Allen v. Clark

28 N.W.2d 439, 148 Neb. 627, 1947 Neb. LEXIS 90
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 11, 1947
DocketNo. 32192
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 28 N.W.2d 439 (Allen v. Clark) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. Clark, 28 N.W.2d 439, 148 Neb. 627, 1947 Neb. LEXIS 90 (Neb. 1947).

Opinion

Paine, J.

The plaintiff brought suit for personal injuries against Francis O. Clark and the Blue Star Produce Company, a corporation. At the close of the plaintiff’s evidence, counsel for the Blue Star Produce Company moved for a directed verdict. This motion" was sustained, and the trial proceeded against Francis O. Clark as sole defendant. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant, and the plaintiff appealed from the judgment entered thereon.

The petition -charged that the plaintiff, riding in the back seat of a car, was the innocent victim of an automobile collision, and that the resultant injuries were [628]*628painful, serious, and permanent; that the defendant, Clark, negligently and carelessly operated his car at the rate of 50 miles an hour, in violation of an Omaha ordinance, and regardless of the icy condition of the road; and that the defendant failed to have his car under control, failed to keep a proper lookout for other cars, and was unable to stop his car before striking automobiles in his pathway. The petition set out the injuries suffered in the greatest detail, with hospital and medical charges.

The defendant, Clark, in his answer charged that the driver of the car in which the plaintiff, Allen, was riding followed too closely another car ahead of it; that upon the stalling of a truck ahead carelessly and negligently drove his car across the center of Thirteenth Street and stopped it there; and that the plaintiff and his driver, whose negligence is attributable to him, were guilty of negligence in so operating the car and losing control. “That after plaintiff’s car became stalled, plaintiff carelessly and negligently remained therein, although he had ample time to get out of said car.” The defendant denied that he was guilty of any negligence whatever.

Thereafter the plaintiff was given leave to amend his petition by setting out certain ordinances of the City of Omaha. The reply was a general denial.

A very brief statement of the facts will assist in understanding the legal questions involved. Both plaintiff and defendant were working at the bomber plant of the Glenn L. Martin Company, and each was on his way there to begin work at eight o’clock, and the accident occurred at about 7:30 a. m. A large number of cars were going south on Thirteenth Street, Omaha, where the accident occurred.

Also on Thirteenth Street at this same time, going south slowly, there was a very large truck of the Blue Star Produce Company, reaching several feet over into the passing lane. This street at the place of the accident is 54 feet wide between curbs, with a seven-foot [629]*629parking place on each side, and the remainder of the street divided into four ten-foot lanes, the outside lane on each side being the driving lane, the inside or center lane on each side being the passing lane. As the truck went up the long hill at this place, it changed gears and went slower and slower, holding up the traffic, and at the time of the accident it was barely moving; other witnesses even testified that it had stopped entirely.

Millard V. Robbins, Meteorologist in charge of the local office of the United States Weather Bureau, testified as to the weather on this morning of January 8, 1945. At 7:30 the temperature was 33 degrees and dropping fast, for at 9:30 it was only 16. A light snowfall began at 6:38 and continued until 11:20 a. m. The sky was cloudy. There was a moderate fog at 8 o’clock. From 7:00 to 8:00 there was a high wind of 47 miles an hour.

It is shown that at the time of the accident, which was at about 7:30 a. m., it was still dark, being early in January, and all the cars were running with their lights on, the only exception being that some of the witnesses testified that they saw no light on the rear of the truck which was blocking the traffic. While it may have been snowing some at the time of the accident, the storm increased rapidly in intensity as shown by the falling temperature and the heavy snowstorm. The existing conditions are portrayed by exhibit No. 13, being a' photograph taken while the Koessel car was being removed by a wrecker.

The hill át this point was about 1,400 feet long, and the accident happened a little more than half way to the top of the hill, at about the place where R Street would cross Thirteenth Street if it extended clear through.

The plaintiff, William L. Allen, was riding on the left-hand side of the rear seat of the car of W. A. Koessel, with two others in the rear seat and two in the front seat. These five men in this car were all employed at [630]*630the bomber plant. For about a year they had daily made the trip under an agreement by which each of the men drove his own car for one week, paying all of the expenses for that week, and carried the other four. No money changed hands. This happened to be Mr. Koessel’s week. Under these facts, there was no such joint enterprise between them by which any negligence of Koessel could be imputed to the plaintiff. See Hofrichter v. Kiewit-Condon-Cunningham, 147 Neb. 224, 22 N. W. 2d 703.

Immediately before the accident the Koessel car was perhaps the second car behind the truck. The car ahead of the Koessel car turned to the left to go into the passing lane to go around the truck, and found the street icy toward the center, and it wobbled, for the heavy traffic had worn down the ice in the southbound driving lane so it was not slippery. To avoid hitting this car ahead of him, Koessel drove his car toward the southeast across the center of the road and into the driving lane for northbound traffic, of which there was little at the time of the accident, nearly all the traffic going south. This left only seven or eight feet between the front of his car and the curb on the east side of the road, and there Koessel stopped his car. One or two cars northbound went in front of him, one going over the curb to do it.

The testimony of plaintiff Allen was that he looked north, after the Koessel car had gone out of the lane of traffic on its side of the road and stopped, and saw defendant’s car approaching when it was a block and a half away. He said that at that time it was out about twelve feet from the east curb, and it struck the Koessel car in the middle of the left side, jamming in the doors and leaving it facing south.

The plaintiff, Allen, was knocked unconscious, and recalled nothing until some time the next day in the Doctors Hospital, where he remained for 25 days, with both pelvic bones broken and many other injuries; .so [631]*631that when he finally went back to work March 19, 1945, he had to quit work again August 1, 1945, because of ill health. He still suffered, at the time of the trial, from dizzy spells and severe headaches, pain in his back, and could not lift his left arm very far.

The testimony of Waldamar A. Koessel is that he is 44 years old, and was working as a disposal supervisor at the bomber plant. He was the owner and driver of the Nash car in which the plaintiff was riding at the time of the accident. When he left home that morning it was raining, but got colder right along. He was in the driving lane, and five or six cars ahead swung out into the passing lane to go ahead of the truck, which was about three feet over in the passing lane. When the car immediately ahead of him started to swing out, Koessel swung out farther to the east to give that car clearance, and his car finally stopped about eight or ten feet from the east curb, at an angle of 45 degrees, headed southeast.

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Bluebook (online)
28 N.W.2d 439, 148 Neb. 627, 1947 Neb. LEXIS 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-clark-neb-1947.