Okla. City Ry. Co. v. Barkett
Citation | 30 Okla. 28,1911 OK 312,118 P. 350 |
Decision Date | 26 September 1911 |
Docket Number | Case Number: 1137 |
Parties | OKLAHOMA CITY RY. CO. v. BARKETT. |
Court | Supreme Court of Oklahoma |
¶0 NEGLIGENCE--Contributory Negligence--Last Clear Chance. In an action for damages on account of the alleged negligent act of defendant, it is error for the court to charge the jury that the plaintiff may recover notwithstanding his contributory negligence, if the defendant failed to exercise reasonable care to avoid the injury after it discovered, or by the exercise of reasonable care might have discovered, that an accident was imminent.
Error from District Court, Oklahoma County; George W. Clark, Judge.
Action by Saida Barkett against the Oklahoma City Railway Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Reversed and remanded.
Shartel, Keaton & Wells, for plaintiff in error
Wm. L. McCann and S. A. Byers, for defendant in error
¶1 The question involved in this case is whether or not there was error in giving the following instruction:
¶2 The particular error alleged by the plaintiff in error is in inserting the words, "or by the exercise of reasonable care might have discovered."
¶3 The plaintiff and the defendant both had a right to use the streets of the city. Therefore at the time of the accident they were in the exercise of equal rights. It was likewise the duty of both to exercise reasonable care to avoid collision, but it was not the duty of the defendant to exercise a higher degree of care than the plaintiff, nor was it the duty of the plaintiff to exercise a higher degree of care than the defendant. It was the duty of each, acting in his own place and under the circumstances surrounding him, to exercise that degree of care to avoid the accident which a reasonably prudent person would have exercised under the circumstances. If the defendant's negligence is the proximate cause of an injury, he is liable for damages. If the plaintiff's negligence and the defendant's negligence are equal, it cannot be said that the defendant's negligence is the proximate cause, and therefore the plaintiff is not entitled to recover. If, therefore, the plaintiff and the defendant, with equal negligence, approach each other on the highway, and injury results from the collision, there can be no recovery, because it cannot be said that the negligence of either one is the proximate cause of the injury to the other. It is manifestly true that, if neither one sees the other at all, both are equally negligent, because both are guilty of the same breach of duty to look. If, however, one sees the other, it is, of course, his duty to act with reasonable care after thus seeing the other to avoid the injury, and he cannot insist upon the other's negligence as a protection to him, if he, after discovering the other's situation, does not exercise reasonable care to prevent the accident. The principles involved are settled by the cases of A., T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Baker, 21 Okla. 51, 56, 95 P. 433, 434, 16 L. R. A. (N. S.) 825, and Clark v. St. L. & S. F. R. Co., 24 Okla. 764, 774, 108 P. 361, 365. In the Baker case, after pointing out that the evidence showed that the engineer discovered the peril of the plaintiff, and that there was a conflict in the testimony as to whether, after discovering it, he used reasonable care, the court said:
"This being so, it was proper to submit to the jury the question as to whether the plaintiff in error, after discovering the dangerous situation of the defendant in error, exercised reasonable care and prudence to avoid the injury."
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