Court Opinion

ID: 9551378
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:52:18.971429+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:23:40.370162
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I dissent.
In my opinion the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is applicable to the facts of this case. It is not within the realm of proba*171bility that (excluding movement caused by the elements) when the gears of a car are placed in a neutral position, the hand brake is set and the motor running, the car should suddenly leap forward unless someone has caused it to do so. Here the mechanic was the only person exercising any dominion over the car. He was making adjustments on the motor. He must therefore have done something which caused the car to jump forward. Under these circumstances it may be inferred that he was negligent in some respect, hence the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur applies. The majority opinion states that: Plaintiff watched him [the mechanic] while he accelerated and decelerated the motor, and there is no evidence that the mechanic did or could have done anything else which would have affected the shifting mechanism of the car. It was at least equally probable that the accident was caused by some fault in the mechanism of the car for which defendants were not liable as that it resulted from any negligent act or omission of the mechanic.” That statement as a turning point of the case fails to state enough. If a car does not leap forward under those conditions, ordinarily, then there must have been some negligent act to cause it, and thus res ipsa loquitur. We do not know that the only thing the mechanic did was to accelerate the motor. There is no showing that his activities were limited to that act. While plaintiff testified to such acceleration he did not purport to state that no other act was done by the mechanic. If he had done so he would have proven (or perhaps disproven) specific negligence and thus possibly eliminated res ipsa loquitur. It was not incumbent upon him to prove what the mechanic did or did not do. He shows that a car leaps forward from causes unknown to him. The doctrine is then applicable. It is up to the defendant to explain that he did no negligent act. The effect of the reasoning of the majority opinion is to require the plaintiff to explain how the accident happened, a position wholly at odds with res ipsa loquitur. Therefore we start out with the assumption, and the majority opinion does not deny it, that a car does not lurch forward when in neutral and the hand brake is set unless someone has been negligent, and the only one whose negligence could have caused the result was the mechanic.
The above quoted portion of the majority opinion states that' the probabilities are at least equal that the forward movement of the ear was caused by a mechanical defect in the car. That cannot follow for the reason that plaintiff’s evi*172deuce shows that there were no defects in the car and his expert witness eliminated such possibility when he testified that such defect only occurred once in a thousand times. Thus we have left the probability, and hence the inference, that the mechanic committed some negligent act. Indeed the plaintiff here has gone further than is customary in eliminating possibilities of the cause of the accident other than defendant’s negligence. He has shown that it was not due to any negligence on his part as the car was in gear, the hand brake was set, and there was no mechanical defect. There is no reasonable probability left than that the mechanic did something while working on the motor to cause the car to move.
A ease closely analogous is Druzanich v. Criley, 19 Cal.2d 439 [122 P.2d 53], where this court held that where a car is being driven along the highway, and leaves the road, the doctrine applies, and pointed out that defendant offered no evidence that there was any mechanical defect in the car. The case of Dierman v. Providence Hospital, 31 Cal.2d 290 [188 P.2d 12], is also in point on the issue of defendant’s failure to furnish a satisfactory explanation of the accident. Likewise in the instant case the burden was upon defendant to persuade the jury that the accident was due to a mechanical defect or other factors over which he had no control.
Certainly, if the mechanic had been working under the cowl in the driver’s compartment when the accident happened, his mere assertion that he did nothing which would cause the car to lurch forward would not be sufficient to justify the court in taking the case from the jury. It is abundantly clear that such a factual situation would give rise to an inference of negligence under the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur which would be sufficient to support a verdict for plaintiff, as any denial of negligent conduct by the mechanic would simply create a conflict which the jury would be called upon to resolve. I can see no difference in the foregoing situation and the one in the ease at bar. Here the mechanic was the only person in a position to cause the car to do anything. He says he did nothing to cause it to lurch forward. If a car would not ordinarily lurch forward under those circumstances unless someone did something to cause it to do so, the mechanic’s denial that he did anything to cause such movement, would simply create a conflict with the inference that it was his conduct which caused the car to move. Thus a factual situation was presented for the determination of the jury under appropriate instructions.
*173It is not disputed that the plaintiff requested and the court refused to give appropriate instructions on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, thus depriving plaintiff of the benefit of the doctrine. It must be conceded that if this doctrine was applicable, it was prejudicial error for the court to refuse to instruct the jury on it.
I would therefore reverse the judgment.