Court Opinion

ID: 9530411
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:59:40.858757+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:06.347031
License: Public Domain

Fatzer, J.,
concurring specially: These comments are directed to the trial court’s submission of special question No. 3, whether the collision was the result of an “unavoidable accident,” to which counsel made no objection.
Whether counsel did or did not object to its submission, the question was unwarranted and contrary to the law of this state, under the facts and circumstances presented. This court has laid to rest the question of when and under what circumstances, if any, a special question may be submitted requiring an answer whether the collision was the result of an unavoidable accident. In Knox v. Barnard, 181 Kan. 943, 317 P. 2d 452, it was held that, as applied to automobile negligence cases, the term “unaviodable accident” excludes and repels the idea of negligence and refers to one which is not occasioned in any degree, either directly or remotely, by the want of such care or prudence as the law holds every person bound to exercise — that is, an occurrence which is not contributed to by the negligent act or omission of either party. In Schmid v. Eslick, 181 Kan. 997, 317 P. 2d 459, it was held that the term “unavoidable accident” implies that the injury occurred without the negligence of either party and could not have been prevented by their exercise of ordinary care and prudence. In the more recent case of Kreh v. Trinkle, 185 Kan. 329, 343 P. 2d 213, the rule was reaffirmed and *599applied, and it was further held that instructions and special questions submitted to the jury should be germane to the issues made by the pleadings and limited to such of them as are supported by some evidence.
When submitted, special questions are the trial court’s questions to assist in deciding the controverted facts of a lawsuit, and it has the duty of supervising the form of special questions so as to make them pertinent to the issues involved. More particularly, its first duty is to determine whether the evidence justifies the submission of an issue raised by the pleadings, and where, as here, the evidence is sufficient to establish the existence of the fact of negligence on the part of the defendant, it becomes the duty of the court to refrain from submitting the question whether the collision was the result of an unavoidable accident.
The trial in this case was commenced May 26, 1959, which was more than a year and a half after the cases of Knox v. Barnard, supra, and Schmid v. Eslick, supra, were decided and the opinions printed in the reports of this court. The case of Kreh v. Trinkle, supra, was subsequently decided on August 3, 1959. The fact that counsel for the plaintiff failed to object to the submission of special question No. 3 did not, in my opinion, justify the trial court in submitting that special question, under the record presented.
Wertz, J., concurring in the foregoing special concurring opinion.