Court Opinion

ID: 9453103
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:02:42.655084+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:30.754495
License: Public Domain

LEWIS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part).
I agree with my Brothers that this case presented a jury question as to whether the accident was caused by the appellee’s negligence and also agree that an overtaking skier has a duty to keep such lookout as may be reasonable under all the circumstances that may be present under the varying conditions of skiing. But I do not agree that the trial court’s refusal to give the abstract Colorado “rule of the road” instruction denied to appellant her right to have her theory of the case presented to the jury.
In her complaint, appellant alleges that appellee “negligently collided with her.” No specifics of negligence are alleged. Although the record indicates that pretrial proceedings were held it contains nothing to indicate appellant’s participation in the proceedings. From the brief abstract of the evidence that is before us it seems apparent that appellant presented evidence of appellee’s overall skiing conduct and the physical conditions present at the site. Emphasis was upon speed, control and the claimed proficiency of appellee as a skier. At the close of the case appellant submitted fourteen proposed instructions, not one of which indicated any theory for recovery except that the “plaintiff claims that the defendant Hight was negligent in his skiing.” In fact, of the proposed instructions twelve were but variations of stock instructions, one is not now in *353issue, and the remaining one was the subject requested instruction which is set forth in the main opinion. In regard to this instruction appellant’s objection was simply to the court’s failure to give it, without elaboration. The appellant presented her case in generalities and the court instructed accordingly. To have given the requested instruction as requested would have been meaningless. And the trial court had no duty to initiate appellant’s theory and refine the instruction to fit the case simply from submission of an abstract statement of the law taken from cases involving the duty of motorists. Nor does this court have such a duty. The duty rests upon counsel to advise the trial court of his theory of the case and submit proposed instructions in accord so as to allow the trial court an opportunity to rule advisedly. This was never done. And even at the appellate level, appellant concedes that the requested instruction touches upon his theory of the case only “in part.”
I would affirm.