Court Opinion

ID: 9770676
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:19:05.715281+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:19.860888
License: Public Domain

George Rose Smith, Justice, dissenting. I wish to express my disagreement only with regard to the majority’s second point, although there are other issues upon which I am not in complete accord with the majority decision. The majority hold that the decedents were, as a matter of law, not guilty of any negligence which was a proximate cause of their death. Yet the proof is that after the first accident they remained for 25 minutes in the traveled portion of the eastbound lanes of traffic, 15 minutes of which was before the police arrived. As mere passengers in the car they were certainly free to walk to a position of complete safety, which they could apparently have done in a few seconds. The jury found that their negligence was equal to that of the truckdriver, Carr, but in the face of that finding the majority declare that the decedents were absolutely free from any negligence whatever. Upon a retrial that holding will amount to a directed verdict for the plaintiffs. We have held that it is for the jury in a comparative negligence case to determine the negligence of each party. Baker v. Matthews, 241 Ark. 539, 408 S.W. 2d 889 (1966). Moreover, in a ngeligence case, turning upon a standard of ordinary care, a verdict should not be directed for the plaintiff unless there is no rational basis in the situation, testimonially, circumstantially or inferentially, for the jury to find for the defendant. Spink v. Mourton, 235 Ark. 919, 362 S.W. 2d 665 (1962). The question is especially critical here, because if the case is retried under Tennessee law the defendants are being deprived of the complete defense of contributory negligence under that law. Since the jury might believe that the decedents carelessly remained too long in a place of danger, which actually contributed jo their death, 1 cannot agree that the issue of their possible negligence has no place in the case.