Seivert v. Bass
| Decision Date | 27 November 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 42319,42319 |
| Citation | 288 Minn. 457,181 N.W.2d 888 |
| Parties | Edwin B. SEIVERT, trustee for the heirs of Ramona I. Rosenbrook, deceased, et al., Appellants, v. Ronald W. BASS, Respondent, William John Christians, Respondent. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. Ordinarily, the issue of whether negligence is a proximate cause of an accident is for the jury, and its determination of the issue must stand unless manifestly and palpably contrary to the evidence viewed as a whole and in the light most favorable to the verdict. It is only in those cases where the evidence is so clear and conclusive as to leave no room for differences of opinion among reasonable men that the issue of causation becomes one of law to be decided by the court.
2. The jury was not misled or incorrectly instructed with reference to the law applicable to the rights of drivers proceeding upon an arterial or through highway or crossing over such a highway from a road intersecting the same. The trial court did not err in refusing to give plaintiffs' requested instruction.
Brecht, Hedeen & Hughes, Worthington, for appellants.
English, Velta & Irons, Tracy, LaVelle & Darling, Worthington, for respondent Bass, Winter, Lundquist & Sherwood, Wheaton, for respondents Christians.
Heard before KNUTSON, C.J., and NELSON, MURPHY, ROGOSHESKE, and FRANK T. GALLAGHER, JJ.
The actions involved on this appeal result from an automobile accident which occurred July 20, 1968, at the intersection of County Road No. 13 and County Road No. 6 in Nobles County, approximately 5 miles south of the village of Rushmore, Minnesota, between an automobile driven by Ronald W. Bass and a pickup truck driven by William John Christians.
As a result of the collision, Bass was injured, and Terry Eggleston and Ramona I. Rosenbrook, passengers in his automobile, were killed. William Christians and his passengers, Hilda Christians, his wife, and Gladys Christians, his daughter-in-law, were injured.
Edwin B. Seivert, trustee for the heirs of Ramona Rosenbrook, and Carol Eggleston, trustee for the heirs of Terry Eggleston, commenced actions for death by wrongful act against both drivers. Gladys Christians and LeRoy Christians commenced an action against both for personal injuries and consequential damages, and William Christians and Hilda Christians commenced an action against Bas for personal injuries, consequential damages, and property damage. By order of the trial court all cases were consolidated and tried to a jury.
The negligence of Bass was established by the court as a matter of law, and the balance of the issues were submitted to the jury on special interrogatories. The jury returned a verdict finding the negligence of Bass a proximate cause of the accident. The same jury further found William Christians negligent but held that his negligence did not contribute as a proximate cause of the accident. The jury awarded Seivert $27,000; Mrs. Eggleston, $13,000; Gladys Christians, $1,200; LeRoy Christians $825; Hilda Christians, $5,000; and William Christians, $27,500.
Plaintiffs Seivert, Eggleston, Gladys Christians, and LeRoy Christians joined in a motion for judgment against defendant William Christians notwithstanding the verdict on the grounds that defendant Christians' negligence was a proximate cause of the accident as a matter of law and that the trial court erred in not granting their motion for a directed verdict against him. In the alternative they sought a new trial on those grounds and on the ground that the court erred in its instructions to the jury with respect to the duty owed by a driver on a through highway. These plaintiffs appeal from the order denying their alternative motion.
The accident occurred between 12:30 and 1 p.m. The weather was clear and bright. The roads involved were blacktop roadways. County Road No. 6 runs in an east-west direction and is controlled at its intersection with County Road No. 13 by stop signs. Some distance westerly of the intersection on County Road No. 6, there is a sign reading 'stop ahead.' County Road No. 13 is a through highway intersecting with County Road No. 6 and runs in a north-south direction. A warning sign showing a crossing ahead is located on County Road No. 13 some distance south of the intersection.
