Defendants entitled to maintain affirmative defenses as to plaintiff’s culpable conduct, sudden emergency, and superseding and intervening action in matter where plaintiff disembarked a moving vehicle for fear of injury in an accident.

The plaintiff disembarked a tractor-pulled wagon when the tractor, while ascending a hill, stalled and began to roll backwards. Fearing a “jackknife” or “rollover” event and being caught or pinned under the vehicle, the plaintiff voluntarily disembarked and alleged causally-related injuries. The defendants answered the complaint, claiming that the plaintiff’s contributory negligence for disembarking, the sudden emergency of the stall, and the superseding event of the plaintiff’s exiting the moving vehicle, provided absolute defenses to liability. The court determined that all three matters were clearly within the jury’s discretion to conclude whether the plaintiff’s actions and the emergency nature of the incident were the causes for the plaintiff’s injury, finding that summary judgment in the plaintiff’s favor was not warranted.

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