Barefoot v. Joyner
| Decision Date | 24 May 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 530,530 |
| Citation | 154 S.E.2d 543,270 N.C. 388 |
| Parties | William C. BAREFOOT v. Thomas Oliver JOYNER, Jr., and R. H. Bouligny, Inc. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Bailey, Dixon & Wooten, Raleigh, for plaintiff.
Holding, Harris, Poe & Cheshire, Raleigh, for defendants.
Defendants contend that plaintiff has not offered sufficient evidence for the case to be submitted to the jury.
In the case of Lake v. Harris Express, Inc., 249 N.C. 410, 106 S.E.2d 518, Higgins, J., speaking for the Court, said:
"If the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, giving him the benefit of all permissible inferences from it, tends to support all essential elements of actionable negligence, then it is sufficient to survive the motion to nonsuit.' McFalls v. Smith, 249 N.C. 123, 105 S.E.2d 297; Taylor v. Brake, 245 N.C. 553, 96 S.E.2d 686; Scarborough v. Calypso Veneer Co., 244 N.C. 1, 92 S.E.2d 435, 57 A.L.R.2d 818.
Plaintiff alleged that defendant (1) carelessly and negligently failed to bring his vehicle to a complete stop and remain stopped until he could make the movement into the public highway in safety, in violation of an ordinance of the City of Raleigh, 21--18; (2) that he negligently and carelessly operated a motor vehicle in the wrong direction on a highway of the State of North Carolina; (3) that he failed and neglected to keep said vehicle under reasonable and proper control; (4) that he operated said automobile without keeping a proper and careful lookout; and (5) that he operated said vehicle at a speed greater than was reasonable and prudent under circumstances and conditions then existing, in violation of G.S. § 20--141.
Recognizing the rule that physical facts at the scene of an accident may be sufficiently strong within themselves, or in combination with other evidence, to infer negligence and make the issue one for the jury, Rouse v. Jones, 254 N.C. 575, 119 S.E.2d 628, there is sufficient evidence here to infer that defendant Thomas Oliver Joyner, Jr., while operating said truck as the agent and employee of defendant R. H. Bouligny, Inc., and in the performance of his duties as such agent and employee, was either traveling in the wrong direction on Western Boulevard, or that he failed to keep a proper and careful lookout, or that he failed to keep his automobile under proper control and to operate it carefully under conditions then existing, thus causing the collision and plaintiff's injury and damage. The allegations and the evidence present issues of fact, and the trial court correctly allowed the jury to decide whether plaintiff was damaged and injured by the negligence of defendants as alleged in the complaint.
Considering defendants' contention that their motion for nonsuit should have been allowed, we must decide whether plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law.
Nonsuit on the ground of contributory negligence should be allowed only when the plaintiff's evidence, taken in the light most favorable to him, so clearly establishes this defense that no other reasonable inference or conclusion can be drawn therefrom. Rouse v. Peterson, 261 N.C. 600, 135 S.E.2d 549; Waters v. Harris, 250 N.C. 701, 110 S.E.2d 283; Jones v. Bagwell, 207 N.C. 378, 177 S.E. 170.
From an examination of defendants' pleadings and the evidence offered, it would appear that if plaintiff were guilty of contributory negligence it would be on the basis of excessive speed, or his failure to keep a proper lookout. The statutory speed limit at the place of the accident was 55 miles per hour. There was no Direct evidence that plaintiff exceeded the statutory speed limit, nor that he drove too fast for existing conditions, nor that he failed to decrease his speed and keep his car under proper control with due regard to existing conditions. However, the plaintiff in testifying did state: 'I never remember putting on brakes or anything.' Trus, there was evidence from which it might be inferred that plaintiff did not decrease his speed and keep his automobile under control with due regard to existing conditions, or that he failed to keep a proper and careful lookout when he did not see defendant's vehicle as it came across Western Boulevard. Conversely, the evidence would permit a reasonable inference or conclusion that he was operating his automobile on a dominant highway in a lawful manner, that he kept his automobile under proper control, and that after looking to his left toward Buck Jones Road and to his right toward Hillsboro Road, he had a right to proceed, assuming no vehicular traffic would come across the road from a private driveway in the path of oncoming traffic.
Nonsuit on the issue of contributory negligence should be denied when opposing inferences are permissible from plaintiff's proof. Wilson v. Camp, 249 N.C. 754, 107 S.E.2d 743; Wooten v. Russell, 255 N.C. 699, 122 S.E.2d 603.
A factual determination by the jury was required, and the court below ruled correctly in denying defendants' motion for nonsuit.
By assignments of Error Nos. 5 and 8 defendants contend that the court erred in its charge to the jury, in that erroneous definitions of proximate cause were given.
Defendants' Assignment of Error No. 5 refers, in part, to...
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Conti v. Fid. Bank (In re NC & VA Warranty Co.)
...S.E.2d 706, 712 (1989). Actual cause is "a cause without which the second event would not have taken place." Barefoot v. Joyner, 270 N.C. 388, 394–95, 154 S.E.2d 543, 548 (1967). Legal or proximate cause, in addition to being a cause "without which [the second event] would not have occurred......
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Thornton v. F.J. Cherry Hosp.
...injury is a requisite of proximate cause, which is, in turn, a requisite for actionable negligence." Barefoot v. Joyner, 270 N.C. 388, 393-94, 154 S.E.2d 543, 547 (1967). To prove foreseeability, a plaintiff must show that the "defendant might have foreseen that some injury would result fro......
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Clark v. Bodycombe
...from the attendant circumstances what proximately caused an injury. White v. Mote, 270 N.C. 544, 155 S.E.2d 75; Barefoot v. Joyner, 270 N.C. 388, 154 S.E.2d 543; Farmers Oil Co. v. Miller, 264 N.C. 101, 141 S.E.2d Taking plaintiff's evidence as true, as we must upon consideration of a motio......
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