Court Opinion

ID: 9652678
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:30:03.097189+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:53.475029
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, dissenting. I cannot join the majority opinion for three reasons: (1) the trial court should have given an instruction on defective brakes; (2) the trial court should not have “directed a verdict” for the defendant; and (3) the court should have granted a new trial. I will not repeat the facts in detail, but I do wish to call attention to the fact that the plaintiff was the forward of three vehicles traveling north on U.S. Highway 71. Another motorist was following her, driving a pickup truck with a camper shell on it. The defendant, appellee, was the third vehicle. Signalling her intentions, the appellant had engaged her left turn signal. While passing the camper, the appellee was confronted with the appellant’s vehicle, which was in the process of making a left turn onto a side road. The driver of the camper sounded his horn in an effort to warn the appellee. The appellee then applied his brakes, leaving only one skidmark, cut to his left, and struck the appellant’s vehicle on the driver’s side, near the steering wheel. The accident actually occurred on the left shoulder of the road. We recently decided a case factually very similar to this one. Stephens v. Saunders, 293 Ark. 279, 737 S.W.2d 626 (1987). The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant who had crossed over onto the plaintiff’s side of the road at the time the collision occurred. The trial judge found the verdict to be clearly against the preponderance of the evidence and set aside the jury verdict. We upheld the trial court and stated: Even though his testimony and arguments were apparently accepted by the jury, they are so much at variance with the physical evidence and the testimony of the other witnesses that the trial judge did not act improvidently or abuse his discretion in finding that the verdict was clearly against the preponderance of the evidence. There is no dispute among the authorities concerning the right of drivers of vehicles going in the same direction and the priorities afforded them. The law of the road is that the automobile in front has the superior right to the use of that highway for the purpose of leaving it on either side to enter intersecting roads or highways. A polestar decision is Madison Smith Cadillac Company v. Lloyd, 184 Ark. 542, 43 S.W.2d 729 (1931). The Madison case was very similar to the present case, and in fact happened in the same area of the state. In Madison the plaintiifs were following the defendant vehicle when he turned left into a junkyard. The plaintiff had started to pass and in order to avoid striking the left-turning lead vehicle, ran into the ditch and overturned. The opinion requoted the law of the road and reversed a judgment for the appellees and dismissed the case. Speaking about the passing automobile, the court stated: They had ample time to think in covering that distance and could have easily stopped their car until they ascertained what purpose the Hudson car had in slowing down. There was no necessity whatever for them to act hastily in order to avoid striking the Hudson car. They had control of their car, but rather than reduce their speed and stop if necessary, they deliberately chose to maintain their speed, and by doing so assumed the hazard of turning to the left and passing the Hudson car. There is no substantial evidence of the appellant’s negligence in the record. Therefore, the court erred in instructing the jury to find for the defendant. There is no evidence whatsoever of negligence on the part of the appellant driver. Any minor negligence which might be attributed to her certainly could not be said to be a proximate cause of the collision. She was traveling in her own lane when she gave a signal to turn left off the highway and she proceeded across the road where she was struck by the appellee’s vehicle, which was by then out of control. There is no physical evidence whatsoever that the appellant was violating any law, ordinance or rule of the road. A case very close in point to the present case is that of Superior Forwarding Company v. Garner, 236 Ark. 340, 366 S.W.2d 290 (1963). In the Garner case the trailing vehicle attempted to pass and in so doing went into the other lane and caused a collision between his vehicle and another. This court reversed the jury award, finding both drivers negligent. We held that the trial court should have granted a verdict for the appellants or should have granted the appellants’ motion for a new trial. The relevant language in the Gamer case is as follows: On the basis of the record presented to us in this case we are of the opinion that the trial court should have directed a verdict as requested by the appellants. As we view the evidence in this case, appellee’s cause is based on inferences, speculation and conjecture. We do not find any substantial evidence to support any of the allegations of the appellants’ alleged acts of negligence in this case. The burden was upon the appellee to produce some substantial evidence from which the jury might find some act or omission constituting negligence by the appellants as alleged in appellee’s complaint. Such evidence can be established either by direct or circumstantial evidence but the appellee cannot rely upon inferences based on conjecture or speculation in order to establish proof of negligence. The court refused to give the brake instruction on the ground that there was no evidence of defective brakes. Clearly the testimony of the state policeman was that the defective brakes were a possible cause for the appellee’s vehicle leaving only one skidmark. In my opinion, that is evidence upon which to base such an instruction. Since I find absolutely no evidence of negligence on the part of the appellant, the lead vehicle, I believe the trial court should have granted a new trial.