Barringer v. Mid Pines Development Group, L.L.C.

568 S.E.2d 648, 152 N.C. App. 549, 2002 N.C. App. LEXIS 963
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedSeptember 3, 2002
DocketCOA01-960
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 568 S.E.2d 648 (Barringer v. Mid Pines Development Group, L.L.C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barringer v. Mid Pines Development Group, L.L.C., 568 S.E.2d 648, 152 N.C. App. 549, 2002 N.C. App. LEXIS 963 (N.C. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinions

EAGLES, Chief Judge.

J. Alan Barringer and Jennie S. Barringer (“plaintiffs”) appeal from judgment entered on a jury verdict finding Mid Pines Development Group, L.L.C. (“defendant”) negligent and J. Alan Barringer (“Mr. Barringer”) contributorily negligent.

On 16 November 1995, Mr. Barringer attended a workshop for the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Electrical Contractors at the Mid Pines Inn and Golf Club in Southern Pines. Defendant owns and manages Mid Pines Inn and Golf Club.

After a morning meeting, the participants in the workshop met for lunch in the “Terrace Room.” Mr. Barringer entered the Terrace Room and located where the members of his group were sitting. Mr. Barringer then went to the buffet table, made a sandwich and a salad, and then joined the others in his group at a table. After finishing his sandwich, Mr. Barringer returned to the buffet table for fruit. The buffet table ran parallel to a wall, approximately three feet from the wall. On this trip to the buffet table, Mr. Barringer picked up a bowl and went down the other side of the buffet table, the side nearest the wall. When Mr. Barringer finished selecting fruit from several displays, he turned and walked back along the same way, between the table and the wall. After he had taken a few steps, Mr. Barringer’s right foot became entangled in an electrical cord. The electrical cord connected a crock pot on the buffet table to an outlet on the wall. The electrical cord was not taped down to the floor and was approximately two to three inches off the ground. Mr. Barringer stumbled and fell injuring his back. Plaintiffs’ evidence details extensive treatment, including numerous surgeries, and continuing pain in Mr. Barringer’s right leg and lower back.

The plaintiffs commenced this action on 4 November 1998 by complaint alleging a personal injury claim based on defendant’s negligence and a loss of consortium claim. The matter was tried during the 10 July 2000 Civil Session of Wake County Superior Court. The jury returned a verdict finding defendant negligent and Mr. Barringer contributorily negligent. The judgment entered on 31 July 2000 pro[551]*551vided that the plaintiffs should recover nothing from defendant; that the plaintiffs’ complaint be dismissed with prejudice; and that the costs of the action be taxed against the plaintiffs. On 27 October 2000, the trial court denied plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial and injunctive relief while granting in part defendant’s motion for costs and expenses in the amount of $22,477.80. Plaintiffs appeal.

On appeal, plaintiffs contend that the trial court erred: (1) by refusing to give plaintiffs’ requested jury instructions on diversion and contributory negligence; (2) by admitting the unexplained conclusions of a psychological test in contravention of State v. Hoyle, 49 N.C. App. 98, 270 S.E.2d 582 (1980), disc. review denied, 301 N.C. 724, 274 S.E.2d 233 (1981); (3) by refusing to allow plaintiffs to cross examine Mid Pines’ manager about untruthful answers given in interrogatory answers concerning insurance coverage; and (4) by taxing plaintiffs with an expert witness fee of $15,000.00 which included deposition and trial preparation time. After careful review, we reverse and remand.

Plaintiffs first contend that the trial court erred by refusing to give plaintiffs’ requested jury instructions on diversion. Plaintiffs requested the following jury instruction on diverted attention:

“A plaintiff may be contributorially [sic] negligent if he fails to discover and avoid a defect that is visible and obvious. However, this rule is not applicable where there is some fact, condition or circumstance which would or might divert the attention of an ordinarily prudent person from discovering or seeing an existing dangerous condition.” Walker v. Randolph Co., 251 N.C. 805, 810, 112 S.E.2d 551, 554 (1960) as cited in Newton v. New Hanover Co. Board of Education, 342 N.C. 554, 564, 467 S.E.2nd [sic] 58, 65 (1996).

Plaintiffs argue that the “doctrine of diverted attention” has been used to mitigate the “harshness” of contributory negligence. Plaintiffs contend that the requested instruction was correct as a matter of law and that they introduced evidence at trial to support an inference that the buffet presentation was designed to be and was in fact a diversion. Plaintiffs argue that the trial court’s instruction misled the jury “in that it failed to encompass all of the law on this issue.” We agree.

The trial court did not give plaintiffs’ requested instruction. The trial court gave the following instruction with regard to negligence:

[552]*552Now, under the law of this state, negligence refers to a person’s failure to follow a duty of conduct as imposed by law. The law requires every owner of property to use ordinary care to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition for lawful visitors who use them in a reasonable and ordinary manner.
Ordinary care means that degree of care which a reasonable and prudent person would use under the same or similar circumstances to protect himself and others from injury. A person’s failure to use ordinary care is negligence under the law of this state.
Now, ordinarily a person has that duty to anticipate the negligence on the part of others. In the absence of anything that gives or should give notice to the contrary, a person has the right to assume and to act under the assumption that others will use ordinary care and follow standards of conduct enacted as law in the safety of the public.
However, the right to rely on this assumption is not absolute, and if the circumstances existing at the time are such as reasonably to put a person on notice that he cannot rely on the assumption, he is under a duty to use that degree of care which a reasonable and prudent person would use under the same or similar circumstances to protect himself and others from injury.

With respect to the issue of contributory negligence, the trial court stated that “[t]he test of what is negligence is as I’ve already defined and read to you, explained to you, is the same for the Plaintiff as it is for Defendant.”

“When a party aptly tenders a written request for a specific instruction which is correct in itself and supported by evidence, the failure of the court to give the instruction, at least in substance, is error.” Faeber v. E. C. T. Corp., 16 N.C. App. 429, 430, 192 S.E.2d 1, 2 (1972). “The trial court need not give special instructions exactly as requested by a party so long as the court’s charge, taken as a whole, conveys the substance of the necessary requested instructions.” Alston v. Monk, 92 N.C. App. 59, 63, 373 S.E.2d 463, 466 (1988), disc. review denied, 324 N.C. 246, 378 S.E.2d 420 (1989). To prevail on appeal, plaintiffs must show “that (1) the requested instruction was a correct statement of law and (2) was supported by the evidence, and that (3) the instruction given, considered in its entirety, failed to [553]*553encompass the substance of the law requested and (4) such failure likely misled the jury.” Liborio v. King, 150 N.C. App.

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Related

Barringer v. Mid Pines Development Group, L.L.C.
568 S.E.2d 648 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2002)

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Bluebook (online)
568 S.E.2d 648, 152 N.C. App. 549, 2002 N.C. App. LEXIS 963, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barringer-v-mid-pines-development-group-llc-ncctapp-2002.