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Williamson v. Liptzin12/19/2000
ond story ledge. The patient had been placed in restraints to prevent him from falling out of his bed. The patient wrestled free from the restraints and was seen standing on the second story ledge. The patient was later found dead. Our Court concluded that any negligence which could be imputed to the hospital was not the proximate cause of the patient's death because "there no evidence that defendant hospital could have foreseen the fall from the ledge of the second floor." Id. at 758, 242 S.E.2d at 540. In so concluding, this Court relied on the testimony of the patient's doctor, who stated that the restraints were only to keep the patient from falling out of the bed and that he did not view the patient as suicidal. Id.
Although not completely analogous to the case at bar, these cases illustrate that North Carolina courts are reluctant to hold a person liable where the chain of events which led to the resulting injuries is unforeseeable, remote, and attenuated, even though "some" injury to plaintiff was "possible." See Hairston, 310 N.C. at 234, 331 S.E.2d at 565 (citations omitted). The contemplation of what "might" happen, which leads to what "might" or "may" potentially be the outcome, and the consideration of "risk factors" for violence to oneself which may or may not lead to a risk of violence to others, is simply not sufficient as a matter of law to establish the foreseeability of plaintiff's injuries or the circumstances in which the alleged injuries arose. Furthermore, evidence of "risk factors" for potential violence, such as gun ownership, being under a certain age, or being of a certain gender, implicates a large portion of our population and is simply insufficient in and of itself to prove foreseeability. Given the lack of evidence of violence or any threats of violence on plaintiff's behalf, "the connection between negligence and the injury appears unnatural, unreasonable, and improbable." Phelps, 272 N.C. at 30, 157 S.E.2d at 723 (citation omitted). We therefore conclude that the expert testimony presented by plaintiff established what was merely possible and not what was reasonably foreseeable.
Plaintiff also argues that evidence of foreseeability in the instant case far surpasses the evidence presented in Hairston, 310 N.C. 227, 311 S.E.2d 559, and in other cases in which our appellate courts have deemed proximate cause an issue for the jury. Plaintiff contends that like the defendant in Hairston, defendant in the case sub judice should have foreseen an injury would result from his actions. We find Hairston distinguishable from the present case.
In Hairston, our Supreme Court examined the liability of a car dealership in a wrongful death suit by a deceased motorist's wife against the dealer and a truck driver. On the same day as the accident which led to the suit, the motorist purchased an automobile from defendant dealer. While the motorist waited, the dealer changed the tires on the vehicle, but failed to tighten the lug nuts on one of the wheels. The motorist drove the car out of the dealer's lot and within minutes, the loose wheel fell off. The motorist stopped the car, and a van pulled up behind the disabled vehicle. As the motorist stood between his car and the van, the defendant truck driver struck the van, killing the motorist.
Our Supreme Court held that proximate cause existed to hold the dealer liable for the motorist's death. Id. at 235, 331 S.E.2d at 566. The court found that the dealer could have foreseen the accident which led to plaintiff's injuries. Id. The Court noted that defendant dealer was on "notice of the exigencies of traffic, and he must take into account the prevalence of the `occasional negligence which is one of the incident
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