Barnum v. Williams

Tlie majority concludes that under the present state of our law, the violation of a motor vehicle operational statute creates a disputable presumption of negligence which may be rebutted by a shoiving that the actor, in violating the statute, was acting reasonably. I disagree. In my opinion, our prior cases have established the stricter doctrine of negligence per se, with only limited exceptions.

In Marshall v. Olson, 102 Or 502, 202 P 736 (1922) the court first adopted the “emergency” exception to the rule that violation of an operational statute is negligence per se:

“* * * But this [rule of…