of Avis Industries, Inc (On Remand), 101 Mich App 709; 301 NW2d 46 (1980), Iv den 411 Mich 897 (1981).