Court Opinion

ID: 9457684
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:29:43.421296+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:27.769097
License: Public Domain

COLEMAN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. I think the District Court correctly decided this case.
With deference, I am wholly unable to see any room for the thought that Crawford’s death was anything but the direct and proximate result of his own deliberate course of conduct. The record shows that when Mrs. Geyer appeared on the scene she had pistol in hand. As soon as she called Crawford’s name he turned his shotgun on her, whereupon she immediately killed him. When under such circumstances an individual points a deadly weapon toward another who is similarly armed he must anticipate that he may be killed. Experience teaches as a matter of common knowledge that he should have every reason to expect to be shot.
To go further, I would be of this opinion even if Crawford had kept the gun trained on -Mrs. Geyer’s daughter instead of pointing it toward her. The right to kill when the necessity is reasonably apparent for the defense of another is too well established in the public mind for Crawford to have been oblivious to the likelihood that if he did not lower the gun the lady with the pistol would fire as quickly in the defense of her daughter as of herself. It makes no difference that Mrs. Geyer had never previously fired a pistol. Pulling a trigger is a very simple physical act, often performed by children with fatal consequences, especially when, as here, firing at point blank range.
If I had the power of decision I would unhesitatingly hold, as a matter of law, that Crawford’s death was no accident, that he provoked it, and that he should have anticipated the likelihood of it. I see nothing in the Alabama cases mandating a different result.
I agree with my Brethren that the issue is governed by Alabama law. I note that it was State Farm who removed the case from the Alabama Courts. Now, it must go to a jury on undisputed facts to settle “the inferences”.