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Last
clear chance is one of our most agonizingly complex legal
doctrines.
In Gunter v. Wicker, 85 N.C. 310, which appears to have
been the first case applying the last clear chance doctrine in
North Carolina, Smith, C. J., observed that "there is great
difficulty in extracting from the numerous adjudications of the
courts any clear and distinct principle or formula determining
when the cooperating agency of the plaintiff so directly
contributes to the result as to deprive him of remedy against
the other party to whose negligence the injury is
attributable." The passage of time has not removed this difficulty.
In Prosser, Law of Torts, 3d Ed., §
65, it is said of the doctrine of the last clear chance:
"No very satisfactory reason for the rule ever has been
suggested. * * *
The application of the doctrine has been attended with much
confusion. * * * It
is quite literally true that there are as many variant forms and
applications of this doctrine as there are jurisdictions which
apply it. * * * In
such a general area of confusion and disagreement, only very
general statements can be offered, and reference must of
necessity be made to the law of each particular state." |
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