Vollaro v. Lispi

In Vollaro v. Lispi (2014) 224 Cal.App.4th 93, the defendant in a personal injury action arising from an automobile accident sought to apportion liability to a nonparty, the driver of the car she rear-ended. The trial court denied her request for special verdict findings as to that driver's negligence, causation, and the percentage of fault attributable to each driver on the ground that her testimony about the behavior of the other driver did not constitute substantial evidence of that driver's negligence. (Vollaro, supra, 224 Cal.App.4th at pp. 97, 100.) The Court disagreed and reversed. We concluded that the defendant's testimony about the other driver's sudden stop was enough to permit the jury to find that the other driver violated the minimum speed law, which would give rise to a presumption of negligence. (Id. at p. 102.) The Court further concluded that the jury's special verdict findings were incomplete because the jury was not asked to resolve the disputed issues of the other driver's negligence, causation, and proportionate fault, and that the defendant was prejudiced by the error because the jury failed to resolve all of the factual issues presented. (Id. at pp. 103-104.)