Yun v. Ford Motor case brief summary

Yun v. Ford Motor case brief summary

F: SJ in favor of D, P appealed.
A part from P’s vehicle fell apart, and P stopped the car and tried to retrieve the fallen part on the highway, and struck by another vehicle.

I: Whether a driver’s negligent act supersedes the defect of the car

R: When the first cause and the later cause are in a dependent relation, the later cause are intervening superseding cause when it is unforeseeable.

C: affirmed

Co: conclusion recheck 


Intervening Causes
an intervening cause is a force which takes effect after D’s negligence, and which contributes to that negligence in producing P’s injury.

1. RULE 1: Unforeseeable harm from Intervening Cause = superceding cause = No PC.
   
2. RULE 2: Intervening Cause is foreseeable IF type of harm from the intervening negligence is the same type of
   harm that is foreseeable to the original D.
   
   1. [Derdiarian – D, forgetting to take medicine, suffers a seizure and drives into a worksite throwing P into a 400 degree boiling hot liquid. Company found negligent for failing to put up a barrier. There was PC.]
      
   2. CRIMINAL ACT : typically UNFORESEEABLE(no PC) [Watson v. Kentucky & Indiana Bridge & R.R. – R.R. negligence allows a car to derail spilling gasoline. Third party lit a match and gasoline caught fire injuring P. Court said if interveningcause was malicious and intentional and criminal, then it would be an unforeseeable cause.]
      
   3. SUICIDE : typically UNFORESEEABLE (no PC)
      

1. Exception: must be a direct causal connection from the original injury that causes the impulse. [Fuller
P was in a car accident and started having bad seizures. 7 months later, frustrated by the seizures, he
committed suicide. P’s estate could recover for wrongful death.]
iv. RESCUE, ESCAPE, MEDICAL MALPRACTICE : typically FORESEEABLE (is PC)

1. “Danger invites rescue” [Wagner – conductor runs train full of people with door open. A vestibule falls out. Train stops and cousin jumps out, slips off the bridge and falls. P says conductor encouraged him to go out onto the bridge after his brother as well.]
   
2. “Danger invites escape” [Cordas – thief jumped into the taxi and had a gun. Taxi driver pulls emergencybreaks and jumps out of car. “the law in this state does not hold one in an emergency to the exercise of that mature judgment required of him under circumstances where he has an opportunity for deliberate action.]