Day v. Davis

Plaintiff challenges the trial judge’s instructions in that he failed to properly relate the doctrine of sudden emergency to the issue of contributory negligence. First, we must determine if plaintiff was entitled to any instructions on the doctrine.

This Court, considering this doctrine in the case of Cockman v. Powers, 248 N.C. 403, 103 S.E. 2d 710, stated: “ ‘One who is required to act in an emergency is not held by the law to the wisest choice of conduct, but only to such choice as a person of ordinary care and prudence, similarly situated, would have done.’ . . . True, one cannot escape…