Chastain v. Brown

82 So. 2d 904, 263 Ala. 440, 1955 Ala. LEXIS 652
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedMarch 24, 1955
Docket6 Div. 525
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 82 So. 2d 904 (Chastain v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chastain v. Brown, 82 So. 2d 904, 263 Ala. 440, 1955 Ala. LEXIS 652 (Ala. 1955).

Opinion

LIVINGSTON, Chief Justice.

This suit for personal injuries was commenced in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Alabama.

The complaint, as amended, consists of two counts. Count 1 charges simple negligence ; Count 2 charges wanton conduct. Subsequent to defendant’s demurrer to the complaint being overruled by the trial court, defendant pleaded in short by consent the general issue, with leave, etc.

The first two trials of this action resulted in mistrials; the jury, in each instance, having been unable to agree.

A third trial was had upon the pleadings as previously settled. It resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff in the amount of $10,000. While submitting the case to the jury, the trial judge charged out Count 2, the wanton count.

Defendant seasonably filed a motion for new trial, which was overruled. Thereafter, appeal was taken to this court.

The accident occurred on Public Highway No. 38, at approximately 8:00 p. m. Shortly prior to the collision, the motor of plaintiff’s automobile stopped because of mechanical difficulties. The evidence shows that the plaintiff then unsuccessfully tried to start his car. Thereafter, plaintiff and his wife began pushing the automobile; the plaintiff pushed from the left side of the automobile next to the steering wheel, while his wife pushed from the rear of the vehicle. The automobile, however, failed to start. According to the evidence, plaintiff and his wife then angled the car towards the right shoulder of the highway in an attempt to remove the vehicle from the paved portion of said roadway. Plaintiff then sat in the stationary automobile, behind the steering wheel, while his wife stood upon the right shoulder of the highway with the intent of signaling any passing motorist for aid.

Proceeding in a general southerly direction, the same direction in which plaintiff’s automobile had been headed prior to its mechanical failure, the Oldsmobile of the defendant ran into the rear of plaintiff’s F'ord. Said collision seriously injured the plaintiff.

The evidence is in irreconcilable conflict as to whether or not plaintiff’s automobile was on the paved portion of the highway when the collision occurred, and as to whether or not any lights on the same [442]*442were burning at that time. In short, sufficient evidence was submitted from which the jury reasonably could have found primary negligence, contributory negligence and subsequent negligence. Each of said issues was a jury question.

Assignment of Error No. 3 is directed to the trial court’s refusal of defendant’s requested written Charge No. 21. Said charge reads as follows:

“21. The Court charges the jury that Title 36, Section 46(b) of the 1940 Code of Alabama, as last amended, reads as follows:
“‘(b) Whenever a vehicle is parked or stopped upon a roadway or shoulder adjacent thereto, whether attended or unattended, during the hours between a half hour after sunset and half hour before sunrise and there is not sufficient light to reveal any person or object within a distance of five hundred (500) feet upon such highway, such vehicles so parked or stopped shall be equipped with one or more lamps which shall exhibit a white light on the roadway side visible from a distance of five hundred (500) feet to the front of such vehicle and a red light visible from a distance of five hundred (500) feet to the rear. The foregoing provision shall not apply to a motor driven cycle.’
“The Court further charges the jury that a violation of said section of the Code of Alabama is negligence as a matter of law, and if you are reasonably satisfied from the evidence that on the occasion mentioned in plaintiff’s complaint, the plaintiff violated said section of the Code of Alabama and that such violation, if any, proximately contributed to his alleged injuries and damages then you cannot return a verdict in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant under Count 1 of the complaint.”

Clearly, under the authority of Birmingham Electric Co. v. Carver, 255 Ala. 471, 52 So.2d 200, said Charge No. 21 should have been given by the trial judge. In Birmingham Electric Co. v. Carver, supra, the primary contention made on appeal also concerned a charge of contributory negligence.. That action, too, was based upon an automobile collision. Count A, to which the charge there under consideration related,, was a simple negligence count, as is Count 1 of the present controversy. In that case,, as in the present action, the pleading was. in short by consent. The charge there ruled upon was the following:

“If you are reasonably satisfied from the evidence in this case that plaintiff was himself guilty of negligence which proximately contributed to cause his injuries and damages on the occasion complained of, you cannot return a verdict for the plaintiff under count A of the complaint.”

Consideration of the latter charge was' given on the assumption that the evidence-made a question for the jury as to subsequent negligence of defendant, as is true-concerning the evidence, of the instant case. There, as is the case upon this appeal, the specific inquiry was whether the charge of' contributory negligence was applicable to-a count (of simple negligence) which includes subsequent negligence, the evidence-being sufficient for a jury to reasonably find the latter.

We held that the charge under consideration in Birmingham Electric Co. v. Carver, supra, was a proper charge. It necessarily follows, therefore, that defendant’s requested Charge No. 21 was a proper charge in the instant case, and that said charge-did not ignore the issue of subsequent negligence.

The instant charge and the charge in-Carver’s case cannot be distinguished upon, their wording, as both are phrased in the same manner.

Tyler v. Drennen, 255 Ala. 377, 51 So. 2d 516, 519, is further authority for our conclusion. There, we considered the following charge:

“ ‘B. I charge you, Gentlemen of the jury, that before the plaintiff will be entitled to recover for any damag[443]*443es or injuries suffered in the accident complained of for negligence based on a violation of a statute or ordinance with reference to speed in a residential section, such speed must have been the proximate cause of the collision.’ ”

This court, speaking through Justice Stakely, declared:

“Assignment 9. There was no error in giving charge B at the request of the appellee. It confines itself to count 1 by its own language. The charge does not ignore the issue of subsequent negligence. This charge predicates a recovery for negligence in the fact that it was the proximate cause of the collision. This includes subsequent negligence. If the negligence is the proximate cause of the collision, it is so whether it is primary or subsequent negligence which is shown by the •evidence. Birmingham Electric Co. v. Carver, [255 Ala. 471] 52 So.2d 200.”

We think it clear, therefore, that defend-ant’s requested written Charge No. 21 does not ignore the evidence tending to show ■subsequent negligence, and that appellee’s argument to the contrary is without merit.

Appellee further contends that no error was committed in the trial court’s refusal of said charge inasmuch as the lower court granted defendant’s requested written Charge No. 39.

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Bluebook (online)
82 So. 2d 904, 263 Ala. 440, 1955 Ala. LEXIS 652, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chastain-v-brown-ala-1955.