Court Opinion

ID: 9618444
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:12:37.992232+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:33:32.797021
License: Public Domain

WARREN, J.,
dissenting.
I agree with the majority that an “emergency” instruction should rarely, if ever, be given. That is so because the concept is covered by the ordinary instructions on negligence and is a matter for argument to the jury.
I dissent only because we should not reverse a trial court for the giving or failing to give jury instructions unless we can affirmatively say that the outcome was probably affected. Waterway Terminals v. P. S. Lord, 256 Or 361, 370 *270474 P2d 309 (1970). There was evidence from which a jury could find that a sudden emergency occurred through no fault of defendant. Because the theory of sudden emergency could legitimately be urged to the jury, the giving of the instruction is unlikely to have had any effect on the result.
From the evidence recited by the majority, a jury could conclude that plaintiffs’ vehicle stopped an unusually great distance behind the preceding vehicle and that it therefore must have been stopped suddenly in front of defendant and that defendant could not have reasonably anticipated the sudden stop and was therefore faced with an emergency not of her own making. Given the testimony concerning fairly congested traffic, the jury could also conclude that defendant reacted reasonably by applying her brakes instead of attempting to swerve suddenly into an adjoining lane.
Most of the majority opinion is devoted to a proposition that is not in issue, i.e., whether any instruction on “sudden emergency” should have been given. The Supreme Court has noted that general jury instructions on negligence cover the “sudden emergency” situation and that it would rarely, if ever, be reversible error to refuse to give it. Jones v. Mitchell Bros., 266 Or 513, 511 P2d 347 (1973). The only issue preserved in this case is whether there was any evidence to support an emergency instruction, assuming one should ever be given.