Edwards v. Harris

397 P.2d 87, 1964 Wyo. LEXIS 130
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 7, 1964
Docket3204
StatusPublished
Cited by58 cases

This text of 397 P.2d 87 (Edwards v. Harris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edwards v. Harris, 397 P.2d 87, 1964 Wyo. LEXIS 130 (Wyo. 1964).

Opinion

Mr. Justice McINTYRE

delivered the ■opinion of the court.

Suit was brought in the district court by ■plaintiffs, Alva E. Edwards and Patricia H. Edwards, for personal injuries and damages sustained in an automobile collision.

The accident happened December 12, 1961, at nighttime on the state highway between Lander and Hudson, Wyoming. Plaintiff Alva Edwards drove his Packard .automobile into the rear of a Buick automobile driven by defendant Kathryn Irene Wise, who has subsequently married and is now Mrs. Kathryn Irene Rice. Both ■of these vehicles were traveling in the north-bound lane of traffic.

In the south-bound lane of traffic and approximately opposite the point of collision, an International pickup-truck driven by ■George Harris has previously stalled and was left sitting without lights and unattended; also, Ronald Seilaff had driven his Lord pickup-truck up behind the Harris pickup and had stopped in the same lane of traffic. Harris, Mrs. Rice and Seilaff were all named as defendants.

Trial was to a jury and its verdict was for all of the defendants. Both plaintiffs appealed. George Harris has died and Eula Harris, as administratrix of his estate, has been substituted for the deceased.

In argument to us, counsel for the plaintiffs admits there was sufficient evidence to justify the jury in finding contributory negligence on the part of plaintiff Alva Edwards. We agree the record discloses such evidence, and from the verdict ■of the jury we can assume, as far as Alva’s ■case is concerned, that the jury either found an absence of negligence on the part of all defendants or contributory negligence on the part of Alva.

The result would be the same. In either event Alva is barred from recovery. Plis appeal can therefore be disregarded as far as a consideration of the sufficiency of evidence is concerned. There remains, however, considerations of prejudicial errorfe which are claimed in the admission of evidence and in the conduct of counsel for one of the defendants. These alleged errors we will discuss later.

Imputed Negligence

The principal contention made on behalf of appellant Patricia Edwards was that the court’s Instruction 8 permitted the jury to impute negligence on the part of Alva Edwards to her, his wife and passenger, when there was no basis in the evidence for such imputation. The questioned instruction was this:

“The court instructs the jury that in the event the plaintiffs were engaged in a business joint adventure at the time of the accident so that the plaintiff, Alva E. Edwards, acted as the agent of the plaintiff, Patricia H. Edwards, in the driving of the vehicle, then any negligence on the part of Alva E. Edwards which contributed in whole or part to the cause of the accident, bars the plaintiff, Patricia PI. Edwards, from recovery, and in such event, you are instructed to bring in a verdict in favor of all defendants. However, in this regard, you are instructed that the joint adventure must be of such a nature that there was a common, or joint, business purpose between the parties at the time of the accident and that both parties had an equal right to the control of said vehicle.”

Without pausing to discuss at length the language employed in the instruction, we want to mention in passing that it is somewhat ambiguous to us and we believe the wording could be improved. Where the instruction says “in such event” you are instructed to bring in a verdict in favor of all defendants, it is not entirely clear what “event” is referred to. We think the in *90 struction could be interpreted as saying in the ev.ent plaintiffs were engaged in a joint adventure the verdict should be in favor of all defendants, especially if the word “event” is thought of as being in the singular as it is written. That, of course, would be an erroneous statement of the law.

Attorneys may realize the trial court in this instance must have meant to say in the event plaintiffs were engaged in á business joint adventure, then any negligence on the part of Alva E. Edwards, which contributed in whole or in part to the cause of the accident, would bar plaintiff Patricia H. Edwards from recovery; and in the event there was a joint adventure and also contributory negligence on the part of Alva Edwards, the verdict should be in favor of all defendants.

Whether an instruction is misleading or confusing, however, depends upon how it would be understood by a jury composed of ordinarily intelligent laymen. Government Employees Insurance Company v. Davis, 5 Cir., 266 F.2d 760, 765; Smith v. Stanolind Pipe Line Co., 354 Mo. 250, 189 S.W.2d 244, 252.

Instructions should be clear declarations of the law applicable to the facts, and if open to two or more constructions, one of which is at variance with the law, instructions should be refused, since instructions should be substantially correct in both form and circumstances. Hopkins v. Highland Dairy Farms Co., 348 Mo. 1158, 159 S.W.2d 254, 257; Schipper v. Brashear Truck Co., Mo., 132 S.W.2d 993, 996, 125 A.L.R. 674; McCarthy v. Sheridan, 336 Mo. 1201, 83 S.W.2d 907, 910-911.

As far as our decision is concerned, in the case at bar, we cannot find fault with the statement of law involved in Instruction 8, if it can be understood as saying in the event plaintiffs were engaged in a business joint adventure and there was also some negligence on the part’of Alva Edwards, which contributed to the accident, thus barring Patricia Edwards from recovery, the jury was to bring in a verdict in favor of all defendants.

However, as will appear from our later discussion, we find, no basis in the-evidence adduced at the trial for the giving' of such an instruction, and it still must be-condemned for that reason. Instructions-not sustained by evidence should not be-given. Chicago & N. W. Ry. Co. v. Ott, 33 Wyo. 200, 237 P. 238, 242, rehearing denied 238 P. 287, certiorari denied 269 U.S. 585,. 46 S.Ct. 201, 70 L.Ed. 425; Shikany v. Salt Creek Transp. Co., 48 Wyo. 190, 45 P.2d 645, 647.

The plaintiffs themselves testified the title to the Packard automobile driven by-Alva Edwards was in his name and the-name of his wife, Patricia, jointly. This-was not disputed. There was no evidence-tending to show, however, that the passenger, Patricia, actually exercised any control or supervision over her husband in the driving of the automobile during the trip on which the accident occurred, or that she influenced or directed the manner of driving. On the other hand, Mr. Edwards insisted during his examination on the witness stand that his wife had not done any of these things.

In Porter v. Wilson, Wyo., 357 P.2d 309, 316, this court reviewed at length the decisions in other jurisdictions on the subject of negligence being imputed to a passenger-wife when the husband is driving a motor vehicle. In that particular case the automobile was in the wife’s name only but was. being driven by the husband.

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Bluebook (online)
397 P.2d 87, 1964 Wyo. LEXIS 130, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edwards-v-harris-wyo-1964.