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  "name": "RONALD JENNINGS FURR and THOMAS JENNINGS FURR, by his Guardian ad Litem, RONALD JENNINGS FURR v. PINOCA VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT of Paw Creek Township, Incorporated and RICHARD D. GUINEY, JR.; LILLIAN JANE BROOME FURR v. PINOCA VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT of Paw Creek Township, Incorporated and RICHARD D. GUINEY, JR.",
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    "judges": [
      "Judges Martin (Robert M.) and WEBB concur."
    ],
    "parties": [
      "RONALD JENNINGS FURR and THOMAS JENNINGS FURR, by his Guardian ad Litem, RONALD JENNINGS FURR v. PINOCA VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT of Paw Creek Township, Incorporated and RICHARD D. GUINEY, JR. LILLIAN JANE BROOME FURR v. PINOCA VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT of Paw Creek Township, Incorporated and RICHARD D. GUINEY, JR."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "WHICHARD, Judge.\nThe issues presented are:\nFIRST: Whether the court erred in denying the motion by plaintiffs for directed verdict and judgment notwithstanding the verdict in the action on behalf of plaintiff Thomas Furr? It did not.\nSECOND: Whether the court erred in its charge to the jury in the action on behalf of plaintiff Thomas Furr? It did, and accordingly a new trial is granted.\nTHIRD: Whether the court erred in granting the motion by defendants for directed verdict in the action by plaintiff Lillian Furr? It did, and accordingly the judgment is reversed.\nFOURTH: Whether the court erred to the prejudice of plaintiffs in consolidating for trial the action by plaintiff Lillian Furr and the action on behalf of plaintiff Thomas Furr? Because the cases must be retried, it is unnecessary to determine the question here. Upon remand separate trials are recommended.\nAppeal Of Plaintiffs\nRonald Jennings Furr and\nThomas Jennings Furr\nFIRST: Plaintiffs contend the evidence established, as a matter of law, negligence of defendants and absence of insulating negligence; and that consequently the court should have granted their motions for directed verdict and judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The uncontroverted act of the individual defendant, in the course and scope of his agency for the corporate defendant, violated G.S. 20-161(a), .which provides:\nNo person shall park or leave standing any vehicle, whether attended or unattended, upon the paved or main-traveled portion of any highway . . . unless the vehicle is disabled to such an extent that it is impossible to avoid stopping and temporarily leaving the vehicle upon the paved or main-traveled portion of the highway ....\nViolation of this statute constitutes negligence per se. Hughes v. Vestal, 264 N.C. 500, 142 S.E. 2d 361 (1965). Proximate cause, nevertheless, remains a question for the jury.\n[W]here the violation of a statute, intended and designed to prevent injury to person or property, which is negligence per se, is admitted or established by the evidence, it is ordinarily a question for the jury to determine whether such negligence is a proximate cause of injury which resulted in damages.\nBarrier v. Thomas and Howard Co., 205 N.C. 425, 427, 171 S.E. 626, 626 (1933). The court thus properly allowed the case to go to the jury for determination of whether defendants\u2019 negligence was a proximate cause of plaintiffs\u2019 injuries.\nSECOND: Plaintiffs contended at trial that defendants\u2019 negligence proximately caused injuries to plaintiffs father and son, and that any negligence of plaintiff Lillian Furr merely concurred with defendants\u2019 negligence and did not insulate it. Defendants contended plaintiff Lillian Furr\u2019s negligence was the sole proximate cause, thus insulating the negligence of defendants.\nIn Caulder v. Gresham, plaintiff was a passenger in a car which collided with a truck defendant had parked partially on the highway. 224 N.C. 402, 30 S.E. 2d 312 (1944). Defendant contended the car driver\u2019s negligence was the sole proximate cause of plaintiff\u2019s injuries. The Supreme Court set forth the rule that the negligence of a second actor insulates that of an original tort-feasor, so as to relieve the original tortfeasor of liability, if the second actor has become aware of a potential danger created by the negligence of the original tortfeasor, and thereafter, by an independent act of negligence, brings about the accident. The negligence of the second actor does not insulate that of the original tortfeasor, however, when the second actor does not become apprised of the danger until his own negligence, added to that of the existing perilous condition, has made the accident inevitable. In that event \u201cthe negligent acts of the two tort-feasors are contributing causes and proximate factors in the happening of the accident and impose liability upon both of the guilty parties.