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Graber v. City Of Ankeny9/7/2000
was insufficient evidence to support the instruction.
The plaintiff testified that her last recollection before the accident was seeing the light turn green. Allen testified that she saw the plaintiff's car before the accident, that there was no sight obstruction between her car and the plaintiff's car, and that she saw the plaintiff's car pulling out a couple of seconds prior to impact. In addition, the plaintiff's expert testified that the plaintiff had a red light until approximately three seconds prior to the collision.
We agree with the defendant that reasonable minds could conclude from this testimony that if Allen could see the plaintiff, then the plaintiff could have seen Allen had the plaintiff looked. In addition, reasonable minds could conclude that had the plaintiff observed Allen, she could have seen that Allen was traveling at a high rate of speed (possibly 55 to 60 miles per hour) and was not stopping at the intersection. Finally, reasonable minds could conclude based on these circumstances that, had the plaintiff observed Allen's vehicle, the plaintiff could have avoided the accident by not proceeding into the intersection when the light turned green for the plaintiff.
The plaintiff relies on the fact that under Iowa law she could assume that Allen would obey the law. This assumption, however, is only valid until the person "knows, or in the exercise of due care should have known, otherwise." Matuska v. Bryant, 260 Iowa 726, 734, 150 N.W.2d 716, 721 (1967). In the case at hand, the jury could have concluded (1) ordinary care required the plaintiff, who was approaching an intersection where a red light had just turned green, to ascertain whether intersecting traffic had slowed or stopped before she entered the intersection, and (2) had the plaintiff exercised this degree of care, she would have known that Allen was not obeying the law by stopping at the red light.
The plaintiff also urges that there was no direct evidence of what she did or saw immediately before the accident because the last thing she remembered was her light turning green; consequently, she argues, there is no evidence to support the instruction on her alleged improper lookout. The lack of any direct evidence from the plaintiff as to whether she looked and/or whether she saw Allen's vehicle entering the intersection does not, however, preclude the jury from considering the circumstantial evidence indicating that the plaintiff had an opportunity to look and, had she observed Allen's car, the plaintiff could have taken action to avoid the accident. See generally Rush v. Sioux City, 240 N.W.2d 431, 440 (Iowa 1976) ("'the question as to its being a proper or sufficient lookout determined by the particular surrounding circumstances as revealed by the evidence then under consideration'" (quoting Jesse v. Wemer & Wemer Co., 248 Iowa 1002, 1011, 82 N.W.2d 82, 86 (1957))), overruled on other grounds by Hoffert v. Luze, 578 N.W.2d 681, 685 (Iowa 1998). We conclude, therefore, that the trial court did not err in instructing the jury on the defendant's claim that the plaintiff was negligent for failing to maintain a proper lookout.
D. Definition of a red light.
The plaintiff claims error in the trial court's refusal to instruct the jury as follows:
n all-red clearance interval may be used. If you find that an all-red clearance was used, it shall be of sufficient duration to allow those vehicles who could not stop safely prior to its display or who were in the intersection when it was displayed, to clear the intersection before conflicting traffic is released.
(An all-red clearance light means that traffic in all directions has a red
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