Court Opinion

ID: 9540366
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:15:12.445533+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:58:53.672598
License: Public Domain

WADE, Justice
(concurring in the result).
I agree that giving of instruction no. 16 was, for the reasons stated in the other opinions, prejudicial error. I also think that to create liability the defective equipment must proximately cause the accident and that the evidence is not sufficient to sustain a holding as a matter of law that the defective equipment was at least one of the proximate causes of the accident, but the jury might find that the decedent’s negligence was the sole proximate cause of his death.
*16As I understand the decision of the U. S. Supreme Court in this case in 335 U. S. 520, 69 S. Ct. 275, 93 L. Ed. 208, it held that plaintiff could recover only “if this defective equipment was the sole or a contributing proximate cause of the decedent employee’s death” and that the evidence on that question presented a jury question. I believe that the evidence is such that the jury might find that the defective brakes only remotely, not proximately, caused decedent’s death. But to so find they would have to be convinced that decedent’s negligence was more than a mere contributing or concurring proximate cause of his death. It would require a finding that decedent’s negligence was an intervening cause entering the picture after the effect of the defective appliance on the operation of the train had been expended. The U. S. Supreme Court in its opinion on this case emphasizes that the defective brakes caused the train to stop suddenly and unexpectedly. There is nothing in the opinion which indicates that the court would have held it to be a jury case had the train been stopped as it was and remained standing on the track for a considerable length of time in full view of decedent as he approached on the track car. So unless the jury believes that the fact that the train stopped suddenly and unexpectedly was a contributing factor in causing the accident in addition to the mere fact that the train was standing still on the track as the track car approached then I think they should find that that decedent’s negligence was the sole proximate cause of his death and the defective appliance did not proximately contribute thereto. Of course, if the train stood on the track for a long period of time prior to the accident then the defendant might have proximately contributed to the accident by neligence in not giving decedent appropriate warning that it was so standing, but that question was not an issue in this case. So I conclude that unless the jury finds that the suddenness and unexpectedness of the stap played an active part in causing this accident, then they *17should find that it was not proximately caused by the defective brakes.