Bentley v. Felts, 931063

• Decision Date: 10 June 1994
• Docket Number: No. 931063,931063
• Citation: 248 Va. 117,445 S.E.2d 131
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: Wanda Simons BENTLEY, et al. v. Bryan Edward FELTS. Record

Page 131

445 S.E.2d 131

248 Va. 117

Wanda Simons BENTLEY, et al. v. Bryan Edward FELTS.

Record No. 931063.

Supreme Court of Virginia.

June 10, 1994.

Robert I. Asbury, Marion, for appellants.

Thomas G. Hodges, Wytheville (Hodges & Campbell, on brief), for appellee.

Present: All the Justices.

WHITING, Justice.

This case involves an automobile accident that occurred after a car driven by Bryan Edward Felts failed to stop at a stop sign controlling an intersection. To avoid colliding with Felts's car in the intersection, Wanda Simons Bentley swerved her car and ran into a guard rail. The resulting impact severely injured Bentley and her passenger, Polly Breedlove Dunford.

Bentley and Dunford each sued Felts, alleging that he was negligent and seeking damages for their personal injuries. The cases were consolidated for trial and for this appeal.

The uncontradicted evidence showed the following. The engine of the car Felts was driving inexplicably stalled, ^* thereby causing a loss of power to the power-assisted brakes. The engine stalled as Felts was driving midway across a 90-foot long bridge that ended 39 feet before an intersection.

Felts testified that, although he pressed down on the brakes, the car did not stop until it had rolled about two to three feet into the intersection. Consequently, Felts failed to stop at the stop sign and failed to yield the right-of-way to Bentley. Although Bentley saw Felts's car as it approached the intersection from the bridge, Felts did not see Bentley's car until his car was in the intersection.

Felts defended the case on two grounds. First, he argued that he was presented with a sudden emergency when the car's engine stalled. Felts asserted that his response to that emergency did not constitute actionable negligence, but was the response of a reasonable person under the circumstances. Second, Felts charged that Bentley was contributorially negligent because, although she saw Felts's car as it was coming off the bridge and approaching the intersection, she did not exercise ordinary care to avoid colliding with the guard rail.

The jury returned a verdict for Felts and the trial court entered judgment on that verdict. The plaintiffs appeal from the trial court's denial of their motion to set aside the verdict.

The plaintiffs assign the following three errors. First, they complain that the trial court erred in denying their consolidated motion to strike Felts's evidence and to enter partial summary judgment on liability because Felts's failure to stop at the stop sign and yield the right-of-way constituted negligence as a matter of law. Second, they argue that the trial court improperly denied a jury instruction which would have instructed the jury that Felts was guilty of negligence per se because he violated his statutory duty to stop and to yield the right-of-way. Finally, they maintain that the jury should not have been instructed on the sudden emergency doctrine because the evidence did not support that instruction. We will consider these issues in order.

Code § 46.2-821 provides that a driver approaching an intersection controlled by a stop sign has a duty to stop at a point from which he can see traffic approaching on the intersecting road and to yield the right-of-way to any vehicle approaching on the intersecting road. Violation of a traffic statute constitutes negligence, but imposition of liability depends on whether that negligence was a proximate cause of the accident. Beasley v. Bosschermuller, 206 Va. 360, 365-66, 143 S.E.2d 881, 886 (1965). Proximate cause is generally a question of fact for the jury. Id. at 365, 143 S.E.2d at 886.

When the plaintiffs made their motion to strike, the trial court was required to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, Felts. Applying that standard to the evidence, reasonable minds could differ as to the proximate cause of the collision with the guard rail: Felts's failure to stop at the intersection and yield the right-of-way; the failure of Felts's car's engine and Felts's actions in response; or Bentley's actions after seeing Felts's car. Because the evidence could support alternative factual findings as to the cause of Bentley's collision with the guard rail, the trial court correctly denied the motion to strike and submitted the matter to the jury. Carolina Coach Co. v. Starchia, 219 Va. 135, 140, 244 S.E.2d 788, 791 (1978).

Next, we find that the trial court did not err in refusing a jury instruction which would have told the jury that a failure to stop and to yield the right-of-way was negligence per se. This instruction was repetitive of Instruction Number 3 given by the trial court.

Finally, we consider whether the trial court erred in granting a jury instruction on sudden emergency. The common-law doctrine of sudden emergency relieves a person from liability if, without prior negligence on his part, he is faced with a sudden emergency and acts as an ordinarily prudent person would act under the circumstances. Id. at 141, 244 S.E.2d at 792. The defense of sudden emergency becomes a jury issue "when the evidence is in conflict or when diverse inferences may be properly drawn from the evidence" as to (1) whether an emergency existed, (2) whether the emergency was created by the negligence of the person facing the emergency, and (3) whether, after the emergency arose, that person acted as an ordinarily prudent person would have acted under the circumstances. Id. However, if reasonable persons could not disagree on the facts and inferences to be drawn from a defendant's claim of sudden emergency, the issue becomes a matter for decision by the court. Thibodeau v. Vandermark, 234 Va. 15, 18, 360 S.E.2d 171, 173 (1987).

A sudden emergency presupposes a happening which, in the exercise of reasonable care under the circumstances, cannot be foreseen or expected. See Garnot v. Johnson, 239 Va. 81, 86, 387 S.E.2d 473, 476 (1990) (sudden emergency instruction improper where vehicle in front of defendant stopped suddenly on highway). Automobile engines do occasionally cut off without warning, thereby requiring the operators to use increased brake force to stop cars equipped with power-assisted brakes. Accordingly, automobile operators should anticipate this eventuality and be prepared to use...