Court Opinion

ID: 9701854
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:40:45.796699+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:30.195927
License: Public Domain

Eldridge, J,

dissenting:

Because I believe that the trial court erred in instructing the jury on the issue of contributory negligence, I would reverse the judgment and remand this case for a new trial.
In my opinion there was no evidence in this case that Keith Lunsford was contributorily negligent. Therefore, the court’s instruction on the issue of contributory negligence should not have been given.
The majority seems to suggest that Keith’s leaving school early, and taking the route which he did, was evidence of negligence. However, the evidence shows that the path which Keith took the day he was attacked was the *679same route that he customarily took home. Keith testified that he was never warned by school authorities not to take this route and was never disciplined for using it. Mr. Hudson, the principal, was aware that students regularly used this route to go home. He also knew that some students who purchased tickets to go to student ball games did not attend the game but rather left school early, using the path on which Keith was attacked. Although he did not approve of the students’ using the path, he did not take any steps to prevent its use, even on days when a ball game was scheduled. None of this evidence was contradicted. Thus, the use of the path, at the time Keith was going home, was acquiesced in by school authorities.
As further evidence of contributory negligence, the majority recites the fact that Keith attempted to leave school early several times on the day he was attacked. In my view, the fact that Keith tried to leave school early on prior occasions that day can have no conceivable bearing on whether he acted reasonably in pursuing his normal route home at a time when school authorities had reason to believe that students would be using the path.
The other facts relied on by the majority are that Keith had heard rumors of impending violence at the school and that Keith continued to walk in the direction of the group of black students, who later were to attack him, after first noticing their presence. However, the evidence reveals that no threats or gestures were made by the group which would have alerted Keith to any danger until the time that he was actually accosted. I do not suggest that, even if there had been evidence of threats or gestures, Keith’s actions could have been considered negligent, as one has every right to use a normally travelled route over public property. Certainly, however, in the absence of such threats or gestures, it cannot be said that Keith acted unreasonably.
The majority’s position in this case thus amounts to a holding that a jury may find that, when there have been rumors of impending fights at the school, it is negligent for a *680student of one race to approach a group of students of another race on a regularly used walkway on school grounds. With this I simply cannot agree.
Because I believe that the trial court erred in instructing the jury on the issue of contributory negligence and that, therefore, the case should be remanded for a new trial, it is not necessary to discuss the other issues raised by the appellants.
Judge Digges has authorized me to state that he concurs with the views expressed herein.