TO PYO CHO, APPELLANT,
v.
TODD JEFFERY MACKEY, DIANA LYNN HAIRE, INDIVIDUALLY, THEODORE W. HAIRE, AS PARENT GUARDIAN OF DIANA LYNN HAIRE, AND THEODORE W. HAIRE, INDIVIDUALLY, APPELLEES

Fla. 2d DCA | 1990-10-12
No. 89-03204
RYDER and FRANK, JJ., concur.
567 So. 2d 1064 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1990) Positive Treatment
Cited by 8 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

In this negligence case, the trial court directed a verdict for defendant Diana Haire based on finding that a third party's rear-end collision constituted a superseding intervening cause relieving Haire of liability. The appellate court reversed, holding that foreseeability of intervening negligence is a jury question and that rear-end collisions are sufficiently foreseeable to permit liability to attach to the original negligent actor.


Holding

The court held that whether an intervening act is foreseeable and thus not a superseding cause is a factual question for the jury, not a matter of law for the trial judge. Rear-end collisions are sufficiently foreseeable in traffic situations where a car ahead slows, making it a jury question whether Haire's protruding car into Cho's lane could foreseeably cause the accident.


Headnotes

[1] A subsequent accident may be a foreseeable consequence of an initial negligent act, even if the exact manner of injury is not foreseen.

[2] The foreseeability of an intervening cause is generally a question for the trier of fact, not for a court to decide as a matter of law.

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Key Quotes

“One who establishes a remote condition which furnishes only the occasion for another's supervening negligence is not deemed to be a proximate cause of the resulting accident unless the intervening cause was foreseeable.”

States the controlling legal standard for determining when intervening negligence relieves an original actor of liability.

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Facts & Procedural History

On February 13, 1987, a three-car accident occurred on a wet, divided highway in a 45 mph zone. Diana Haire attempted to cross the highway and stopped…

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Opinion of the Court
SCHEB, Acting Chief Judge.

SCHEB, Acting Chief Judge.

Appellant To Pyo Cho sued Appellee Diane Haire alleging that her negligence was a proximate cause of the automobile accident in which he was injured. The trial court directed a verdict in favor of Haire on the issue of liability and denied Cho’s motion for a new trial. We reverse.

The evidence at the jury trial revealed that on the night of February 13, 1987, there was a three car accident on South Florida Avenue, a six-lane divided highway in Lakeland. The accident occurred in a 45 mile per hour speed zone while the pavement was wet. As Cho drove north in the inside lane, Haire’s car attempted to cross South Florida Avenue from the west. She stopped near the median allowing her car to protrude into Cho’s lane. In response, Cho slowed and prepared to stop. As he did, the vehicle following him, driven by Todd Mackey, struck the rear of Cho’s car which, in turn, slid forward into Haire’s vehicle.

At the conclusion of the evidence, the trial court granted Haire’s motion for directed verdict on the ground that Cho had not established that Haire was the proximate cause of the accident. Citing Banat v. Armando, 430 So. 2d 503 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983), rev. denied, 446 So. 2d 99 (Fla.1984), as authority, the court ruled that Mackey’s negligence in rear-ending Cho was a superseding, intervening force which caused the accident, thereby relieving Haire from liability for her negligence, if any.

We think the trial court’s reliance on Banat was misplaced. In Banat, the plaintiff was a passenger in a car which crashed into the defendant’s truck when the car’s brakes failed. The plaintiff sought to hold the truck driver liable because of his alleged negligence in leaving a lift, designed to be folded when the truck was in motion, in a down position. The Third District in Banat only decided that the truck driver’s negligent handling of the lift was remote and only furnished the occasion of the injury.

In contrast, the brake failure of the car in which the plaintiff was a passenger was a supervening cause because absent the brake failure, the car could have stopped in time. Without passing on the Third District’s view in Banat as to whether brake failure in a rear-end collision may be an efficient intervening cause and thus unforesseable, we think the instant case is controlled by Gibson v. Avis Rent-A-Car System, Inc., 386 So. 2d 520 (Fla.1980), which is factually identical.

In Gibson, the defendant Arata stopped his car in an inner lane of a divided highway. A second car stopped behind him. Plaintiff Gibson then stopped his car and was struck from behind by McNealy. The impact propelled Gibson’s car forward into the second car, and Gibson was injured. Gibson sued Arata and McNealy. The trial judge directed a verdict against Arata, holding that McNealy’s negligent rear-ending was an “efficient intervening cause” which relieved Arata of liability for his negligent stopping. The supreme court reversed and held that it was for a jury to decide whether Arata could foresee that his stopping would cause McNealy to rear-end Gibson.

Accordingly, the directed verdict was improper. One who establishes a remote condition which furnishes only the occasion for another’s supervening negligence is not deemed to be a proximate cause of the resulting accident unless the intervening cause was foreseeable. See, e.g., Gibson at 522; Matthews v. Williford, 318 So. 2d 480 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975). The harm that occurred was within the scope of danger attributable to the original actor’s negligence. This factual question is reserved for the jury. See Dunn v. Schurga, 533 So. 2d 1192 (Fla. 2d DCA 1988).

Here, the action of Mackey in rear-ending Cho’s vehicle was not remote. In fact, rear-end collisions are a common occurrence where cars ahead have reason to decrease their speed. Accordingly, it was for the jury to determine whether it was foreseeable that Haire’s protruding her car into Cho’s lane could cause the resulting accident. The effect of the trial judge’s ruling was to implicitly hold that, as a matter of law, Mackey’s acts were not foreseeable. This was error. Reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

RYDER and FRANK, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Sims v. Cristinzio, 898 So. 2d 1004 (Fla. 2d DCA 2005)
    …d the Cristinzios. The trial court concluded that even viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the Cristinzios, Sims’ actions were the sole cause of the accident. We disagree. The facts in this case are analogous to those in Cho v. Mackey, 567 So. 2d 1064 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990). There, defendant Haire, while trying to cross a divided highway, stopped in the median and left the back of her car protruding into Cho’s lane. Cho saw Haire blocking the lane, slowed, and prepared to stop. Cho was then rear-ende…
  • Miller v. State, 782 So. 2d 426 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001)
    …ller also argues that other factors may have been the proximate cause of the accident, the issue of proximate cause is a jury question, and the trial court was correct to deny the motion for a judgment of acquittal on this ground. See Cho v. Mackey, 567 So. 2d 1064 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990). [*431] PROSECUTOR’S CLOSING ARGUMENT Finally, Miller argues that the prosecutor’s closing argument included several errors and instances of misconduct. For example, the prosecutor referred to three defense witnesses who worked f…
  • Van Deese v. McKINNONVILLE Hunting Club, Inc., 874 So. 2d 1282 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004)
    …la.1987)). “One who establishes a remote condition which furnishes only the occasion for another’s [intervening] negligence is not deemed to be a proximate cause of the resulting accident unless the intervening cause was foreseeable.” Cho v. Mackey, 567 So. 2d 1064, 1065 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990) (citations omitted). In granting appellee’s summary judgment motion, the trial court cited to the Third District’s opinion in Garcia, 561 So. 2d at 1194. There, the appellant, a minor child, was struck and injured by an aut…

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