Gustafson v. Benda

661 S.W.2d 29, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 4001
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 2, 1982
DocketNo. 43071
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 661 S.W.2d 29 (Gustafson v. Benda) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gustafson v. Benda, 661 S.W.2d 29, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 4001 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

SMITH, Presiding Judge.

Defendant appeals from a judgment against her of $20,200 in a jury-tried personal injury case. The main contention on appeal is that plaintiff failed to make a submissible case under the humanitarian doctrine on his specific theory that defendant was negligent in failing to swerve or slow her vehicle and that that negligence caused plaintiff’s injuries.

Plaintiff was riding a motorcycle on two-lane Highway 141 in St. Louis County. He began passing a series of cars ahead of him which were traveling at 30 m.p.h. Plaintiff’s speed during the passing was 40 m.p.h. After successfully passing several vehicles, plaintiff arrived at the left rear of defendant’s car. The front of the motorcycle was even with defendant’s rear fender or tire, when defendant “veered sharply to the left” to go onto a road making a T-intersection with 141. Plaintiff attempted to swerve his motorcycle to the left and believed he may have swerved a foot or two when the left front fender of defendant’s car struck his right leg and the motorcycle. The contact with the motorcycle was approximately in its center. The collision did not knock the motorcycle over and plaintiff was able to stop it approximately .2 of a mile down the road. Defendant’s speed at [31]*31all times was 30 m.p.h., plaintiff’s was 40 m.p.h.1

Defendant contends that the evidence was insufficient to establish that defendant had sufficient time after plaintiff reached a point of immediate danger to have taken any action which would have prevented the accident. Both parties are in agreement that the point of immediate danger was reached when defendant’s vehicle physically began its turn. In the present state of the law this is correct. See McClanahan v. St. Louis Public Service Co., 363 Mo. 500, 251 S.W.2d 704 (Mo.banc 1952) [1]; Granger v. ITT Continental Baking Co., 536 S.W.2d 894 (Mo.App.1976). We will discuss that matter more fully later. Given that point of immediate danger we conclude that plaintiff’s evidence was insufficient to make a case.

The plaintiff’s evidence established that defendant’s vehicle moved to its left no more than 10 feet from its original position to the point of collision. Defendant was traveling 45 feet per second at the time. There was no evidence of the arc of turn other than defendant veered “sharply” left. While the lateral movement of 10 feet in such a turn would obviously take longer than if defendant were approaching plaintiff at a right angle, it is clearly sheer speculation to conclude that in a sharp veer such lateral movement at defendant’s speed would take longer than the judicially recognized three-fourths of a second reaction time. On cross-examination plaintiff said the time between the commencement of the turn and the collision was “Some part of a second, I guess — a second.” This answer at best establishes plaintiff’s guess of a maximum time of a second and equally establishes the time may have been less than that. There was no evidence of how quickly defendant might have been able to swerve or slow the vehicle or that such slowing or swerving as might have been possible would have avoided the collision. We are aware that courts have held that movement of a steering wheel creates an almost instantaneous response by the vehicle. Jenkins v. Jordan, 593 S.W.2d 236 (Mo.App.1979) [5, 6]. But, when dealing with times as brief as those involved here (¼ second at best being the difference between plaintiff’s “guess” of a second and the accepted reaction time) we cannot take judicial notice that such response would occur quickly enough to have avoided this accident.

Plaintiff also invokes the res ipsa loquitur doctrine of humanitarian negligence — “almost escaping.” This contention is based upon defendant’s answers on cross-examination that it was “possible” that another six or twelve inches between the vehicles might have avoided the accident. From this plaintiff concludes that in the time available defendant could have created that much space by slowing or swerving. There are at least two things wrong with this argument. First, the questions posed called for a conclusion regarding a hypothetical situation by a lay witness and defendant’s objection should have been sustained. The testimony was improperly admitted and plaintiff cannot rest the submissibility of its case on such non-probative evidence. Galovich v. Hertz Corp., 513 S.W.2d 325 (Mo.1974) [10]. Secondly, if the question and answer were permissible, a jury can only base its verdict upon a factual situation which is more probable than not. Lewis v. Hubert, 532 S.W.2d 860 (Mo.App.1975) [21, 22], That it was “possible” that six or twelve inches would have avoided a collision does not make it more likely or probable that such distance would have done so. “Possible” encompasses the entire range of probability from highly improbable to almost sure and is insufficient by itself to allow a jury to make a finding of probability. Osborn v. McBride, 400 S.W.2d 185 (Mo.1966) [6, 7]; Wheaton v. Reiser Company, 419 S.W.2d 497 (Mo.App.1967) [5]. [32]*32There was no other evidence to establish the requisite probability. The impact was to the center of plaintiff’s motorcycle and there was no credible evidence to establish that a swerve or slowing possible in the time available would have avoided the accident. Plaintiff failed to make a submissible case under his submitted theory which was mandated by the law of this state as it presently stands and under that law we would be required to reverse outright the judgment in plaintiff’s favor.

We are convinced, however, that such a result is unjust and is based upon court decisions which have erroneously defined the zone of “imminent peril” (now immediate danger) to be applied to fact situations such as this one. Missouri’s “humanitarian doctrine” is an extension of the “last clear chance” doctrine recognized in some form in the common law of most American jurisdictions. Common law last clear chance encompasses three basic situations: (1) a plaintiff in a position of actual peril and a defendant who knows of that peril; (2) a plaintiff in a position of actual peril and a defendant who in the exercise of the requisite degree of care should know of that peril; and (3) a plaintiff who is in a position of peril because of his inattentiveness or obliviousness and a defendant who knows or has reason to know of that obliviousness and knows of the plaintiff’s position. Harper and James, The Law of Torts, Vol. 2, Sec. 22.13, p. 1245. In each of those cases defendant may be liable, regardless of plaintiff’s negligence in placing himself in the position of peril, if the defendant can in the exercise of the requisite degree of care and with safety to himself and others avoid injury to the plaintiff, i.e., if he has the “last clear chance” to avoid the accident.

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Bluebook (online)
661 S.W.2d 29, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 4001, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gustafson-v-benda-moctapp-1982.