\u201d Id. at 404, 30 S.E. 2d at 313. The court stated that the driver of the car in which plaintiff was a passenger \u201cwas not under the duty of anticipating defendant\u2019s negligent parking of his truck in violation of the statute and in such manner as to partially block that portion of the highway he was required to use.\u201d Id.\nThe court here refused plaintiffs\u2019 request for instructions which stated the law in the language of Caulder. In explaining proximate cause as it related to plaintiffs\u2019 evidence the court instructed:\nProximate cause ... is a real cause, a cause without which the claimed injury would not have occurred, and one which a reasonably careful and prudent person could foresee would probably produce such injury or some similar injurious result. Foreseeability, then, is an element of proximate cause. Now there may be more than one proximate cause of injuries. Therefore, the person seeking damages need not prove that the other party\u2019s negligence was the sole proximate cause of the injury. He must prove by the greater weight of the evidence only that the other party\u2019s negligence was a proximate cause of the injury.\n... [A] violation of a safety statute does not alone entitle the person injured or damaged to recover. To justify recovery it must be proved [sic], by the greater weight of the evidence, that such violation was a proximate cause of the injury.\nWith regard to defendants\u2019 contention of plaintiff Lillian Furr\u2019s insulating negligence, the court instructed:\n[IJf the Defendant has proved [sic], by the greater weight of the evidence, .\u25a0 . . that [Mrs. Furr\u2019s] negligence was the sole proximate cause of the minor Plaintiff\u2019s injuries and damages, then it would be your duty to answer ... in favor of the Defendant.\nThese instructions failed adequately to differentiate between concurring proximate causes and a sole proximate cause. They also failed to relate the law of concurring proximate causes and insulating negligence to the evidence presented. Plaintiff Lillian Furr testified, \u201c[B]y the time I saw the fire truck it was too late. When I first saw the fire truck I slammed on brakes.\u201d (Emphasis supplied.) From this evidence the jury could have found that any negligence on the part of plaintiff Lillian Furr concurred with defendants\u2019 negligence to cause the accident, rather than that the accident was caused by an independent act of negligence on her part after she became aware of the potential danger created by defendants\u2019 negligence. The failure to declare and explain the law of concurring negligence as requested and to apply it to the evidence presented was error entitling plaintiffs to a new trial. G.S. 1A-1, Rule 51(a).\nBecause the question may arise upon retrial, we comment on one further error assigned by these plaintiffs. Both plaintiffs and defendants submitted one issue on the question of negligence, viz., was the minor plaintiff injured by the negligence of the defendants. The court submitted two issues on the question, viz.:\n1. Was the minor plaintiff . . . injured by the negligence of the defendants as alleged in his Complaint?\n2. Was the negligence of Lillian Jane Broome Furr the sole proximate cause of the injuries and damages of the plaintiffs?\nUpon proper instructions on the doctrines of concurring and insulating negligence, the jury\u2019s answer to the first issue alone resolves the negligence question. Thus, upon retrial, only the first issue should be submitted.\nAppeal Of Plaintiff Lilian Jane Broome Furr\nAs noted above, plaintiffs\u2019 evidence established negligence per se by defendants; and when evidence establishes negligence per se, \u201cit is ordinarily a question for the jury to determine whether such negligence is a proximate cause of injury.\u201d Barrier v. Thomas and Howard Co., 205 N.C. 425, 427, 171 S.E. 626, 626 (1933). Thus, the directed verdict against this plaintiff can be sustained only if plaintiffs\u2019 evidence, considered in the light most favorable to this plaintiff, so clearly established her own negligence as one of the proximate causes of her injuries \u201cthat no other reasonable inference or conclusion may be drawn therefrom.\u201d Rappaport v. Days Inn, 296 N.C. 382, 384, 250 S.E. 2d 245, 247 (1979).