Court Opinion

ID: 9659709
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:53:08.360268+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:10.966679
License: Public Domain

LeGRAND, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur in the result reached by the majority, but I do not believe the case should turn on the trial court’s discretion in the allowance of amendments to conform to the proof under rule 88, Rules of Civil Procedure.
I believe the trial court was right because the proposed amendment did not conform to the proof. It is apparent to me this was ■ the ground upon which the trial court denied the motion. I will not repeat the matters already set out in the majority opinion showing the circumstances under which the motion was made. I simply add that plaintiffs objected to the amendment on the ground “there is absolutely no evidence to support such an allegation of negligence [failure to sound a horn].”
Thereafter the trial court denied the right to amend without stating its reason. I conclude it was because there was no proof with which the amendment could conform; and I agree.
The only-mention of failure to sound a horn came from Jane Gibbs, Julie Gibbs, and David W. Lock. Jane Gibbs remembered nothing of the events prior to the accident; Julie recalled very little more. Their total testimony has no probative value for any purpose, certainly not on this issue.
David W. Lock was driving home from work and saw the events leading up to this accident from 150 to 200 yards away. In response to a question on cross-examination, he said he did not hear a horn. The matter was not pursued.
The evidence shows this happened on a stormy night, that the street is heavily traveled, and that Lock was a considerable distance from the vehicles involved. There is no showing whether his windows were up or down or if his hearing is normal.
Defendants seek to submit this question to the jury on the evidence of two witnesses who have no recollection of what happened and one who was not shown by this record to know if a horn had been sounded.
An issue should not be submitted to the jury unless supported by substantial evidence; a scintilla is not enough. There is no substantial evidence here. The trial court was right because this specification of negligence, even if the amendment had been allowed, could not have been given to the jury.
As this is the same result the majority reaches by another route, I can and do concur in the result.
RAWLINGS, J., joins in this special concurrence.