Bell v. Irace

• Decision Date: 21 January 1993
• Citation: 422 Pa.Super. 298,619 A.2d 365
• Parties: Sharen R. BELL and Wilbert L. Bell, Husband and Wife, Appellants, v. John R. IRACE and Elizabeth D. Reis.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 365

619 A.2d 365

422 Pa.Super. 298

Sharen R. BELL and Wilbert L. Bell, Husband and Wife, Appellants, v. John R. IRACE and Elizabeth D. Reis.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Sept. 9, 1992.

Filed Jan. 21, 1993.

Jean Best, New Castle, for appellants.

Dara A. DeCourcy, Pittsburgh, for Reis, appellee.

Robyn R. Gallitto, Ellwood City, for Irace, appellee.

Before ROWLEY, President Judge, and CAVANAUGH, McEWEN, DEL SOLE, BECK, TAMILIA, KELLY, POPOVICH and FORD ELLIOTT, JJ.

ROWLEY, President Judge:

Appellants, Sharen and Wilbert Bell, appeal from the trial court's order sustaining preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer filed by Appellees, John Irace and Elizabeth Reis. The Bells sued Irace and Reis for negligence, but pursuant to the preliminary objections, the trial court dismissed the suit based on Appellants' failure to allege sufficient facts in their complaint to establish proximate causation between Appellants' injuries and the alleged negligence of the Appellees. We affirm the trial court's order dismissing Appellants' complaint.

Appellants advance two arguments to persuade us that they have alleged sufficient facts to establish proximate causation. First, they argue that ordinary negligence principles pertaining to proximate causation are satisfied in this case. Second, they contend that even if we find, as a matter of law, that proximate causation is not satisfied in this manner, the "rescue doctrine" is applicable as an alternative means of satisfying the proximate causation requirement. We will review Appellants arguments, keeping in mind that the essential issue to be decided is whether the averments contained in Appellants'complaint are sufficient to invoke principles of substantive law which would entitle Appellants to relief.

Appellate review requires us to accept as true all the material facts set forth in Appellants' complaint "and all reasonable inferences deducible from those facts.... [W]e then determine whether [Appellants have] failed to state a claim for which relief may be granted," with all doubts resolved in favor of the pleader. Field v. Philadelphia Electric Co., 388 Pa.Super. 400, 405, 565 A.2d 1170, 1172 (1989) (footnote and citations omitted). If we are certain that no recovery is possible, we will affirm the grant of the demurrer. Id.

The factual events, as set forth in Appellants' complaint, progressed as follows: Appellee Reis was crossing an intersection on foot when she was struck by a vehicle driven by Appellee Irace. Both Appellees were allegedly negligent in causing the collision between them. ¹ Appellant Sharen Bell was working as an emergency medical technician (EMT) and was called to the accident scene. Bell administered aid to Appellee Reis who was reacting to her own injuries. Through her reactions, Reis severely injured Sharen Bell's arm, wrist, and hand. Mrs. Bell sued both Irace and Reis to recover for her injuries. Wilbert Bell, the husband of Sharen Bell, sued Appellees for a loss of consortium.

Appellants first contend that they have alleged sufficient facts to warrant a finding of proximate cause through the application of ordinary principles of negligence. We disagree. An application of the definition of proximate cause to the alleged facts reveals that Appellants' complaint does not satisfy the proximate causation requirement which would create a question of fact for the jury.

Unlike causation in fact, with which proximate causation is "often hopelessly confused," proximate causation "is primarily a problem of law." W.P. Keeton, Prosser and Keeton on Torts (5th ed.1984) at 273. The question depends "essentially on whether the policy of the law will extend the responsibility for the [negligent] conduct to the consequences which have in fact occurred.... The term 'proximate cause' is applied by the courts to those more or less undefined considerations which limit liability even where the fact of causation is clearly established." Id.

Many theories of "proximate," or "legal," cause have been advanced and applied to numerous and diverse types of cases. Id. ² Abiding by the principle stated in the Second Restatement of Torts, it is a Pennsylvania court's responsibility to evaluate the alleged facts and refuse to find an actor's conduct the legal cause of harm when" ' it appears to the court highly extraordinary that [the actor's conduct] should have brought about the harm.' " White v. Rosenberry, 441 Pa. 34, 38-39, 271 A.2d 341, 343 (1970) (quoting Restatement of Torts, now found at § 435(2), p. 449, 1965), (emphasis supplied). At the point in the causal chain when the consequence of the negligent act is no longer reasonably foreseeable, "the passage of time and the span of distance mandate a cut-off point for liability." Mazzagatti v. Everingham by Everingham, 512 Pa. 266, 273, 516 A.2d 672, 676 (1986) (defining the reasonable foreseeability test).

