Young v. Anchor Co.

• Decision Date: 15 January 1954
• Docket Number: No. 677,677
• Citation: 79 S.E.2d 785,239 N.C. 288
• Parties: YOUNG, v. ANCHOR CO., Inc.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 785

79 S.E.2d 785

239 N.C. 288

YOUNG, v. ANCHOR CO., Inc.

No. 677

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Jan. 15, 1954

Hubert Olive, Lexington, McNeill Smith, Braxton Schell and Smith, Sapp, Moore & Smith, Greensboro, for defendant-appellant.

Walser & Brinkley and Charles W. Mauze, Lexington, for plaintiff-appellee.

DEVIN, Chief Justice.

Defendant's appeal brings up for consideration the question whether plaintiff's evidence was sufficient to support her allegations of negligence on the part of the defendant, and to carry the case to the jury. It was insisted that defendant's motion for judgment of nonsuit should have been allowed, or that the court upon all the evidence should have given instruction to the jury to answer the issue of negligence in its favor, as prayed.

Undoubtedly, on this record, the defendant was entitled to the allowance of its motion unless the facts shown by plaintiff's evidence were such as to call for the application of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur.

This doctrine has been considered by this Court in a number of well-considered opinions and is generally understood to designate a rule of the law of evidence which may be applied to the inference from the nature of the occurrence to be drawn in certain classes of injury alleged to have been caused by negligence. Justice Hoke in Jones v. Bland, 182 N.C. 70, 108 S.E. 344, 347, 16 A.L.R. 1383, has stated the nature of the principle involved, from which we quote: 'It is the accepted position here and elsewhere: 'That where a thing which causes an injury is shown to be under the management of the defendant and the occurrence is such as in the ordinary course of things does not happen if those who have the management use proper care, it affords reasonable evidence in the absence of an explanation by the defendant that the accident arose from want of care.' This was held in the recent case [against The Texas Company, of Stone v. Texas Co., reported in 180 N.C. 546-561, 105 S.E. 425, 12 A.L.R. 1297], and the principle has been approved and applied in many of our decisions on the subject. (Cases cited.) In the citation to Labatt, quoted with approval in Womble's Case [Womble v. Merchants' Grocery Co., 135 N.C. 474, 47 S.E. 493], it is said: 'The rationale of the doctrine, spoken of in the cases as res ipsa loquitur, is that in some cases the very nature of the action may itself, and through the presumption it carries, supply the requisite proof. It is applicable when under the circumstances shown the accident presumably would not have happened if due care had been exercised. Its essential import is that, on the facts proved, the plaintiff has made out a prima facie case, without direct proof of negligence. * * *"

This statement of the law is in accord with the uniform decisions in this jurisdiction. Womble v. Merchants' Grocery Co., 135 N.C. 474, 47 S.E. 493; Stewart v. Van Deventer Carpet Co., 138 N.C. 60, 50 S.E. 562; Fitzgerald v. Southern R. Co., 141 N.C. 530, 54 S.E. 391, 6 L.R.A.,N.S., 337; Isley v. Virginia Bridge & Iron Co., 141 N.C. 220, 53 S.E. 841; Deaton v. Gloucester Lumber Co., 165 N.C. 560, 81 S.E. 774; Ridge v. Norfolk Southern R. Co., 167 N.C. 510, 83 S.E. 762, L.R.A.1917E, 215; White v. Hines, 182 N.C. 275, 109 S.E. 31; Harris v. Mangum, 183 N.C. 235, 111 S.E. 177; Eaker v. International Shoe Co., 199 N.C. 379, 154 S.E. 667; Etheridge v. Etheridge, 222 N.C. 616, 24 S.E.2d 477. See also Hesemann v. May Department Stores Co., 225 Mo.App. 584, 39 S.W.2d 797; Welch v. Rollman & Sons Co., 70 Ohio App. 515, 44 N.E.2d 726; Petrie v. Kaufmann & Baer Co., 291 Pa. 211, 139 A. 878; Connelly v. Kaufmann & Baer Co., 349 Pa. 261, 37 A.2d 125, 152 A.L.R. 562.

In cases where the plaintiff's evidence is such as to justify the application of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur the nature of the occurrence itself and the inferences to be drawn therefrom are held to supply the requisite degree of proof to carry the case to the jury and to enable the plaintiff to make out a prima facie case without direct proof of negligence. However, this does not dispense with the requirement that the plaintiff who alleges negligence must prove negligence, but relates only to the mode of proving it. The fact of the accident furnishes merely some evidence to go to the jury and does not relieve the plaintiff of the burden of showing negligence. Before the plaintiff can be entitled to a verdict he must satisfy the jury by the preponderance of the evidence that the injuries complained of were proximately caused by the negligence of the defendant in the respects alleged. Stewart v. Van Deventer Carpet Co., supra [138 N.C. 60, 50 S.E. 565]; White v. Hines, supra; Mitchell v. Saunders, 219 N.C. 178, 13 S.E.2d 241. 'The law attaches no special weight, as proof, to the fact of an accident, but simply holds it to be sufficient for the consideration of the jury even in the absence of any additional evidence. (Citing authorities.) In all other respects the parties stand before the jury just as if there was no such rule. ' Stewart v. Van...