Schmidt v. Dick

562 P.2d 178, 277 Or. 759, 1977 Ore. LEXIS 1196
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 31, 1977
DocketNo. 74-1005-L-2, SC 24480
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 562 P.2d 178 (Schmidt v. Dick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schmidt v. Dick, 562 P.2d 178, 277 Or. 759, 1977 Ore. LEXIS 1196 (Or. 1977).

Opinions

HOLMAN, J.

This is an action for damages for personal injuries arising out of an automobile accident. Plaintiff appeals from a judgment for defendants based upon the special verdict of a jury which found defendants not guilty of negligence which was a cause of the accident.

Defendant Wayne Dick was driving a Jeep pickup truck which was pulling a house trailer in a southerly direction on Highway 1-5 in Douglas County, near Curtin, Oregon. The highway was composed of two lanes of traffic in each direction separated by a narrow median strip. He was followed by his wife, defendant Florence Dick, who was driving the family passenger car. Both defendants were engaged in a family project of moving back to their regular home after having been temporarily absent due to employment in another area. The posted speed on the highway at that time and place was 70 miles per hour. Defendant Wayne Dick was traveling at 50 to 55 miles per hour in the outside southbound lane of traffic when he accelerated and drove into the inside lane to overtake and pass a vehicle ahead of him. As he was doing so, the trailer swayed back and forth to the extent that the Jeep went out of control and crossed over the median strip into the inside northbound lane, colliding head on with a station wagon which was thereby thrown into the outside northbound lane. Plaintiff was operating her Volkswagen automobile, behind the station wagon, in the outside northbound lane. To avoid the station wagon, which had been thrown into her lane of traffic, she drove to the right, off the surfaced portion of the highway, through a ditch and up a slope, where she came to rest in an upright position. It was apparent from the condition of the left front portion of her vehicle that she was only partially successful in avoiding the station wagon, although she was unable to say what it was that made contact with her vehicle. This action was brought to recover for her alleged injuries.

[762]*762There was testimony from defendants that prior to the attempt to pass, the trailer had not been swaying, no difficulty had ever been experienced with it, and the trailer hitch and tires had been checked some 45 miles earlier. After the accident the left rear tire of the Jeep was found to be flat. There was evidence from which it could be found that the flat resulted from a cut running across the tread through which one could push his fingers. It was one of defendants’ theories, which was argued to the jury, that a sudden and unpredictable injury to the tire on the Jeep had caused the towed vehicle to sway and the resultant loss of control.

Plaintiff assigns as error the trial court’s failure to grant her motion made at the conclusion of the testimony:

"* * * I would move the Court to remove from the consideration of the Jury any testimony or reference to the tire or the cut in the tire in that there has been absolutely no evidence to connect it, other than speculation, with any cause of the accident. There has been no evidence offered as to how or when the tire was cut, other than after the accident sometime there was a tire that was flat, and that subsequently there was a cut in the tire. The only way that a jury could arrive at negligence (sic) from this would be to speculate that there was something in the road, something that was unobserved in the road, that this something cut the tire, that the tire thereupon immediately lost its air and this accident happened, and therefore I feel that all the testimony and reference to the tire should be excluded from the consideration of the Jury.”

There was no basis upon which to strike the testimony, and the court properly denied the motion. The defective condition of the tire and a host of other conditions were shown by either exhibits (pictures) or oral testimony to be immediately present after the accident. As such, evidence of the condition of the tire was admissible, as was evidence of all the other conditions then and there existent.

[763]*763Plaintiffs contention on appeal is that defendants were operating their vehicle on the wrong side of the highway, which operation is prohibited by statute; therefore, they were guilty of negligence as a matter of law because the testimony concerning the tire was insufficient evidence from which the jury could find that defendants were exercising reasonable care, despite their violation of the statute. Barnum v. Williams, 264 Or 71, 504 P2d 122 (1972).

The proper way to raise this question is to move for a directed verdict on the issues of negligence and causation. Instead of doing this, plaintiff made a motion to strike admissible testimony; following denial of the motion, she allowed the issue of defendants’ negligence as the cause of the accident to be submitted to the jury without objection. Now that the jury has decided that defendants were not guilty of negligence which caused the accident, plaintiff belatedly contends that defendants were guilty of negligence as a matter of law. Her contention, even if well taken, comes too late.

When there is insufficient evidence to justify a verdict but the issue is not raised by a motion for a directed verdict or by a request for instructions directing a verdict, the error is waived and is not subject to review. See Erwin v. Thomas, 267 Or 311, 313-14, 516 P2d 1279 (1973); Paul v. McCudden, 256 Or 143, 144, 471 P2d 437 (1970). The only contention which plaintiff can make is that she did call the issue to the trial court’s attention by her motion to strike the evidence. However, that motion was neither well taken nor sufficient to require the trial court on its own motion to take the issues of defendant’s negligence and causation from the jury. Because the question was not properly raised, we need not decide whether there was sufficient evidence to submit to the jury the issue whether defendants were acting as reasonably prudent persons, despite their violation of the statute.

An hour after the jury had retired to deliberate, it [764]*764returned to the courtroom with a note for the judge, whereupon the following took place:

"THE COURT: Who is the foreman?
"JUROR EDNA BARTELL: We didn’t pick one.
"JUROR WILLIAM CRAIN: She wrote it.
"THE COURT: I don’t think you realize it, but I think you have just been elected foreman. You don’t understand my definition of negligence, is that the question?
"JUROR EDNA BARTELL: Yes, there is a disagreement.”

Plaintiff claims that the person who was referred to as the writer of the note and the one who was indicated by the judge as having just been elected foreman were the same person — a juror by the name of Joan Bristol, who subsequently signed the verdict as foreman. This is not controverted by defendants. Plaintiff assigns as error the court’s apparent designation of Joan Bristol as foreman. She argues that this was particularly prejudicial because, in questioning the jurors during voir dire, the court indicated in the following manner that Joan Bristol had particular knowledge about negligence issues:

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Related

Millard v. Smedes
601 P.2d 908 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
562 P.2d 178, 277 Or. 759, 1977 Ore. LEXIS 1196, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schmidt-v-dick-or-1977.