Jones v. Morris
Jones v. Morris
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff contends that the trial court erred in giving instructions to the jury with respect to the first and second issues. We do not agree.
In her complaint, plaintiff alleged that defendants were negligent in three particulars: (1) that both drivers failed to keep a proper lookout, (2) that both drivers failed to observe traffic signals properly functioning in the intersection, and (3) that both failed to operate their motor vehicles with proper care.
The trial judge gave proper instructions to the jury with respect to each of the three allegations of negligence. Plaintiff contends, however, that the approved instruction with respect to improper lookout is inconsistent with the approved instruction with respect to the duty of a motorist entering an intersection governed by traffic signals. In the former, the approved instruc
Now, further, a person who operates a motor vehicle on a public street or public highway is under a duty to obey the electric traffic control signal duly erected at an intersection. When the light is red, a motorist is required to stop. When the light is green, the motorist may proceed into the intersection, but in doing so, he must maintain a reasonable lookout for other vehicles in or approaching the intersection. A violation of any one of these duties is not negligence within itself; however, the evidence with regard to it is to be considered with all the other facts in evidence in determining whether Charles Morris is negligent.
Plaintiff apparently does not challenge the accuracy of the instructions with respect to the particular allegations. She argues simply that it is inconsistent for the court to instruct that a driver must keep a lookout as a reasonably careful and prudent person would keep under the circumstances then existing and that the violation of such duty would constitute negligence while, at a later part in the charge, instructing the jury that it would not be negligence within itself for a driver to violate his duty to maintain a reasonable lookout for other vehicles when he enters an intersection on a green light. Plaintiff relies on several criminal cases in which our Supreme Court has established the principle that a new trial is necessary where instructions are inconsistent because the jury may have acted upon an incorrect interpretation of the law. See State v. Carelock, 293 N.C. 577, 238 S.E. 2d 297 (1977).
It is clearly the law in this jurisdiction that conflicting instructions to the jury upon a material point, the one correct and the other incorrect, must be held for prejudicial error, requiring a new trial, since it cannot be known which instruction was followed by the jury in arriving at a verdict. This is true in civil as well as criminal cases. See Kinney v. Goley, 4 N.C. App. 325, 167 S.E. 2d 97 (1969); Barber v. Heeden, 265 N.C. 682, 144 S.E. 2d 886 (1965).
Plaintiff’s reliance on the principle stated above, however, is misplaced. To fall within the protection of the principle, plaintiff must show that the conflict in the instructions was with respect
Here, however, the trial court did not give a conflicting instruction with respect to a single alleged act of negligence. Plaintiff elected to proceed on three alleged acts of negligence including (1) improper lookout, (2) improper control, and (3) failure to observe properly functioning traffic signals in an intersection. The trial court gave proper instructions, in separate paragraphs, with respect to each of these three allegations. In the very next paragraph the court charged as follows:
Now, finally, as to this first issue, I instruct you that if the plaintiff has proved, that is, plaintiff, Martha Jones, has proved by the greater weight of the evidence that at the time of the collision that the defendant, Charles Morris, was negligent in any one or more of the following respects, that is, that the defendant, Charles Morris, failed to keep a proper lookout, failed to keep his vehicle under proper control, or that he failed to obey the electric traffic control signal and entered the intersection on the red light.
From the above quoted language of the instructions, it is clear that the court submitted the various alleged acts of negligence of defendant Morris to the jury alternatively. Having previously properly instructed the jury with respect to each of the alleged acts of negligence, we hold that the instructions were not conflicting and this assignment of error is overruled.
Plaintiff next contends that the trial court erred in instructing the jury under the second issue that both defendants could be jointly and severally liable to the plaintiff. First, we find the
Finally, we note that counsel for plaintiff ignored the requirements of Appellate Rule 10(b)(2). The Rules of Appellate Procedure are mandatory and plaintiff’s appeal could have been dismissed for that reason.
In the trial below, we find
No error.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.