Johnston v. Narmore

146 N.W.2d 655, 378 Mich. 491, 1966 Mich. LEXIS 84
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 6, 1966
DocketCalendar 7, Docket 51,260
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 146 N.W.2d 655 (Johnston v. Narmore) 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
Johnston v. Narmore, 146 N.W.2d 655, 378 Mich. 491, 1966 Mich. LEXIS 84 (Mich. 1966).

Opinion

Kelly, J.

{for affirmance). Plaintiff’s action for damages for injuries received when the automobile she was riding in as a passenger collided with' the *496 rear of defendant’s car resulted in an Ingham county jury verdict of no cause for action. Judgment for defendant was affirmed by the Michigan Court of Appeals (Johnston v. Narmore, 1 Mich App 160).

Plaintiff was a passenger in the front seat of an automobile driven by Lewis E. Preston as it proceeded north about 4 o’clock in the afternoon on US-127, a four-lane, divided highway. It was a clear day and the pavement was dry.

A school bus was stopped on the right shoulder of US-127 waiting for the traffic to clear before making a left turn on Edgar road.

The appellate court briefly and accurately described the events preceding the accident as follows (p 162):

“Approaching the bus from the rear and in the right lane of traffic were two automobiles, a semi truck, defendant, and Preston, in that order. It is not clear what happened to the two automobiles first mentioned, but the semi stopped in the right lane of the highway, about 10 feet behind the school bus. Defendant drove into the left lane to pass the truck; braked suddenly without signaling and was struck in the rear by Preston. The collision occurred about opposite the rear of the bus.”

Plaintiff’s counsel did not object to the court’s proposed instructions as same were read by him before being presented to the jury, nor did he object at the conclusion of the court’s instructions as the jury was being instructed for the night. The nest morning when the jury returned for deliberation plaintiff presented for the first time his objections to the omission of his proposed instructions 11 and 12 from the charge.

Proposed instruction 11 read:

“Members of the jury, I instruct you that if you find that the collision occurred as a result of the *497 combined negligence of tbe defendant Narmore and plaintiff’s driver, Mr. Preston, then you would still be required to bring back a verdict in favor of the plaintiff.
“In other words, if you find that Mr. Preston was guilty of some negligence which contributed to the collision, but you also find that the defendant Narmore was also negligent and contributed to the happening of the accident then it would be your duty to return a verdict in favor of 'the plaintiff and against the defendant.”

Proposed instruction 12 was as follows:

“The proximate cause of an accident does not necessarily .mean the sole cause or the only cause thereof. I instruct you that there may be more than one proximate cause of an accident. Therefore, even though you might find that the driver of the plaintiff car, Mr. Preston, was in some way negligent in his manner of driving, if you further find that defendant Narmore was also negligent in suddenly stopping his car on the traveled portion of the highway or in failing to warn plaintiff’s driver that he was going to stop and that such negligence on the part of the defendant Narmore was at least one of the contributing causes to the accident and the resulting-injuries to the plaintiff, then in that event it would be your duty to bring back a verdict in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant.”

In denying plaintiff’s request, the court stated:

“The court is of the opinion that it would tend to highlight this one particular phase of the case if given at this time and the court.is further of the opinion that the charge taken as a whole is not misleading on this matter of proximate cause.”

Plaintiff presents the following question:

“Did the trial court err in failing to clearly instruct the jury that if the jury found both the de *498 fendant and plaintiff’s own driver gnilty of negligence which, contributed to the happening of the accident, plaintiff could still recover a verdict?”

The appellate court answered plaintiff’s question as follows (pp 164, 165) :

“Under the factual situation here presented, plaintiff’s requests were proper. Whether it was reversible error not to give them requires determination. In making this determination, the first inquiry is whether the charge as given contains instructions on the points to which requests 11 and 12 are addressed. Appellant concedes this point, but she contends proper explanation of the application to the facts was not given and because of this, she was denied a fair trial. * * * The rule that appellate courts view a trial court’s instructions as a whole in determining their adequacy is elemental. The test to be applied is succinctly stated in Huffman v. First Baptist Church of Flushing (1959), 355 Mich 437, 446:
“ ‘Did the instructions as given adequately inform the jury on the applicable law reflecting and reflected by the various evidentiary claims in the particular case?’
“Applied to the case before us the answer is in the affirmative. This does not mean that plaintiff’s requests 11 and 12 should not have been given, nor that it was not error to refuse to give them. It means that such refusal did not deny plaintiff a fair trial and thus constitute reversible error.”

We agree with the Court of Appeals that the instructions as given adequately informed the jury on the applicable law and the refusal of the trial court to give proposed instructions 11 and 12 did not deny plaintiff a fair trial and thus constitute reversible error.

*499 The court’s instructions plus plaintiff’s forceful closing argument to the jury convince us that the jury understood “that if the jury found ho'th the defendant and plaintiff’s own driver guilty of negligence which contributed to the happening of the accident, plaintiff could still recover a verdict.”

Counsel for plaintiff in the closing argument stressed, without interruption or objection, the point that even though the jury found that both drivers were “at fault” plaintiff should recover from defendant and, as counsel concluded his argument on the question of damages, he again advised the jury without objection or interruption that plaintiff was not insisting on her rights to full damages if her driver was also at fault, as evidenced by the following :

“Now, you will remember when I talked about if you found that there was some fault on the part of both drivers and the court will instruct you that nevertheless you could hold Mr. Narmore’s side here for the full amount of the damage she has coming. I have discussed this with our people and even though they would be entitled, if you find for this woman, to full compensation, we ask that in all justice and fairness, even though the law doesn’t command that you do, that whatever damages you arrive at, deduct the percentage that you think, if you do find, that Mr. Preston may have contributed to this accident.

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244 N.W.2d 10 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1976)
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199 N.W.2d 449 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1972)
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163 N.W.2d 280 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1968)
Partridge v. Willey
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In Re Willey Estate
156 N.W.2d 631 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1967)

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Bluebook (online)
146 N.W.2d 655, 378 Mich. 491, 1966 Mich. LEXIS 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnston-v-narmore-mich-1966.