Court Opinion

ID: 9586714
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:14:15.249391+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:48.377593
License: Public Domain

Oxner, Justice
(concurring in result).
*12I am in full accord with the views expressed on the first question but would assign a different reason for the conclusion reached on the last question.
Just before the charge there was a discussion, in the absence of the jury, between the trial Judge and counsel as to the applicability of certain statutory traffic regulations embodied in respondent’s request to charge. The trial Judge ruled that these regulations were not applicable since the accident occurred on a private road or driveway but there was no request by appellant’s counsel that he give an instruction to that effect.
At the conclusion of the charge, appellant’s counsel asked that the jury be instructed “that the usual statutes governing traffic upon highways and streets are not applicable here for the reason that this accident occurred upon what is known as a private road.” The trial Judge indicated that he would have given an instruction to this effect if it had been timely requested but did not think it should be emphasized by giving it after he had concluded his charge.
An instruction along the line requested would not have been improper. It is true that the violation of the statutes regulating the operation of motor vehicles on the highway was not made an issue in the case yet it is common knowledge that many of the jurors are familiar with these regulations and the question of their applicability might easily arise during their deliberations. There are many occasions when it is helpful to a jury to give an instruction that certain principles of law are not applicable. To illustrate, where self-defense is invoked to excuse a homicide occurring on defendant’s premises, it is not uncommon in charging the various elements of that defense for the court to tell the jury that the defendant is not required to retreat although no contention thereabout was made during the trial. So here it would not have been error to charge the jury that the statutes regulating the operation of motor vehicles on the highway were not applicable. But I do not think it was reversible error to refuse a request to this effect when first *13made at the conclusion of the charge, particularly when there had been a full discussion of the subject between court and counsel before the charge was commenced.
Stukes, C. J., concurs.