Court Opinion

ID: 9572990
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:46:32.55985+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:29:39.337706
License: Public Domain

VOGEL, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I dissent from the holding of syllabus paragraph 6, and concur in the result in this case.
As the losing attorney in Glatt v. Feist, 156 N.W.2d 819 (N.D.1968), and therefore perhaps biased, I thought the decision in that case was wrong in principle and would *522create difficulties and injustice in practice. I still do.
The portions of the Glatt opinion quoted in the opinion of the court now, show that the view adopted in Glatt was the minority rule. There are good reasons why it should be a minority rule. One is that evidence of habit introduces collateral issues of prior conduct which should be excluded.
The opinion of the court in the present case takes a comment in the Glatt case (that “evidence of habit of the person injured when such evidence is offered to prove his negligence, has been admitted more often than where such evidence of habit is offered to show his exercise of care”) and elevates that passing comment into a rule (syllabus ¶ 6) that evidence for care, if there is no eyewitness, is inadmissible. Couple this with the holding of Glatt that evidence of habit of lack of care was admissible, and we now have a rule that one can prove lack of care, but not care, by evidence of habit. I submit that this has no support in case law, and certainly none in fairness or logic. It means that evidence of habit can be used against plaintiffs, but not for them. I cannot agree.
I would point out, too, that the Glatt case involves testimony by eyewitnesses, and therefore does not support the no-eyewitness language of the opinion in this case. Parties are considered eyewitnesses, even though interested, unless their testimony is precluded by a dead-man’s statute, husband-wife privilege, or the like. See An-not., 29 A.L.R.3d 791, 804 (1970).
Finally, I think the rule of Glatt is inconsistent with the holding of Thornburg v. Perleberg, 158 N.W.2d 188 (N.D.1968), decided only 45 days after Glatt Any attempted distinction based on differences between “habit” and “reputation” for care are too exotic to be workable in practice.
I would prefer to overrule the holding of Glatt. However, since Glatt is distinguished in the majority opinion and therefore not followed, and the evidence of habit is excluded, I concur in the result.
Even the adoption of a rule generally admitting evidence of habit would be preferable to the-rule derived from combining the holdings of Glatt and the case now before us. At least such a rule has the merit of treating both sides equally.
With regard to syllabus paragraph 7, while I agree with the general principle stated and that the general instruction as to due care can be considered a substitute for the more specific instruction requested as to the presumption of due care of one suffering from retrograde amnesia, I think it is a rather poor substitute and hereafter it would be preferable to give the instruction specifically referring to retrograde amnesia.