Court Opinion

ID: 9571206
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:29:48.209083+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:29:22.540103
License: Public Domain

Benham, Judge.
This appeal is from a judgment entered on a jury verdict for the defendant in a case arising out of a rear-end collision. Appellant presented evidence at trial that appellee’s truck collided with her car while she was waiting, with her turn signal operating, for oncoming traffic to clear so that she could make a left turn. Appellee testified that while his attention was distracted by a vehicle which he thought would not be able to stop in its approach from an intersecting street, appellant stopped her car in a blind curve at a place where she could not turn left, and when he looked back to the front, he was too close to stop.
Appellant enumerates as error several of the trial court’s jury charges and the court’s refusal to permit her to call a witness not listed on the pretrial order. We reverse.
1. Contending that there was no evidence that she was negligent in any way, appellant contends in three enumerations of error that the trial court erred in charging the jury on the plaintiff’s duty of ordinary care, the equal negligence doctrine, and the comparative negligence doctrine. In light of appellee’s testimony that appellant stopped her car in a blind curve at a place where she could not turn left, it cannot be said that there was no evidence at all of negligence on her part. That being so, and it being well settled that an instruction is not inapplicable where there is any evidence, however slight, on which to predicate it (Jones v. Maghdoussian, 159 Ga. App. 839 (1) (285 SE2d 267) (1981)), we find no error in the giving of those charges.
2. The trial court’s charge that appellant could not recover money damages for non-economic damages such as pain and suffering or disability unless she sustained a serious injury as defined by Georgia law was not error in light of evidence authorizing the conclusion *115that her medical expenses were the result of a pre-existing medical condition. Loyd v. Henry, 174 Ga. App. 49 (2) (329 SE2d 195) (1985).
3. Appellant also enumerates as error the giving of a charge on the avoidance doctrine. In order to warrant a charge on the avoidance doctrine, there must be evidence that the plaintiff knew or should have known of the active negligence of the defendant and failed to take action to avoid it. Carrandi v. Sanders, 188 Ga. App. 562 (1) (373 SE2d 661) (1988). There is no evidence whatsoever in the record of this case to support a finding that appellant was aware of appellee’s alleged negligence before the collision occurred, or that she should have known of that negligence. None of the witnesses gave any testimony to indicate that appellant knew before the collision that appellee would be unable to stop, and there was no evidence to support appellee’s contention on appeal that appellant “stopped suddenly”: appellee only testified that when he looked back at the road after being distracted by other traffic, appellant had stopped. Given the lengthy period of distraction to which appellee testified, the fact that appellant had stopped does not even raise an inference that the stop was sudden. Appellee’s assertion that appellant was negligent in failing to keep a watch to the rear is also without evidentiary support: the testimony showed that she stopped to make a turn and was watching oncoming traffic; there was no testimony which established any reason for appellant to suppose that the car behind hers would fail to stop. The evidence did not support the charge on the doctrine of avoidance, and the trial court’s error in giving it requires reversal. Id.
4. The trial court also charged the jury on the doctrine of sudden emergency; we agree with appellant that the charge was error. “The defense of emergency is not available unless the evidence shows that there has been a ‘ “sudden peril caused by circumstances in which the defendant did not participate and which offered him a choice of conduct without time for thought so that negligence in his choice might be attributable not to lack of care but to lack of time to assess the situation.” ’ [Cits.]” Ray v. Anderson, 189 Ga. App. 80 (2) (374 SE2d 819) (1988). Although appellee asserts that his testimony concerning the presence of a truck which he thought was going to collide with his vehicle was sufficient testimony to warrant a charge on sudden emergency, a careful reading of appellee’s testimony does not reveal evidence of the existence of an actual emergency. Instead, it reveals an error of judgment on appellee’s part which caused him to turn his attention away from the roadway in front of him. Appellee testified that he thought a truck approaching on an intersecting street was not going to stop, but then realized it would. It is clear from appellee’s testimony that he was not actually put to any choice at all. There may be a question of fact concerning whether appellee was negligent *116in permitting himself to be distracted for long enough for appellant to come to a complete stop in front of him without his noticing, but there is no question of fact concerning the existence of an emergency because appellee’s testimony shows only that he misjudged whether the truck would stop, not that appellee was required to do anything to avoid the truck. Under those circumstances, the doctrine of sudden emergency was not properly an issue in this case, and the trial court erred in charging on that subject. Id.
5. The trial court’s charge on last clear chance was also error, there being no evidence to warrant it. “ ‘The last clear chance doctrine can be invoked only where the defendant knows of the plaintiff’s perilous situation, and realizes, or has reason to realize, the plaintiff’s helpless condition.’ ” Smith v. Mobley, 185 Ga. App. 462 (2) (364 SE2d 597) (1988). The only possible source of evidence of appellee’s awareness of appellant’s peril was appellee’s own testimony, but he testified that when he directed his attention back to the road after being distracted by traffic on an intersecting road, appellant was stopped in front of him and there was no time for him to avoid the collision.
6. The trial court gave in charge the language of OCGA § 51-12-4 to the effect that when the injury is small or the mitigating circumstances are strong, nominal damages only are given. Since we agree with appellant that there was no evidence in the record to warrant any mention of mitigating circumstances, we find that instruction to have been erroneously given as well.
7. Since the errors in the trial court’s jury instructions require a new trial, and the alleged error complained of in appellant’s enumeration of error concerning the exclusion of the testimony of a witness whose name was not on the pretrial order is not likely to recur on retrial, we find it unnecessary to decide it on this appeal.

Judgment reversed.

McMurray, P. J., Banke, P. J., and Pope, J., concur. Carley, C. J., concurs in Divisions 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7, and in the judgment. Deen, P. J., Birdsong and Beasley, JJ., dissent. Sognier, J., concurs in the judgment only of the dissent.