Court Opinion

ID: 9582303
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:24:58.210155+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:37.838188
License: Public Domain

GiveN, Judge,
dissenting:
In my view, the holdings in the Divita, the Darling and the Fleming cases are unreasonably extended by the decision in the instant case. In each of those cases, the question of the existence of contributory negligence, as a matter of law, was not considered by the Court until after verdict, until after plaintiff had made a prima facie case. Of course, if the evidence of plaintiff, in a proceeding such as the instant one, clearly establishes contributory negligence on the part of plaintiff, he is not entitled to recover and a directed verdict against him would be warranted. Nevertheless, the decision in the instant case demonstrates the too ready action of this Court in substituting its finding of facts for that of a jury.
The plaintiff’s evidence establishes that immediately before the collision, the headlights of an oncoming automobile blinded plaintiff so as to make it probably impossible for him to have observed the parked truck in time to have avoided the collision. Up until that time *249there is no basis in the evidence for saying that plaintiff was, in any manner, negligent. There is no indication in the evidence of plaintiff that he anticipated, or should have expected, the blinding effect of the headlights of the approaching automobile before they came from behind the parked truck. A reasonable inference, or at least one a jury should have the right to consider, is that the lights of the approaching automobile had no such blinding effect on plaintiff until after the beams therefrom had come from behind the illegally parked truck- Nor is there the least indication in the evidence that after defendant was so blinded hg had sufficient time to have stopped, or to have otherwise avoided the collision. Plaintiff testified to the effect that immediately before the collision “something gray just hit me in the face”; and that “Right when I saw it, I was right on it, and that was it”. Plaintiff was an experienced driver, traveling on his own side of the road at the time, and driving at a reasonable speed, considering the weather and road conditions. Of these facts there is no dispute. Such facts, it seems to me, clearly distinguish this case from the cases cited by the majority. The fact that others who were not in the position of plaintiff, and who were not blinded by headlights, were able to observe the illegally parked truck, should not preclude recovery. At least, a jury should be given an opportunity to say whether plaintiff acted in a negligent manner. The decision of the Court, in my opinion, unwarrantedly releases from liability a person who admittedly was negligent and whose negligence undoubtedly proximately contributed to the injury of a person having a right to use the highway. The illegal parking of the truck was not only a violation of the road laws but was contrary to a practice which those using the highway had a right to expect and depend on.
The distinguishing features of a case such as the instant one were carefully alluded to in the Darling case in this language: “* * * A case may arise where injury resulted solely from a sudden emergency caused by the flashing of light into a driver’s eyes, and a jury would be war*250ranted in relieving him from responsibility, there being no lack of reasonable care on his part. But, in this case, the jury considered that the defendant Corrie was not exercising reasonable care. The evidence justified the verdict against him.” In Tochek v. Monongahela Transport Co., 109 W. Va. 20, 24, 152 S. E. 776, the Court quoted with approval from Berry on Automobiles (6th Ed.) voL 1, §225, as follows: “* * * A person operating an automobile in a public highway, exercising reasonable care, may assume that others using the highway will also act with reasonable care; and he is not negligent in acting accordingly. Others may assume the same of him. He has a right to assume that the drivers of other vehicles will observe the law of the road, and he is not guilty of contributory negligence in acting upon such assumption, unless he has knowledge to the contrary”. The same warning is carried into the opinion in the Divita case. A plaintiff should not be denied the right of recovery where he was prevented from discovering the dangerous condition created by the negligence of a defendant, for which condition he was in no manner responsible.
Believing that plaintiff has been unwarrantedly denied a jury trial, I respectfully dissent.