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Culler v. Hamlett2/5/2002
Appeal by plaintiff-appellant from a judgment entered 8 March 2000 by Judge David Q. LaBarre in Caswell County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 28 September 2001.
Plaintiff appeals an order granting summary judgment in favor of defendant, Anthony Green in an action for personal injuries. In addition to defendant, plaintiff sued Stacey and Houston Hamlett. The trial against the Hamletts was severed from the trial against Green and reported in a separate opinion. For the reasons herein, we affirm the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Green.
The evidence at trial tended to show the following: On 30 June 1993, at approximately 3:00 a.m. plaintiff was traveling easterly en route home to Providence, North Carolina from work in Greensboro, North Carolina. She described the traveling conditions as slightly foggy and dark. She was driving a 1984 Ford Escort that she planned to purchase from a relative of defendant, Anthony Green. Plaintiff explained that she had not had any past mechanical problems with the vehicle; however, while driving easterly on the highway, plaintiff began to experience problems when the vehicle's stick shift kept "popping out of gear[.]" After crossing Highway 86 onto Park Springs Road, the vehicle became disabled forcing her to stop on the side of the two-lane road.
Shortly thereafter, plaintiff saw a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction and recognized the vehicle as belonging to defendant. Defendant, who was traveling westerly on the highway, slowed down, pulled his vehicle onto the shoulder of the roadway and parked it partially on the roadway in the lane opposite plaintiff's disabled vehicle. Plaintiff emerged from her car and walked across the roadway to defendant's car, while defendant remained seated with the driver's door open and the engine running.
While engaged in conversation with defendant, plaintiff saw the headlights of Stacey and Houston Hamlett's vehicle coming from around the corner and approaching the roadway from approximately "300 yards away[.]" The Hamletts, like defendant, were traveling westerly on the highway. After telling defendant that a car was approaching, plaintiff turned away and began to walk back across the roadway towards her vehicle. The Hamletts' vehicle collided first with defendant's vehicle, then struck and injured plaintiff, before colliding with plaintiff's vehicle. Plaintiff sustained a fractured left femur which required surgery.
Plaintiff filed an action on 30 October 1998, against defendant and the Hamletts for the injuries she suffered when she was struck while crossing the roadway. In her complaint, plaintiff alleged the following with respect to the defendant: (1) he was negligent in that he parked, or left standing, his motor vehicle that was not disabled on a public highway in violation of N.C.G.S. § 20-161(a) (1999); (2) he operated his vehicle in willful or wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others, in violation of N.C.G.S. § 20-140(a) (1999); and (3) the negligence of defendant was concurrent and joined with the negligence of the Hamletts.
On 8 March 2000, the trial involving the Hamletts took place. The trial court entered an order granting a directed verdict in favor of the Hamletts, finding that the plaintiff was contributorily negligent as a matter of law. The trial court thereafter dismissed plaintiff's action against the Hamletts. From the entry of the directed verdict and dismissal of her action against the Hamletts, plaintiff gave notice of appeal to this Court, which is now pending in a separate action (COA00-1110).
Following the dismissal of plaintiff's action against the Hamletts, on 3 April 200
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