Huff v. Boyd

242 So. 2d 698
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 4, 1971
Docket46010
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 242 So. 2d 698 (Huff v. Boyd) 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
Huff v. Boyd, 242 So. 2d 698 (Mich. 1971).

Opinion

242 So.2d 698 (1971)

Owen Ralph HUFF
v.
J.A. BOYD.

No. 46010.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

January 4, 1971.

*700 Mitchell, McNutt & Bush, Tupelo, for appellant.

T. Fred Wicker, Pontotoc, for appellee.

*699 RODGERS, Justice:

This case came to this Court on appeal from a final judgment of the Circuit Court of Pontotoc County, Mississippi, in favor of J.A. Boyd against Owen Ralph Huff in the sum of $1,015.31 representing damages due to appellee growing out of an automobile accident.

It appears from the record that the appellant was driving a Volkswagen automobile east on Highway 72 in Alcorn County at about 5:30 p.m. on October 16, 1966. It was about "dusk dark" or between sundown and dark. Most of the automobiles on the highway had lights aglow. The appellant was traveling in a line of automobiles going east. He moved out of the line of automobiles into the left lane to pass three automobiles. He passed two automobiles, but as he attempted to pass the third vehicle, the driver (Mrs. Annie Mullins) turned to her left across the path of the oncoming appellant onto a gravel road running north from its intersection with the paved Highway 72. She had given her proper signal to turn left at the intersection. The Volkswagen driven by appellant struck the automobile driven by Mrs. Mullins at the left rear as it went into the gravel road. The Volkswagen stopped in the left lane on the pavement on the highway. The appellant got out of his Volkswagen and went to the automobile driven by Mrs. Mullins to determine whether any of the occupants were injured.

At this time a highway patrolman (who had been following the Volkswagen) drove his patrol car to the side of the road and turned on his blue blinking signal light which was located on the roof of the patrol car. He went to the automobile in the gravel road. The appellant made no effort to get his wrecked Volkswagen off the heavily traveled highway. Nevertheless, for some time (said by some witnesses to be two to five minutes, and others said fifteen minutes) the heavy traffic continued to flow east and west by and around the Volkswagen. No one attempted to direct traffic and no lights nor visible warning of any kind were put on or near the Volkswagen. There were lights located around the store at the road intersection.

In the meantime, appellee, J.A. Boyd, was traveling as a passenger in his 1966 Bonneville Pontiac automobile in a westerly direction on Highway 72, approaching the scene of the accident. Mr. Ervin Tutor was driving the appellee's Pontiac automobile. As they approached the Volkswagen they faced a long line of automobiles, each of which had lights burning. The driver saw lights at the store and Mrs. Tutor mentioned that she saw a blinking light. The driver, however, said that he did not see any red lights. The Highway Patrol had recently changed from a red signal light to a blue light and Mr. Tutor said that "it was probably a honky tonk." He did not recognize the blue light as a warning signal and continued to drive at about fifty miles per hour with his lights on dim until he was suddenly confronted with the disabled Volkswagen. He applied his brakes and the Pontiac skidded along the highway for a distance of seventy-five feet before striking the Volkswagen and causing it to roll off the highway. It was agreed that the Pontiac was damaged in the sum of $1,015.31 and the Volkswagen in the sum of $373.12. As a result of the accident, appellant cross-sued for the damages to the Volkswagen.

After the plaintiff, J.A. Boyd, had rested his case, the defendant, Owen Ralph *701 Huff, moved the court to (1) direct a verdict in favor of defendant. This motion was overruled; whereupon, the defendant, Huff, offered evidence for defendant and after he had rested his defense he again moved the court to exclude the evidence for the plaintiff, Boyd, and to direct a verdict for the defendant in the sum of $373.12 because, it was argued, defendant Huff was guilty of no negligence after the first accident. This motion was overruled. The defendant then made the following motions, all of which were overruled. (1) He moved the court to exclude all the evidence of negligence of the defendant after the first accident; (2) he moved the court to instruct the jury as a matter of law that Mr. Tutor was negligent in the operation of the Pontiac automobile which proximately caused or causally contributed to the accident. After the jury returned the verdict for the appellee, the appellant made a motion for a new trial and, when this motion was overruled and judgment entered, the defendant and cross-plaintiff appealed.

The appellant has presented eight assignments of error alleged to have been committed by the trial court, but all of these grounds may be properly considered under two broad headings — (1) the trial court erred in not directing a verdict for the plaintiff Huff because there was no negligence shown on the part of the defendant and cross-plaintiff Huff that could have caused or contributed to the damages of plaintiff Boyd's automobile; (2) the court erred in giving certain instructions to the jury which will be discussed later.

The paramount issue in this case (as contended by the appellant, Owen Ralph Huff) is whether or not the alleged negligent acts of the driver of the plaintiff's Pontiac in driving the Pontiac automobile into and against the wrecked Volkswagen belonging to appellant was an efficient intervening cause which insulated appellant from liability.

It is said by the textwriter in 65 C.J.S. Negligence § 111(1) (1966), at page 1198, that:

* * * An intervening cause will be regarded as the proximate cause, and the first cause as too remote, where the chain of events is so broken that they become independent and the result cannot be said to be the natural and probable consequence of the primary cause, or one which ought to have been anticipated. The law will not look back from the injurious consequences beyond the last efficient cause, especially where an intelligent and responsible human being has intervened.
Not every intervening cause, however, relieves an actor of responsibility, and it is well settled that the mere fact that other causes, conditions, or agencies have intervened between defendant's negligence and the injury for which recovery is sought is not of itself sufficient in law to relieve defendant from liability. The original wrongdoer is liable notwithstanding the intervening act or event if the injury is the natural and probable consequence of the original negligent act or omission, and is such as might reasonably have been foreseen as probable, or if the actor knows, or has reasonable means of knowing, that consequences not usually resulting from the act are likely to intervene so as to cause damage.

In the case of Permenter v. Milner Chevrolet Co., 229 Miss. 385, 91 So.2d 243 (1956), after discussing the authorities from many outside jurisdictions, we had this to say on this subject:

* * * [E]ven though the defendant may have been negligent, nevertheless if an independent intervening agency was the proximate cause of the injury inflicted, the plaintiff can not recover upon the original act of negligence, we are of the opinion, that even though the appellee in this case may have been guilty of negligence in violating the statute prohibiting the leaving of a car unattended with the key in the switch, nevertheless the act of the thief in running a red light at a reckless rate of speed was an intervening agency which caused the accident *702

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Jennifer Clark v. Epco, Inc.
Fifth Circuit, 2010
Clark v. EPCO Inc.
376 F. App'x 427 (Fifth Circuit, 2010)
Belmont Homes, Inc. v. Stewart
792 So. 2d 229 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2001)
Belmont Homes, Inc. v. Sarah Stewart
Mississippi Supreme Court, 2000
Jackson v. Daley
739 So. 2d 1031 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1999)
Prince v. LOUISVILLE MUN. SCHOOL DIST.
741 So. 2d 207 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1999)
Hood v. Oakley
519 So. 2d 1236 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1988)
Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Condict
417 F. Supp. 63 (S.D. Mississippi, 1976)
Yarbrough v. Phipps
285 So. 2d 788 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1973)
Maness v. Illinois Central Railroad Company
271 So. 2d 418 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
242 So. 2d 698, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/huff-v-boyd-miss-1971.