Court Opinion

ID: 9638715
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:51:46.668074+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:09.098555
License: Public Domain

BARDGETT, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. Although I am not at all certain that the principal opinion approves the language that appears in instruction No. 5 to a point where it suggests a continued use of that instruction, nevertheless I believe the mention of contributory negligence by utilizing the terminology “left a place of safety and walked into the immediate path of Defendant’s vehicle; and . ” was prejudicial error.
The principal opinion relies, to a large extent, on Anderson v. Sellers, 521 S.W.2d 33 (Mo.App.1975), in holding that the use of the terminology noted supra was not error. However in Anderson v. Sellers, the phraseology “left a place a safety” was not employed in the instruction at all. Additionally, in Anderson v. Sellers, the submission of contributory negligence of the plaintiff, in that the plaintiff moved into the path of the defendant’s automobile, also required that such conduct was done at a time “when in the exercise of ordinary care she could have seen the movement of defendant’s automobile and could have avoided contact with defendant’s automobile; and . . .” Id. 34. Then followed a finding that plaintiff was thereby negligent. The submission in Anderson therefore required a finding of actual or constructive knowledge on the part of plaintiff immediately prior to and at the time she moved into the path of the defendant’s car.
It is difficult to think of a case where a pedestrian was struck by an automobile that did not, at some point in time, involve a pedestrian’s affirmative movement from a place of safety. All pedestrians who are struck while in the street obviously were, at some time before they got into the street, in a place of safety and, in order to get across the street, had to leave that place of safety. It is simply an act that is necessary in order to cross the street. In the instant case there is no finding required that that conduct on the part of plaintiff was done at a time when she knew or should have known of the danger of being struck by the automobile. The phraseology that plaintiff “left a place of safety” is purely argumentative and suggests, in my opinion, that plaintiff did something wrong simply by stepping into the street — leaving a place of safety.
The submission that the plaintiff “walked into the immediate path of Defendant’s vehicle” is essentially the submission that was made in Anderson v. Sellers, supra. However, as noted above, the instruction in Anderson required a finding by the jury that the plaintiff did that act at a time when in the exercise of ordinary care she could have seen the movement of the defendant’s automobile and could have avoided contact with defendant’s automobile. No such finding is required in the instant case.
Additionally, as submitted in this case and within the context of the instruction under consideration, “[leaving] a place of safety” was, in effect, included within the submission of failure to keep a careful lookout. I reach that conclusion because the cases that have dealt with the language of leaving a place of safety always relate that act to a pedestrian doing so at a time when the person knows or should know that a collision is imminent, or without looking. Thus, in Morris v. Duker, 414 S.W.2d 77 (Mo.1967), the Court relates the leaving of a place of safety on the part of the plaintiff as having been done “without looking out for herself”. Id. 83. In Morris, the same points were not made against the instruc*454tion as appear in this case. Nevertheless, it is my opinion that the leaving-a-place-of-safety language is purely argumentative and, in the instant case, would not suffice to support a defendant’s verdict if it were the only item of negligence and was submitted in the form in which it was here. Considered in context, the language of leaving a place of safety, and the language of walking into the immediate path of defendant’s vehicle, speak of precisely the same act on the part of the plaintiff in this ease. However, leaving-a-place-of-safety language is purely argumentative rhetoric and not at all necessary to a submission of walking into the path of an automobile at a time when the plaintiff knew or should have known of the danger.
Young v. Grotsky, 459 S.W.2d 306 (Mo.1970), mentioned in the principal opinion, did not involve an instruction which utilized the language of leaving a place of safety. The question there was whether or not a contributory negligence instruction which submitted negligence on the part of plaintiff in that she “ ‘failed to keep a careful lookout’ or ‘stepped into the path of defendant Grotsky’s automobile when it was not reasonably safe to do so’ ” was supported by the evidence. Id. at 309. The Court held that it was supported by the evidence and affirmed the defendant’s judgment.
I think it is a mistake to approve the instruction in this case because it puts back into our instruction system that which the MAI sought to remove — argumentative colorful language which is not necessary to the submission of the issue. Stepping from a curb into a street in order to cross the street may be a negligent act if the pedestrian saw or in the exercise of ordinary care should have seen a closely approaching automobile; but stepping from a curb into a street in order to cross the street certainly ought not to be considered a negligent act simply because it is moving from a “place of safety”.
For the foregoing reasons I dissent and I would affirm the judgment of the court granting a new trial for the error in giving instruction No. 5.