Court Opinion

ID: 9863170
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 03:09:34.059835+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:47:48.844994
License: Public Domain

WILSON, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent. The majority opinion is based on the theory that “plaintiff had a legal right to stop her car when the traffic signal turned yellow.” Plaintiff’s legal right to stop solves no question here. The question is not of her right to stop, but the manner of stopping. The question is whether there was any evidence of probative force to sustain the jury findings of negligence and *458proximate cause as to the manner of stopping. There is. Neither the trial court nor we have authority to disregard that finding. The question is not one of how we would have found as members of a jury.
In Bass v. Stockton, Tex.Civ.App., 236 S.W.2d 229, no writ, cited by the majority, there was no jury finding as to the manner in which the lead car was stopped. The only question was sufficiency of evidence on the proper lookout finding against the driver of the lead car, and that dealt with lookout to the rear. It was held the evidence did not raise the issue. As to the mere fact of stopping, the court emphasized: “that and nothing more is insufficient to support a finding of negligence.” Here there is more. There is a sudden stop from a speed of 30 miles per hour, right at the light, “almost on the intersection.” The lead car was “almost on the light” when the driver “hit her brakes hard and came to a sudden stop.”
In Kuykendall v. Doose, Tex.Civ.App., 260 S.W.2d 435, writ ref. n. r. e., the jury found the lead car was stopped so suddenly as to constitute a hazard to rear vehicles, but found the sudden stop was not negligence. Again the question was whether evidence supported a finding that the lead driver failed to keep a proper lookout to the rear. The present question was simply not in either case cited.
Here the jury found the lead car was stopped more suddenly than it should have been stopped in the exercise of ordinary care. To follow the majority reasoning would be to hold the lead car will invariably be free from negligence in stopping (regardless of the circumstances attending, and the manner of the stop) if there is an amber or yellow light.
When the evidence, including favorable circumstances and inferences sustaining the jury findings, is given effect and contrary evidence disregarded, as is required in this appeal, there is no authority to ignore the jury finding. I would reverse.