Court Opinion

ID: 9537232
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:14:37.906657+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:56:12.552216
License: Public Domain

QUINN, Chief Justice,
dissenting:
The majority determines that under the facts of this case reasonable minds could disagree as to whether the delivery of a corrosive liquid to a dumpsite for disposal requires the highest degree of care, but goes on to conclude that the trial court did not err in refusing to instruct the jury that one engaging in this activity is held to the highest standard of care. I agree with the majority that reasonable minds could differ as to the degree of care which the defendants were required to exercise in this case. However, it is precisely this potential for reasonable disagreement that leads me to conclude that the jury should have been instructed that one engaging in an inherently dangerous activity is required to exercise the highest degree of care. In this case the plaintiffs tendered an instruction which, in effect, did just that. I believe that the trial court’s refusal to submit that instruction to the jury was error, and I accordingly dissent from the majority opinion.
As the majority recognizes, our cases have consistently held that what constitutes reasonable care varies according to the degree of risk associated with the activity involved. We have on occasion held that certain activities, such as the supplying of electricity or propane gas, are so inherently dangerous and involve such a high degree of risk to others that a jury *1257must be instructed that those engaging in them are held to the highest degree of care. In my view, even when it cannot be said that the activity engaged in by a defendant is inherently dangerous as a matter of law, the jury nonetheless should still be so instructed as long as there is a sufficient basis in the evidence to support a finding that the activity in question was indeed an inherently dangerous activity. Giving such an instruction under these circumstances is simply a recognition of the long-standing principle that a party is entitled to an instruction setting forth his theory of the case when that instruction is consistent with existing law and is supported by the evidence. E.g., Federal Insurance Co. v. Public Service Co., 194 Colo. 107, 570 P.2d 239 (1977); Maloney v. Jussel, 125 Colo. 125, 241 P.2d 862 (1952); Rocky Mountain Fuel Co. v. Bakarich, 66 Colo. 275, 180 P. 754 (1919).
In this case the court recognizes that “it would be better practice to instruct the jury, in addition to the traditional reasonable care instruction, that the degree of care that constitutes reasonable care in a particular case increases in proportion to the degree of risk associated with a particular activity.” Major, op. at 1256 n. 7. Although instruction no. 22 tendered by the Forrests and referred to in footnote 1 of the court’s opinion was properly refused, in that it conclusively presumed that the dumping or disposal of the hazardous waste chemicals was an inherently dangerous activity, the majority overlooks the fact that the Forrests tendered an instruction which accorded with the “better practice” advocated in footnote 7 of the court’s opinion. The Forrests tendered the following instruction no. 20, which the trial court rejected:
One carrying on an inherently dangerous activity must exercise the highest possible degree of skill, care, caution, diligence and foresight with regard to that activity, according to the best technical, mechanical and scientific knowledge and methods which are practical and available at the time of the claimed conduct which caused the claimed injury. The failure to do so is negligence.
This tendered instruction is taken verbatim from CJI-Civ.2d 9:5 and describes the legal duty applicable to one engaging in an inherently dangerous activity. See Metropolitan Gas Repair Service, Inc. v. Kulik, 621 P.2d 313, 317 (Colo.1980). As we recognized in Blueflame Gas, Inc. v. Van Hoose, 679 P.2d 579, 588-89 (Colo.1984), “[a]n instruction formulated in terms of the highest degree of care is nothing more than a plain statement to the jury that the inordinate risk posed by [the activity] requires an amount of care commensurate with that risk.” The Forrests’ tendered instruction no. 20 did not improperly relegate to the jury the function of determining whether the defendant owed a legal duty to the plaintiff, nor did it vest the jury with the authority to determine the standard of conduct or care applicable to that duty. While questions of the existence and scope of duty were for the court, not the jury, to determine, Kulik, 621 P.2d at 317; Restatement (Second) of Torts § 328B (1965), the question of the defendant’s breach of a legal duty was an issue of fact which the jury was required to decide under the evidence admitted during the trial and under appropriate instructions of law.
A trial court’s refusal to give an instruction to which a party is entitled may constitute reversible error. E.g., Federal Insurance Co., 194 Colo. 107, 570 P.2d 239. Since the Forrests’ tendered instruction no. 20 was an accurate statement of the law, and since there was ample evidence to support a conclusion that the activity engaged in by the defendants was an inherently dangerous activity requiring the highest degree of care, I would hold that the trial court’s rejection of the Forrests’ tendered instruction no. 20 was reversible error. I would accordingly affirm the judgment of the court of appeals and would remand the case for a new trial.