Indiana Lumbermens Mutual Insurance v. Matthew Stores, Inc.

84 N.W.2d 755, 349 Mich. 441
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 4, 1957
DocketDocket 85, Calendar 46,866
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 84 N.W.2d 755 (Indiana Lumbermens Mutual Insurance v. Matthew Stores, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Indiana Lumbermens Mutual Insurance v. Matthew Stores, Inc., 84 N.W.2d 755, 349 Mich. 441 (Mich. 1957).

Opinion

Smith, J.

(concurring). This case involves a collision between an ice cream truck and a supermarket. The plaintiffs are the subrogees of Dorr and Margaret Anderson, the owners of the supermarket, known as Andy’s Shopping Basket. We will refer to them as though they were the store owners. The defendant’s business, as far as pertinent to this litigation, involves the ownership of an ice cream truck and its operation by one Oral Good. The defendant’s truck crashed into and partially through the front of the plaintiffs’ store, causing considerable damage, and this litigation seeks reimbursement.

*443 The market is located on US-27 at the westerly limits of the city of St. Johns at a point where North Clinton avenne intersects the highway. Most of the area immediately around the store is paved with asphalt and at the point where the accident occurred there is a sidewalk about 10 feet wide, raised 3 inches above the asphalt and extending along the side of the building. On the day in question, Oral Good, défendant’s employee, “turned off from North Clinton avenue and drove directly to the store.” Dorr Anderson was standing inside the market with Mr. Harper, a salesman, at about 9:15 a.m. Mrs. Wilma Bensinger and another employee of the market were also at work inside. At this moment they “heard a terrific crash, sounded like the roof fell in.” When the parties recovered their composure, they discovered that the Matthews’ ice cream truck “was partially in the building.” Mr. Good, the driver, came into the store and talked with Dorr Anderson, who related the conversation to the court:

“Well, he was in quite a high state.of upset or excitement I would say, and he said that he wasn’t driving too fast, that he thought he was going to stop, and he felt he certainly would stop when he hit the building, he didn’t expect the building to cave in.”

The plaintiffs’ declaration charged that the driver “approached said building in a negligent, careless and reckless manner, striking the northeast corner of said building, greatly damaging the same,” alleged specific duties on the part of. the driver, and asserted that “notwithstanding” such duties the defendant’s agent drove in the careless, et cetera, manner described and damaged the building. The defendant denied the driving so charged and described, and asserted “that any accident which may have caused injury to the subrogor’s building was not *444 caused through any act of negligence on the part of this defendant or its servant, but by an act of God, the asphalt pavement around said subrogee’s premises having become covered the night before by an icy condition of which this defendant’s agent had no knowledge and could not see.” At the close of the plaintiffs’ proofs the defendant moved for a judgment of no cause for action. This the trial court granted on the ground that there were “missing links” in the proofs. Motion for new trial having been made and denied, plaintiffs are before us on a general appeal.

Our problem here is the proof of negligence by circumstantial evidence. *

At the one extreme, it is clear that the happening of an accident alone is not evidence of negligence. Something more must be shown than the mere happening. At the other extreme, it is clear that we do not require direct evidence to establish each of the issues in a negligence case. In fact it is an unusual case where none of the issues confronting the jury (including duty, breach, and causal connection) is established, at least in part, by a process of inference from relevant and established facts. To the degree that we employ such a process. of inference we are using circumstantial evidence. We do it constantly. . The law would be paralyzed without it.

But we said that the mere happening of an accident, standing alone, is not evidence of negligence. Where, then, do we draw the line? We will start with the case of Alpern v. Churchill, 53 Mich 607. It cast a long shadow. Mrs. Alpern, the plaintiff, complained of the destruction by fire of certain buildings and alleged that the fire was caused by sparks from defendants’ refuse burner, located nearby. Defendants conceded that, “Prima facie, *445 the plaintiff has made ont a case to show that this fire did originate from the sparks from the burner of the defendants,” but by the court’s instruction “the case was made to turn upon the question whether there was any evidence tending to show negligence in the defendants in the use of an imperfect or insufficient spark-catcher.” The jury was instructed to find for defendants. In reversing, Mr. Justice Cooley wrote as follows for a unanimous court (pp 612, 613):

“Proof that the injury probably resulted from sparks emitted from the burner was ample, but the judge was of opinion that this was insufficient to establish a liability unless there was some affirmative showing of negligence, beyond what might be inferred from the injury itself. And this as a general principle is no doubt true; the party counting upon negligence must adduce affirmative proof of it. Lake Shore & Michigan Southern R. Co. v. Miller, 25 Mich 274; Macomber v. Nichols, 34 Mich 212 (22 Am Rep 522); Grand Rapids & Indiana R. Co. v. Judson, 34 Mich 506; Brown v. Congress & Baker Street Railway Co., 49 Mich 153 (4 Am Neg Cas 32). But we are not satisfied that there was in this case such an absence of evidence as the judge supposed. Negligence, like any other fact, may be inferred from the circumstances; and the case may be such that, though there be no positive proof that defendant has been guilty of any neglect of duty, the inference of negligence would be irresistible.”

Some 30 years later we decided the case of Maki v. Isle Royale Copper Co., 180 Mich 624. This involved a personal injury. Plaintiff, working in defendant’s mine, was struck by a falling bucket. The bail of this bucket was attached to a chain which, in turn, was attached to the hook of the “lower block” by a double knot in the chain. “There was testimony,” states the opinion (p 626), “to show that, if *446 a chain were knotted in the way this chain was, it should also be bolted in order to be reasonably safe.” Was there a bolt there! The defendant insisted, as to this, that the record was absolutely blank. The trial court directed a verdict for defendant. In reversing, we held as follows (pp 630-632):

“It is true that there is no positive direct testimony that there was no bolt in the knot at the time of the accident, but, having in mind the well-established rule that, in directing a verdict for the defendant, the facts in the case should be viewed most favorably to the plaintiff, can it be said that a reasonable inference cannot be drawn that the bucket fell because of the failure to furnish the knot with the necessary bolt! In this State, defendant’s negligence cannot be presumed and must be proven, but we tliink the reasoning of this Court in Schoepper v. Hancock Chemical Co.,

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Bluebook (online)
84 N.W.2d 755, 349 Mich. 441, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indiana-lumbermens-mutual-insurance-v-matthew-stores-inc-mich-1957.