\nThe uncontroverted evidence established that defendants\u2019 truck was parked in violation of G.S. 20-161. This plaintiff testified that no lights were burning on the truck at the time of the collision. She also testified that she was driving well within the posted speed limit with her headlights on; that visibility ahead of her was not clear because of an incline; that the line of headlights in the north bound lanes coupled with some lights in a parking lot ahead of her created \u201ca black hole\u201d of darkness in her lane of travel; that she first observed the truck when her headlights reflected from its unlighted rear; and that she immediately \u201cslammed on [her] brakes\u201d but was unable under these circumstances to avoid the collision.\n\u201cPlaintiffs inability to stop [her] vehicle within the radius of [her] lights cannot be considered contributory negligence per se.\u201d Meeks v. Atkeson, 7 N.C. App. 631, 637, 173 S.E. 2d 509, 512, aff\u2019d per curiam, 277 N.C. 250, 176 S.E. 2d 771 (1970). In discussing the duty of a motorist to exercise ordinary care for his or her own safety, Justice Ervin has stated:\nThe duty . . . does not extend so far as to require that [the motorist] must be able to bring his automobile to an immediate stop on the sudden arising of a dangerous situation which he could not reasonably have anticipated. Any such requirement would be tantamount to an adjudication that it is negligence to drive an automobile on a highway in the nighttime at all. The law simply decrees that a person operating a motor vehicle at night must so drive that he can stop his automobile or change its course in time to avoid collision with any obstacle or obstruction whose presence on the highway is reasonably perceivable to him or reasonably ex-pectable by him. It certainly does not require him to see that which is invisible to a person exercising ordinary care.\nChaffin v. Brame, 233 N.C. 377, 380, 64 S.E. 2d 276, 279 (1951). The jury could have found that a person exercising ordinary care under the circumstances here could not reasonably have expected the presence of defendants\u2019 truck on the highway and could not reasonably have perceived that presence in time to avoid the collision. Plaintiffs\u2019 evidence thus did not establish the contributory negligence of plaintiff Lillian Furr as a matter of law, and the court erred in directing a verdict against her.\nConsolidation\nIssue\nPlaintiffs in both cases assign error to consolidation of the cases for trial.\nThe trial court possesses the power to order consolidation of actions for trial when the actions involve the same parties and the same subject matter, if no prejudice or harmful complications will result therefrom. This power is vested in the trial judge so as to avoid multiplicity of suits, unnecessary costs, delays, and to afford protection from oppression and abuse. To sustain an exception to the court\u2019s discretionary consolidation of the actions, injury or prejudice to the appealing party arising from such consolidation must be shown, Peeples v. R.R., 228 N.C. 590, 46 S.E. 2d 649.\nKanoy v. Hinshaw, 273 N.C. 418, 423, 160 S.E. 2d 296, 300 (1968). At the time of the collision here G.S. 1-539.21, abolishing parent-child immunity in motor vehicle cases, had not been enacted. Consequently, plaintiff Thomas Furr cannot recover from his mother, plaintiff Lillian Furr, for any negligence on her part which may have caused or concurred in causing the collision. Consolidation of the minor\u2019s case with the mother\u2019s creates a trial setting in which the jury might easily be confused as to from whom the minor plaintiff can recover. Further, the court here in its charge on insulating negligence referred to plaintiff Lillian Furr several times as \u201cthe Defendant.\u201d While ordinarily a lapsus linguae of this nature might be immaterial, under the circumstances here the possibility of prejudice is considerable.\nUnder the circumstances presented \u201cit would be better to try the actions brought by these plaintiffs . . . separately.\u201d Dixon v. Brockwell, 227 N.C. 567, 571, 42 S.E. 2d 680, 682 (1947).\nResult\nIn the appeal of plaintiffs Ronald Jennings Furr and Thomas Jennings Furr, new trial.\nIn the appeal of plaintiff Lillian Jane Broome Furr, reversed and remanded.\nJudges Martin (Robert M.) and WEBB concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "WHICHARD, Judge."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Hicks, Harris and Sterrett, by Richard F. Harris, III, for plaintiff-appellants.",
