Court Opinion

ID: 9700060
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:08:28.812263+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:03.692622
License: Public Domain

Dethmers, C. J.
{dissenting). I do not concur in reversal. The pertinent facts are fully and fairly stated in the opinion of Mr. Justice Carr, reported at 351 Mich 50, and for the reasons therein stated the judgment non obstante veredicto should, again, be affirmed. Mr. Justice Kavanagh questions inferences in that opinion drawn from the testimony. Full examination of the record satisfies me that they were accurately and properly drawn, particularly in view of the testimony, unrefuted either by direct testimony or possible inferences, given by the only eyewitness to the collision, who, as plaintiff’s witness, testified that the intersection was an open and very good one for a country road, with unobstructed vision in all directions for considerable distances: that while he was driving from 600 to 700 feet behind decedent’s car he “distinctly” saw defendant’s car “because” he “was watching the road;” that, at the time, he also saw decedent’s car at the intersection, on its own side of the road; that he was observing decedent’s car at the time and did not observe that it either accelerated, slowed down, or moved to one side or another, but did see that decedent “was practically going right straight ahead;” and that the front 10 feet of defendant’s car was east and its rear 6 feet west of the intersection’s imaginary north and south center line when struck on its left side by the front of defendant’s car, which was then straddling the line.
*197The burden was on plaintiff to prove her decedent’s freedom from contributory negligence. There is no direct proof or any other from which it may be inferred that he ever looked in the direction of defendant’s approaching automobile. If the presumption be indulged that he did, the inescapable fact remains that, upon making such observation, he would or should have seen what plaintiff’s witness, 600 or 700 feet further distant, testified that he “distinctly” saw, namely defendant’s car, and that he then should have acted to avert the accident. Not only did plaintiff fail to prove that her decedent took such action, but the above-noted testimony establishes that he did not. Under the previous, well-reasoned opinions and decisions of this Court, many of them cited in Mr. Justice Carr’s oninion, it must be held as a matter of law that plaintiff failed to prove decedent’s freedom from contributory negligence and that any possible presumption in that respect is overcome by proofs to the contrary.
This case affords the opportunity for a Court with membership altered since our previous decision on December 24, 1957, to change the established law in Michigan on the subject, for which reason rehearing was granted. I am not persuaded that, either on the basis of sound legal reasoning, justice, or common sense, it ought to be changed. The rule that drivers of motor vehicles on highways must maintain reasonable and proper lookout and give heed to what is there to be seen, on pain of being held guilty of negligence as a matter of law for failure to do so, is valid and as essential to public safety today as when first announced.
The judgment below should be affirmed, with costs to defendant.
Carr and Kelly, JJ., concurred with Dethmees, C. J.