Daves v. Reed

222 So. 2d 411
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedApril 21, 1969
Docket45321
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 222 So. 2d 411 (Daves v. Reed) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Daves v. Reed, 222 So. 2d 411 (Mich. 1969).

Opinion

222 So.2d 411 (1969)

Upton DAVES
v.
Joe W. REED.

No. 45321.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

April 21, 1969.

*412 Campbell, DeLong, Keady & Robertson, Greenville, for appellant.

Jacobs, Griffith & Hatcher, Cleveland, for appellee.

ETHRIDGE, Chief Justice.

This tort action originated in the Circuit Court for the Second Judicial District of Bolivar County. It involves questions of whether the doctrines of assumption of risk and intervening cause preclude any liability by defendant-appellant, Upton Daves, to plaintiff-appellee, Joe W. Reed. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Reed for $20,000. The Circuit Court reduced it to $19,500, because Daves' insurance carrier had already paid Reed $500 under a medical payments provision. Daves has taken a direct appeal from the judgment against him, and Reed cross-appeals from the $500 reduction of his verdict. We hold that issues of defendant's negligence and assumption of risk and intervening cause were for the jury; and that the court correctly reduced the amount of the verdict. The judgment is affirmed.

The accident which brought about this lawsuit occurred upon the premises of Cleveland Fisheries, a fish farm. It consists of several ponds of various sizes separated by levees which are wide enough for trucks and other vehicles. At the time of the accident, September 30, 1965, the premises were owned by J.T. Robinson, now deceased. From 1964 through 1966, Robinson and Daves operated Cleveland *413 Fisheries as a partnership. Daves had general overall supervision of day to day operations.

The main east-west levee and the northeast arm were completed in November 1964. Fish were first put into the ponds in December 1964. Thereafter these main levees and the others were traveled frequently by heavy trucks and equipment. Daves anticipated this and attempted to have the levees constructed to support this load.

Reed is engaged in the business of hauling dirt and gravel. A few days before the accident he contracted with Robinson, acting on behalf of the partnership, to deliver gravel to the levees and dump it at points to be designated by Daves. The weather was bad during most of the week. There had been considerable rainfall during the days immediately before the accident. On the previous day Reed and Daves inspected the levees to see if they were dry enough to haul gravel on them. The next morning, Reed, along with his employees, arrived with three bob trucks and one large trailer truck. This trailer truck had a single-axle trailer hooked behind it. The loaded weight of the vehicle was from 42,000 to 46,000 pounds. It was driven by Lindsey, Reed's employee.

The first time the trailer truck was driven upon the levees to deliver gravel, it traveled about sixty feet on the main levee and got stuck in the mud. Daves and Griffin, one of his employees, pulled it off the levee with a tractor. Reed, who saw this, concluded that the levees were still too wet and soft for the large trailer truck, so he instructed Lindsey not to take the big truck back upon the levee any more during that day. He thought that "the levee was wet and soft and it wouldn't hold the weight of that truck." However, the bob trucks, which were considerably lighter, were used during the remainder of the day. Daves knew of the instructions given by Reed to Lindsey and the reasons for them. Immediately thereafter, Reed left the premises to attend to other business.

Later that afternoon Daves concluded that the levees had dried enough to safely hold the big trailer truck and to begin hauling gravel to the levees. He instructed Lindsey, Reed's employee, to bring the large truck back upon the levee. Lindsey demurred but followed Daves' orders. It was Daves' job to tell Lindsey where to dump the loads of gravel. As Lindsey brought the trailer truck back on the levee, it promptly got stuck again.

Reed returned to the Cleveland Fisheries and found the trailer truck mired down on the main east-west levee. Daves, Lindsey and Griffin were present. A tractor was then hooked up to the truck, and it was pulled eastward toward the "Y," where the east-west levee was intersected by the northeast arm of another levee. Reed and Daves looked for a place to dump the loaded truck. When they reached the "Y" the truck was pulled in a northeasterly direction for a few feet, whereupon Reed decided to dump the truck at that point.

In order to dump gravel from the trailer bed, it is necessary to use a hydraulic hoist to lift the front of the bed some twelve feet into the air. When this is done, maximum stress is delivered to the rear wheels, and unless the surface is firm and level, there is danger of the truck turning over. The ground was level at the point where Reed attempted to dump the truck. He testified that he knew it would be dangerous but thought that it would be less dangerous to unload the trailer than it would be to turn it around with a heavy load. He decided not to continue pulling the truck forward with the tractor because "the other levees were narrower, and not as hard on top as this east-west levee. I would have just gone into further trouble if I'd have kept going."

Accordingly, Reed got in the truck and raised the bed of the trailer in an effort to dump the gravel. The truck began to turn over. In an effort to escape, Reed jumped from the cab, but part of the truck fell across the back of his legs at the knee level. *414 Subsequently, he underwent an operation on his knees, and he later brought this suit for medical expenses, loss of earnings, pain and suffering, and property damage.

The jury was justified in finding that Daves was negligent in directing Lindsey, contrary to his employer's instructions, to drive the trailer truck back on the levee, at a time when it was wet and unsafe for use by that heavy vehicle; and that Daves knew or should have known that the levee was unsafe at the time he directed Lindsey to take the trailer truck on the levee. His actions caused the vehicle to be placed in an unsafe and dangerous position.

For his own purposes, Daves directed the trailer truck to be brought on the levee for the purpose of hauling and unloading the gravel.

Whether the doctrines of assumption of risk and intervening cause should bar Reed's claim against Daves were, in the light of all the circumstances, issues for the jury.

Appellant asserts that appellee is precluded from recovery by the doctrine of assumption of risk; that he knowingly and intentionally exposed himself to the dangers incident to dumping the loaded trailer truck. However, the risk was created by the negligence of the appellant. The jury could find that Reed had no experience in using heavy trailer trucks in elevated work on levees, and that he should not be charged with full knowledge and appreciation of the particular risk at the time. Although Reed knew he was in a dangerous situation, whether he fully appreciated the danger and voluntarily assumed the consequences of his own actions is debatable. Prosser, Law of Torts 461-462 (3d ed. 1964), summarizes the limitations on the doctrine:

The defense of assumption of risk is in fact quite narrowly confined and restricted by two requirements: first, that the plaintiff must know and understand the risk he is incurring, and second, that his choice to incur it must be entirely free and voluntary. Since in the ordinary case there is no conclusive evidence against the plaintiff on these issues, they normally go to the jury; * * *

Reed's choice was not entirely free and voluntary. He had been placed in that position by Daves' negligence. The ground was level.

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Bluebook (online)
222 So. 2d 411, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/daves-v-reed-miss-1969.