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Bish v. Guaranty Nat'l Ins.3/18/1993
ger, 376 N.W.2d 84 (Wis.Ct.App. 1985), is persuasive. In Welter, the respondent driver hit and seriously injured appellant, who was riding a bicycle through an intersection. The appellant's riding companion was also hit but was not seriously injured. The respondent stopped after the collision, but then drove clear of the intersection, dragging the appellant beneath the car. The respondent stopped, and then, in an apparent attempt to find reverse gear, moved the car forward again about a foot. The companion then took over driving the car and backed up about ten feet in an attempt to free the appellant. Id. at 85.
The appellant sued, claiming that the scenario just described involved four accidents, corresponding to the three times the respondent put the car in motion and the one time the companion did so. The insurance company claimed that the scenario involved a single occurrence. The trial court agreed with the insurer. Id.
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed. The court emphasized that the focus of the injury should not be on the number, magnitude or time of the injuries, but rather on the cause or causes of the injury: “ ‘As long as the injuries stem from one proximate cause there is a single occurrence.' ” Id. at 87 (quoting
[109 Nev. 133, Page 136]
Appalachian Ins. Co. v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 676 F.2d 56, 61 (3d Cir. 1982)). The court observed: If cause and result are so simultaneous or so closely linked in time and space as to be considered by the average person as one event, courts adopting the “cause” analysis uniformly find a single occurrence or accident. While there was a cognizable time and space interval between each of the operations of the [respondent's] car, [appellant's] body was in virtually continuous contact with the car after the initial impact. While [appellant's] multiple injuries could have been inflicted at a number of times and places within that brief interval, it was the initial collision which created the occasion and circumstance for any subsequent injuries. Id. The court concluded: “A common sense view of the facts discloses that any of appellant's injuries not inflicted by the first impact were the result of causes acting concurrently with and directly attributable to it. Hence, it was the predominant, active and continuing cause.” Id.
The instant case is analogous to Welter. As in Welter, in this case Alderson negligently ran over and injured the victim, stopped, put the car in gear, and injured the victim again, all in a continuous series of events closely linked in time and space. Applying the reasoning of Welter, we conclude that it was the initial collision which created the occasion and circumstances for the victim's subsequent injuries. Any of the victim's injuries not inflicted by the first impact were the result of causes acting concurrently with and directly attributable to it. Hence, the first impact was the predominant, active and continuing cause of all of the victim's injuries. The proximity in both time and space of the events at issue, together with their direct interdependence, leads us to the conclusion that there was a single accident, and that the sole cause of the accident was Alderson's negligence. See id. at 88.
Appellant attempts to factually distinguish Welter with regard to the question of control. Appellant points out that in Welter the victim's body was in continuous contact with the car after the initial impact and the driver apparently shifted into the wrong gear, but that in this case the victim was not dragged underneath the car and the driver did not inadvertently shift into the wrong gear. These factual distinctions are insufficient to cause us to reach a result different
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