Levi Ex Rel. Levi v. Montgomery

120 N.W.2d 383, 1963 N.D. LEXIS 72
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 7, 1963
Docket8056
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 120 N.W.2d 383 (Levi Ex Rel. Levi v. Montgomery) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Levi Ex Rel. Levi v. Montgomery, 120 N.W.2d 383, 1963 N.D. LEXIS 72 (N.D. 1963).

Opinions

STRUTZ, Judge.

The plaintiff, Gary Levi, a minor of the age of fourteen years, was employed by the defendant Elmer Montgomery as a farm laborer for general farmwork. His father also was employed by the defendant. On the morning of the day on which the plaintiff’s alleged cause of action arose, the father had gone out to cultivate with a tractor which the defendant Montgomery had purchased from the defendant Grand Forks Implement Company about one month previously. He found the ground too wet to be worked properly and, after making two rounds of the field, he quit and drove the tractor and cultivator to the farmyard where he told the wife of the defendant that it was too wet to work the field; that he was going into town and would return after lunch, at which time he would continue with the cultivating.

During the same morning, the plaintiff Gary Levi had been shingling a building for the defendant Montgomery on another farm. On the plaintiff’s return to the home farm, shortly after noon, the defendant suggested that he get at the cultivating which his father was supposed to be doing. The defendant briefly instructed the plaintiff on the operation of the tractor, including instructions on how to adjust the tractor seat. The record discloses that the plaintiff previously had had some experience in the operation of farm tractors; in fact, on the day before the accident, he had operated the same tractor, for a few moments, which he was operating at the time of his injuries.

[386]*386The record further discloses that, a few days previous to the date of the plaintiff’s injuries, when the tractor was being operated by the father of the plaintiff in a swathing operation, the seat had been knocked from the tractor when it was struck by a lever on the swather while the father was making a turn at the end of the field. The record does not disclose exactly what damage was done to the equipment, but, whatever damage was caused by this incident, it was not sufficient for the father to request the defendant to make any repairs. He did, however, report the incident to the defendant and the defendant continued to permit the use of the equipment without repair.

The tractor was equipped with a large umbrella which was fastened to the tractor seat. On the day on which the plaintiff suffered his injuries, there was a strong wind blowing. Just what took place in not clear, but the seat of the tractor was blown or otherwise came loose from its base and the plaintiff was thrown to the ground and suffered serious injuries when the tractor or the cultivator passed over him.

The plaintiff, by his mother as guardian ad litem, brought action against the defendant Montgomery as employer and owner of the equipment, and against the defendant Grand Forks Implement Company which had sold the tractor to the defendant Montgomery about one month before the plaintiff’s injuries. The complaint alleges that the negligence of the Grand Forks Implement Company consisted in selling to the defendant Montgomery defectively manufactured equipment, and that the negligence of the defendant Montgomery consisted in permitting the plaintiff to use such defective and dangerous equipment without adequate instructions and warnings. The complaint further alleges that, as a proximate result of the individual and the combined negligence of the defendants, the plaintiff suffered injuries as asserted.

As part of his separate answer to the complaint of the plaintiff, the defendant Montgomery alleges that, if the plaintiff was, in fact, injured or damaged as claimed, such injuries or damages were proximately caused by the defective seat on the equipment sold by the defendant Grand Forks Implement Company.

Just before the case was reached for trial, the plaintiff and the defendant Grand Forks Implement Company entered into a release and covenant not to sue by which, for a consideration of $15,000, the plaintiff agreed to release and discharge the said defendant from any and all actions, causes of action, claims, and demands for or by reason of any loss, damage, or injury whatsoever sustained by the plaintiff, and specifically released the defendant Grand Forks Implement Company from all claims sustained by Gary Levi, the minor plaintiff, arising out of the accident of August 3, 1959; that the plaintiff further covenanted and agreed not to sue the defendant Grand Forks Implement Company, the John Deere Company, and Deere & Company, and all parties involved in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of John Deere implements, their respective heirs, executors, administrators, successors, and assigns, on any cause of action or claim for loss or injury for any reason prior to the date of such covenant, and particularly for all loss, injury, and damages sustained by the said Gary Levi in the accident of August 3, 1959.

In the course of the trial of this action, no mention was made by the Court to the jury of the defendant Grand Forks Implement Company, nor of the fact that the plaintiff had covenanted with the defendant implement company not to sue, nor of the fact that such defendant had paid the plaintiff $15,000 for such covenant. The Court’s instructions gave the jury no alternative but to find for the plaintiff against the defendant Montgomery for all damages suffered by the plaintiff or to find for the defendant Montgomery for a dismissal of the action.

After a verdict for the plaintiff was returned by the jury, the defendant moved [387]*387for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, which motion was denied by the trial court. Thereafter, on motion for judgment on the verdict by the plaintiff, the defendant moved the Court for an order requiring the plaintiff to credit the defendant on the judgment recovered with the amount which the plaintiff had received from the defendant Grand Forks Implement Company on the covenant not to sue. This motion also was denied, and judgment was ordered for the plaintiff for the full amount of the verdict.

The defendant appeals from the order denying motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, from the judgment entered in the action in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant, and from the order denying defendant’s motion for setoff or credit of the amount paid by the defendant Grand Forks Implement Company to the plaintiff on the covenant not to sue.

On an appeal by the defendant from an order denying motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and from a judgment for the plaintiff, the evidence must be construed most favorably to the plaintiff, and such motion admits the truth of all inferences and conclusions which can reasonably be drawn from the evidence. Olson v. Kem Temple Ancient Arabic Order of Mystic Shrine, 78 N.D. 263, 49 N.W.2d 99; Lund v. Knoff (N.D.), 85 N.W.2d 676, 67 A.L.R.2d 1110; Pundt v. Huether (N.D.), 100 N.W.2d 431.

Thus all of the evidence favorable to the plaintiff and all inferences and conclusions which can reasonably be drawn from such evidence must be assumed to be true on this appeal. We have examined the record and find that there is testimony of negligence on the part of the defendant. The seat on the tractor which the defendant gave the plaintiff to operate had been knocked loose a few days before the accident which gave rise to the plaintiff’s injuries.

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Bluebook (online)
120 N.W.2d 383, 1963 N.D. LEXIS 72, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/levi-ex-rel-levi-v-montgomery-nd-1963.