Having carefully reviewed the alleged facts in light of these principles of proximate causation, we conclude that the law was correctly discussed and the issue was correctly decided by the learned trial judge, who explained:

At some juncture, which cannot be defined in unequivocal terms, the linkswhich bind together the causal chain connecting conduct to injury must be severed because of [remoteness]. Fundamentally, the generic theory of cause and effect can be traced philosophically to a wide variety of factual situations. As a consequence, because of the need to reasonably limit the impact of a negligent act, the law recognizes that there must be a reasonably close causal connection between conduct and the resulting injury. The standard used to apply the test is termed proximate cause which is the measure applicable to those nebulous situations which limit liability even where the fact of causation can be somehow demonstrated.... Consequently, a point is reached where the legal chain of causation corrodes and the law then refuses to further trace the series of unfolding events connecting an act to an injury. That juncture has been reached here. Neither defendant here could reasonably be expected to foresee that the fortuitous acts which served to bring them together would be the source of an injury sustained by a medical technician who would be summoned to the scene of the accident for the purpose of providing aid.

Trial Court Opinion at 5-6 (citations omitted; emphasis added); cf. McPeake v. Cannon, 381 Pa.Super. 227, 233, 553 A.2d 439, 442 (1989) (no duty to prevent harm that is not a reasonably foreseeable result of prior negligent conduct); Zanine v. Gallagher, 345 Pa.Super. 119, 123, 497 A.2d 1332, 1334 (1985) (scope of duty limited to risks that are reasonably foreseeable by actor under then existing circumstances).

Appellees can be held liable only for those risks which persons in their positions could reasonably foresee. Zanine v. Gallagher, 345 Pa.Super. at 124, 497 A.2d at 1334. ³ In Zanine, the Court observed that the defendant had created a variety of risks when he led police on a high-speed car chase. The Court held, however, that the defendant could not reasonably have foreseen that the stress of the chase would result in the suffering of a heart attack by the plaintiff/police officer. Here, as in Zanine, Appellees' conduct, resulting in the vehicle-pedestrian accident, created a variety of risks, but the injury sustained by Appellant was not a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the negligence causing the vehicular accident.

We therefore hold that under the "factual" allegations of Appellants' complaint, the negligence, if any, of the Appellees in causing the collision between them is not the proximate cause of the injury received by the Appellant wife. We agree with the trial court that it was highly extraordinary for Appellees' conduct to have brought about the harm complained of, and we conclude as a matter of law that the alleged facts, together with all reasonable inferences deducible from those facts, are insufficient to warrant a finding of legal causation.

Even though we have found the element of proximate causation unmet as a matter of law, Appellants argue in the alternative that the "rescue doctrine" applies to satisfy the element for them. In very special cases, the law has created a narrow exception to the ordinary principles of negligence which require a showing of proximate causation. In certain situations where a litigant otherwise would not recover for a failure to satisfy the proximate causation requirement, the law supplies another means to meet the requirement through the "rescue doctrine," thereby permitting recovery.

The rescue doctrine was adopted by the Supreme Court in Corbin v. City of Philadelphia, 195 Pa. 461, 45 A. 1070 (1900), in recognition of the fact that strict enforcement of principles of contributory negligence sometimes barred the courthouse doors to persons injured during a noble effort to save another person from imminent death or bodily harm. The Court observed that the doctrine was necessary to permit recovery in a rescue situation because "[a] rescuer, one who, from the most unselfish motives, prompted by the noblest impulses that can impel man to deeds of heroism, faces deadly peril, ought not to hear from the law words of condemnation of his bravery...." Id. at 468-69, 45 A. at 1072-73.

In recent times, the defense of contributory negligence has been modified by the Comparative Negligence Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 7102. Even so, jurisprudence has recognized a sole, surviving purpose of the doctrine as establishing a causal connection between a defendant's original negligence and a plaintiff/rescuer's injury where a causal connection might not otherwise exist. Pachesky v. Getz, 353 Pa.Super. 505, 519, 510 A.2d 776, 783 (1986). This link of causation is "fictive" and provides a plaintiff/rescuer with a "favored status in the eyes of the law." Id. n. 8.

The rescue doctrine, though infrequently cited, has been...