      "Fairley, Hamrick, Monteith and Cobb, by S. Dean Hamrick and F. Lane Williamson, for defendant-appellees."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "RONALD JENNINGS FURR and THOMAS JENNINGS FURR, by his Guardian ad Litem, RONALD JENNINGS FURR v. PINOCA VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT of Paw Creek Township, Incorporated and RICHARD D. GUINEY, JR. LILLIAN JANE BROOME FURR v. PINOCA VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT of Paw Creek Township, Incorporated and RICHARD D. GUINEY, JR.\nNo. 8026SC725\n(Filed 18 August 1981)\n1. Automobiles \u00a7 56.2\u2014 parking vehicle in highway \u2014 proximate cause \u2014 jury question\nIn an action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by plaintiffs in a rear end collision with a fire truck parked by the individual defendant in the highway, the trial court did not err in denying plaintiffs\u2019 motions for directed verdict and judgment n.o.v., though the uncontroverted act of the individual defendant in the course and scope of his agency for the corporate defendant violated G.S. 20461(a) and violation of this statute constituted negligence per se, since a determination of whether defendants\u2019 negligence was a proximate cause of plaintiffs\u2019 injuries was a question for the jury.\n2. Automobiles \u00a7 90\u2014 concurring negligence \u2014 failure to declare and explain law error\nIn an action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained in a rear end collision, the trial court erred in failing to declare and explain the law of concurring negligence as requested and to apply it to the evidence presented.\n3. Automobiles \u00a7 76.2\u2014 rear end collision \u2014contributory negligence \u2014 jury question\nIn plaintiffs action to recover for personal injuries sustained when she collided with the rear of defendants\u2019 fire truck which was parked in her lane of travel, the trial court erred in directing a verdict for defendants where the evidence tended to show that no lights were burning on the fire truck at the time of the collision; plaintiff was driving well within the posted speed limit with her headlights on; visability ahead of her was not clear because of an incline; the line of headlights in the oncoming lane coupled with some lights in a parking lot ahead of plaintiff created \u201ca black hole\u201d of darkness in her lane of travel; plaintiff first observed the fire truck when her headlights reflected from its unlighted rear; plaintiff immediately \u201cslammed on [her] brakes\u201d but was unable to avoid the collision; and the jury could have found from this evidence that a person exercising ordinary care under the circumstances could not reasonably have expected the presence of defendants\u2019 truck on the highway and could not reasonably have perceived that presence in time to avoid the collision.\n4. Trial \u00a7 8\u2014 mother and son injuried in accident \u2014 consolidation of personal injury actions improper\nIt would be better to try personal injury actions brought by a mother and son separately since, at the time of the collision in question, the statute abolishing parent-child immunity in motor vehicle cases had not been enacted; plaintiffs son therefore could not recover from his mother for any negligence on her part which may have caused or concurred in causing the collision; and consolidation of the minor\u2019s case with the mother\u2019s case created a trial setting in which the jury could easily be confused as to the parties from whom the minor plaintiff could recover.\nAPPEAL by plaintiffs from Friday, Judge. Judgment entered 24 April 1980 in Superior Court, MECKLENBURG County. Heard in the Court of Appeals 11 February 1981.\nCivil actions to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff Lillian Furr and her minor son, plaintiff Thomas Furr, when an automobile driven by plaintiff Lillian Furr in which her son was a passenger collided with the rear of a fire truck owned by the corporate defendant, which the individual defendant, acting in the course and scope of his agency as a volunteer for corporate defendant, had parked in the left, south bound lane of a four lane highway for the purpose of preventing oncoming traffic from hitting a fallen utility wire.\nIn plaintiff Lillian Furr\u2019s action the trial court directed a verdict for defendants at the close of plaintiffs\u2019 evidence. In the action on behalf of plaintiff Thomas Furr the jury answered the issue of defendants\u2019 negligence in the negative.\nFrom a judgment for defendants, dismissing the actions with prejudice, plaintiffs appeal.\nHicks, Harris and Sterrett, by Richard F. Harris, III, for plaintiff-appellants.\nFairley, Hamrick, Monteith and Cobb, by S. Dean Hamrick and F. Lane Williamson, for defendant-appellees."
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