Karen Preston v. Brian Grimes

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Decided: September 12, 2023
• Docket: 21-2149
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

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UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 21-2149

KAREN RENEE PRESTON,

Plaintiff - Appellant,

v.

BRIAN ROBERT GRIMES; WALMART TRANSPORTATION, LLC,

Defendants - Appellees,

and

FRANKLIN COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS; SCHOOL SYSTEMS OF VIRGINIA GROUP SELF-INSURANCE ASSOCIATION,

Intervenors.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, at Roanoke. Michael F. Urbanski, Chief District Judge. (7:19-cv-00243-MFU-RSB)

Submitted: March 6, 2023 Decided: September 12, 2023

Before GREGORY and RUSHING, Circuit Judges, and KEENAN, Senior Circuit Judge.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. USCA4 Appeal: 21-2149 Doc: 28 Filed: 09/12/2023 Pg: 2 of 5

ON BRIEF: Jonathan E. Halperin, Isaac A. McBeth, HALPERIN LAW CENTER, Glen Allen, Virginia, for Appellant. Matthew Nis Leerberg, Troy D. Shelton, FOX ROTHSCHILD LLP, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellees.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:

Karen Renee Preston sued Brian Robert Grimes and Walmart Transportation, LLC

(“Defendants”), for negligence. ∗ Preston alleged that Grimes, who drove a Walmart

tractor-trailer, negligently ran a red light and struck her school bus. The jury returned a

verdict for Defendants, finding that Preston was contributorily negligent under Virginia

law. Preston appeals the district court’s orders denying her motions for judgment as a

matter of law, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s verdict. For

the reasons that follow, we affirm.

We review de novo the denial of a Fed. R. Civ. P. 50 motion for judgment as a

matter of law, viewing the facts and reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to

the prevailing party below. Legacy Data Access, Inc. v. Cadrillion, LLC, 889 F.3d 158,

164 (4th Cir. 2018). “Entry of judgment as a matter of law is appropriate only if the

evidence is legally insufficient to support the jury’s verdict.” Bresler v. Wilmington Tr.

Co., 855 F.3d 178, 196 (4th Cir. 2017). In considering this question, we may “not weigh

evidence nor judge the credibility of witnesses.” Burgess v. Goldstein, 997 F.3d 541, 549

(4th Cir. 2021) (internal quotation marks omitted). Instead, “[j]udgment as a matter of law

is proper only if there can be but one reasonable conclusion as to the verdict.” Ocheltree v.

Scollon Prods., Inc., 335 F.3d 325, 331 (4th Cir. 2003) (en banc) (internal quotation marks

omitted).

∗ Defendants removed this case from Franklin County Circuit Court in Virginia, invoking the district court’s diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. Preston thereafter filed an amended complaint.

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Under Virginia law, “[c]ontributory negligence is an affirmative defense,” RGR,

LLC v. Settle, 764 S.E.2d 8, 21 (Va. 2014) (internal quotation marks omitted), that “is an

absolute bar to recovery on a simple negligence claim,” AlBritton v. Commonwealth, 853

S.E.2d 512, 523 (Va. 2021). To establish contributory negligence, “a defendant must show

that the plaintiff was negligent and that such negligence was a proximate cause of the

accident.” Settle, 764 S.E.2d at 21. “The proximate cause of an event is that act or

omission which, in natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by an efficient intervening

cause, produces that event, and without which that event would not have occurred.” Id.

at 27 (internal quotation marks omitted).

Viewing the trial record in the light most favorable to Defendants, sufficient

evidence supports the jury’s verdict. On appeal, Preston concedes that she negligently

failed to keep a proper lookout before entering the intersection but argues that her

negligence did not proximately cause the accident. Specifically, she asserts that even if

she kept a proper lookout, she could not have anticipated Defendants’ negligence and

therefore could not have prevented the accident. However, at trial, witnesses situated

similarly to Preston testified that they saw the tractor-trailer and realized that it would run

the red traffic light due to its proximity to the intersection and high speed. The record

therefore contains adequate evidence to support a finding that Preston’s negligence

contributed to the collision. Furthermore, we reject Preston’s contention that she was

entitled to assume that the tractor-trailer would obey the red traffic signal. See Va. Elec. &

Power Co. v. Holland, 37 S.E.2d 40, 42 (Va. 1946) ( “One may presume, unless it appears

otherwise, that the command of a traffic light will be obeyed.” (emphasis added)). The

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authorities on which Preston relies, including Webb v. Smith, 10 S.E.2d 503 (Va. 1940),

are readily distinguishable on their facts.

Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s denial of Preston’s motions for judgment

as a matter of law. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions

are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the

decisional process.

AFFIRMED