No inanimate spirts in comparative-fault questions.

The Greeks saw the all-powerful Zeus as the god of the skies; Haitian vodou, the storm-spirit Agau; and so forth throughout all the world’s cultures. Despite that tradition, the Fifth Court reversed a jury instruction that posed the following comparative-fault question:

“Though the jury here made no finding that the occurrence was proximately caused by the acts or omissions of more than one person, question number two of the charge allowed the jury to find a ‘percentage of the negligence’ attributable to ‘Weather/Road Conditions,’ which was not a person or party whose negligence was found to have been a proximate cause. This was not consistent with section 33.003(a) or rule 277.” Panameno v. Williams, No. 05-19-01496-CV (June 1, 2021) (mem. op.) (emphasis added).