Defendant Bass was driving his 1967 white Plymouth automobile in an easterly direction on County Road No. 6 at a speed of 65 miles per hour. Terry Eggleston was riding as a passenger in the front seat and Ramona I. Rosenbrook and Kimberly Rosenbrook, her daughter, were riding as passengers in the back seat. Bass failed to stop for the stop sign at the intersection of he roads.
At about the same time, defendant Christians was driving his 1968 red and white GMC 1/2-ton pickup truck in a northerly direction on County Road No. 13 at a speed of 50 to 55 miles per hour. Gladys Christians was riding as a passenger in the right hand seat. Hilda Christians was seated in the middle between William and Gladys.
The view of each driver as he approached the intersection of the county roads was totally unobstructed. Each driver was able to see the other vehicle approaching for a distance of at least 350 feet back from the intersection. The windshields and windows of both vehicles were free of obstructions to vision.
At a point 350 feet south of the intersection Gladys Christians observed the Bass vehicle approaching from the west. She continued to watch it approach and at a point 300 feet south of the intersection said, 'Gee, that car's coming fast.' Hilda Christians responded, 'Yes, it is.' At the time of this conversation, the windows of the pickup truck were up and the occupants thereof were able to converse in a normal speaking voice. Both vehicles proceeded to the intersection without change in either speed or direction. The Bass vehicle struck the Christians' pickup truck on the left side at a point in the center of the intersection. After impact the vehicles ran into the ditch in the northeast corner of the intersection.
At the close of the testimony plaintiffs requested the trial court to instruct the jury with respect to the duty owed by a driver on a highway protected by stop signs as follows:
The court refused to give this instruction, but read to the jury the first paragraph of Minn.St. 169.20, subd. 3:
'The driver of a vehicle shall stop as required by this chapter at the entrance to a through highway and shall yield the right of way to other vehicles which have entered the intersection from the through highway or which are approaching so closely on the through highway as to constitute an immediate hazard, but the driver having so yielded may proceed, and the drivers of all other vehicles approaching the intersection on the through highway shall yield the right of way to the vehicles so proceeding into or across the through highway.'
The court also read to the jury Minn.St. 169.14, subd. 1; part of § 169.14, subd. 3; and § 169.96.
During the course of the jury's deliberation, it made the following request for additional instructions:
'What is your definition of 'a direct cause of the accident?'
'What is your definition of 'contribute as a direct cause of the accident?"
In response to these inquiries, relayed to him by the clerk of the District Court of Nobles County, the trial court responded, 'You will have to recall my instructions.'
It was in the discretion of the court to determine whether additional instructions were necessary to explain the instructions involved. We have held in Sauke v. Bird, 267 Minn. 129, 125 N.W.2d 421, that although an instruction to the jury is unduly abbreviated, if it is reasonably accurate the trial court is not obliged to expand on it where the instruction proposed, while technically correct, is weighted in favor of the party requesting it.
1. Plaintiffs argue that the evidence in the record compels a finding that the negligence of defendant Christians, as found by the jury, was a proximate cause of the accident. As a result, the principal issue presented by this appeal is whether the trial court was correct in denying the post-trial motions of plaintiffs and thus allowing the jury's finding that the negligence of defendant Christians was not a proximate cause of the accident to stand. Plaintiffs refer to the basic rule of proximate cause set forth in Christianson v. Chicago, St. P., M. & O. Ry. Co., 67 Minn. 94, 69 N.W. 640, and Haugen v. Dick Thayer Motor Co., 253 Minn. 199, 91 N.W.2d 585, citing the rule as set forth in the Christianson case with approval. In Christianson this court said (67 Minn. 97, 69 N.W. 641):
'* * * Consequences which follow in unbroken sequence, without an intervening efficient cause, from the original negligent act, are natural and proximate; and for such consequences the original wrongdoer is responsible, even though he could not have foreseen the particular results which did follow.'
Plaintiffs argue that in the instant case the negligence of the drivers of the vehicles occurred simultaneously; that their original negligence produced the harmful consequences which naturally followed their acts; and that the actions of each were reasonably foreseeable by the other. They therefore argue that there was no...
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