Court Opinion

ID: 9595547
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:41:26.031792+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:28.262292
License: Public Domain

Clinton, J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The majority opinion correctly points out that there is no essential dispute in the evidence. The opinion is, however, I believe, incorrect in suggesting that upon trial there could be additional evi*373dence which might affect the inferences which a reasonable mind might draw from the undisputed facts. Such an assumption is unrealistic. The plaintiff and the defendant Pat were the only witnesses with knowledge of the facts. This knowledge was thoroughly explored in the two depositions. If the plaintiff had further pertinent evidence he could have introduced it by affidavit or otherwise in opposition to the defendants’ motion for summary judgment. A photograph or photographs might more clearly illustrate the oral evidence, but could not in any essential way change it.
The majority opinion lists four propositions, the inferences as to which it is stated reasonable minds might differ. However, in my judgment, the one proposition which is critical and as to which reasonable judicial minds ought not to differ, if the principle of stare decisis is to be given credence, is not dealt with.
That proposition is that the plaintiff was, as a matter of law, guilty of contributory negligence more than slight proximately contributing to his injury. That inference flows from the following: Plaintiff was 25 years of age. He was a farmer. He was familiar with the combine mechanism. He knew or ought to have known that the engine was running. He knew or ought to have known that if, while the engine was running, the clutch, by which the auger was controlled, was intentionally or accidentally moved to the operating position, the auger would rotate. He knew or ought to have known that if his arm or hand were in the auger channel when this should occur serious personal injury was inevitable. Nonetheless, immediately after he suggested to the defendant Pat that he (plaintiff) would attempt to retrieve the lost washer and Pat had said, “let it go for now,” he went ahead, without informing Pat, in his efforts to find the washer and in so doing placed his arm and hand in the auger channel in the bottom of the bin. At that time he knew or ought to have known that the auger was operational. He did *374this without informing Pat. He did this at a time when, under the evidence, he should have realized that Pat might, in order to test whether the repairs had been successful, shift the clutch which controlled the auger. It seems clear from the record the plaintiff was guilty of negligence contributing to his injury and that that negligence was of a kind and measure which was more than slight.
Accidents of this type causing personal injury are a frequent occurrence. So frequent, in fact, that manufacturers now customarily print upon machines of various types, for example, snowblowers, warnings which caution operators against working on or attempting to dislodge clogged material from working parts while the engine is running. These are cautions against relying merely upon disengagement of some type of clutch control. It is the very fact that such controls may inadvertently or intentionally be engaged that makes so extremely hazardous working upon such machines while the motor is running.
In principle this case is indistinguishable from Anstine v. Briggs, 191 Neb. 489, 215 N. W. 2d 878; and Fritchley v. Love-Courson Drilling Co., Inc., 177 Neb. 455, 129 N. W. 2d 515. In the first case we affirmed the verdict for the defendants. Plaintiff in that case was a 17-year-old youth employed at a feed yard and he had “placed himself between [a] tractor and [a] feed wagon in a position of extreme danger if the wagon should be moved.” We held he was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law. In the second case, the plaintiff was, in the course of his employment, required to climb an iron bar ladder on the side of a water tank in an oil field. One of the rungs of the ladder was loose at one end. Plaintiff was aware of this. He climbed the ladder. The rung swung out slightly, causing him to fall. We there said that he was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law.
If the principle of stare decisis is to be given credence, *375we ought to follow it in applicable cases. The two cases cited are in principle indistinguishable from the one at hand. If anything, the plaintiff’s negligence in this case is greater than that of the plaintiffs in the cases cited.
I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Newton, J., joins in this dissent.