IDA MCDERMOTT, A WIDOW, APPELLANT,
v.
HOWARD P. MCCLAIN, AND AMERICAN HOSPITAL SUPPLY CORPORATION, AN ILLINOIS CORPORATION, APPELLEES

Fla. 3d DCA | 1969-03-04
No. 68-269
Before CHARLES CARROLL, C. J., and PEARSON and BARKDULL, JJ.
220 So. 2d 394 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1969) Negative Treatment
Cited by 4 cases

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Synopsis

Ida McDermott appeals a summary judgment dismissing her wrongful death suit arising from an automobile collision that killed her husband. The court reverses, holding that the defendant's alleged negligence in stopping his car in a traffic lane—even if not the direct cause of the collision with a third vehicle—presents a question of proximate causation for the jury when the type of harm that occurred was foreseeable.


Holding

The court held that liability for negligence does not require foresight of the exact sequence of events leading to injury, but only foresight that wrongful conduct might result in the type of harm that actually occurred. Because stopping in a traffic lane creates foreseeable risk of harm from other vehicles, the issue of negligence was for the jury, not the court, to determine.


Key Quotes

“Liability of a negligent person is not predicated upon his ability to foresee the exact series of events which culminates in injury to another. Liability is predicated, rather, upon the ability of a negligent person to foresee that his wrongful conduct might result in the type of harm which did in fact take place.”

Establishes the court's test for proximate causation: foreseeability of the type of harm, not the exact sequence of events.

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Facts & Procedural History

Howard McClain, employed by American Hospital Supply Corporation, was driving with McDermott (a surgical equipment manufacturer) on N.W. 3rd Street in…

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Opinion of the Court
PEARSON, Judge.

PEARSON, Judge.

The plaintiff in the trial court appeals from a summary final judgment entered in her action against the appellees for the alleged wrongful death of her husband which occurred as a result of an automobile collision.

Appellee McClain was employed by ap-pellee American Supply Corporation. Mr. McDermott, appellant’s deceased, was a manufacturer of surgical equipment which was distributed by the appellee corporation and sold by McClain. McClain was driving a car in the scope of his employment. McDermott was with him. Both men had been demonstrating McDermott’s equipment at various hospitals.

While driving west on N.W. 3rd Street in the City of Miami, McClain stopped at the stop sign at N.W. 22nd Avenue. He then proceeded into the intersection and started to turn right (north). As he was approximately “halfway around the turn”, “the car started to splutter.” McClain coasted to the right lane of northbound traffic on 22nd Avenue and stopped at the curb. The car was out of gasoline. An ordinance of Metropolitan Dade County prohibits parking on N.W. 22nd Avenue. McClain guessed that each of the two northbound lanes of 22nd Avenue was about twelve feet wide and his car about five and a half feet wide.

McDermott volunteered to get gasoline from a nearby station. He obtained gasoline and returned with an attendant. The attendant had difficulty in pouring the gasoline into the tank. McDermott tried to help him. Both McDermott and the attendant were at the rear of McClain’s car. They were struck by another car (whose driver is not a party to this appeal). Mc-Dermott was killed.

The circuit court found

“ * * * after construing the case in its most favorable light to the Plaintiff, that there is no casual relation between any act or omission claimed by the Plaintiff against the Defendants, and the accident sustained by the deceased, and the loss sustained by the said Plaintiff, and the Defendants are therefore entitled to a Summary Final Judgment as a matter of law.”

It is apparent that the trial judge recognized that the issue of negligence was present but that he determined it was not a genuine issue because McClain’s negligence, if any, did not cause the harm complained of. In urging affirmance the appellees argue that if McClain was negligent, he could not have anticipated the actions of the driver of the second car, who, according to the uncon-*396tradicted proofs submitted, was under the influence of alcohol at the time his car struck and killed McDermott.

Liability of a negligent person is not predicated upon his ability to foresee the exact series of events which culminates in injury to another. Liability is predicated, rather, upon the ability of a negligent person to foresee that his wrongful conduct might result in the type of harm which did in fact take place. See Mozer v. Semenza, Fla.App.1965, 177 So.2d 880. The kind of harm McClain should have guarded against was such harm as actually occurred. Under these circumstances the issue of negligence was for the jury to determine. See Florida Power & Light Co. v. Bridgeman, 133 Fla. 195, 182 So. 911, 920 (1938).

Accordingly, the summary final judgment is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings in accordance with the views herein expressed.

Reversed and remanded.

BARKDULL, J., dissents.


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Citator

Cited By

  • McCLAIN v. McDERMOTT, 232 So. 2d 161 (Fla. 1970)
    …CARLTON, Justice. This is a negligence case. The District Court of Appeal, Third District, in an opinion reported at 220 So. 2d 394, reversed a Circuit Court, Dade County, summary final judgment in favor of petitioner-defendant. One District Court Judge dissented. The facts are these. Petitioner was in the hospital supply business. Respondent’s husband, now deceased, manufactur…
  • McDERMOTT v. McCLAIN, 233 So. 2d 453 (Fla. 3d DCA 1970)
    …PER CURIAM. WHEREAS, the judgment of this court was entered on March 4, 1969 (220 So. 2d 394) reversing the summary judgment of the Circuit Court for Dade County, Florida, in the above styled cause; and WHEREAS, on review of this court’s judgment, by certiorari, the Supreme Court of Florida, by its opinion and judgment filed February 18, 1…

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