Arellano v. City of Burbank

89 P.2d 113, 13 Cal. 2d 248, 1939 Cal. LEXIS 253
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedApril 6, 1939
DocketL. A. 16923
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 89 P.2d 113 (Arellano v. City of Burbank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Arellano v. City of Burbank, 89 P.2d 113, 13 Cal. 2d 248, 1939 Cal. LEXIS 253 (Cal. 1939).

Opinions

CURTIS, J.

This cause was transferred to this court

after decision by the District Court of Appeal to give further consideration to the contention of the appellant that the decision of the District Court of Appeal was in conflict with certain prior decisions of that court and particularly the decisions in the eases of Waldorf v. City of Alhambra, 6 Cal. App. (2d) 522 [45 Pac. (2d) 207], and Robertson v. City of Long Beach, 19 Cal. App. (2d) 676 [66 Pac. (2d) 167]. After a careful study of those decisions, we find no conflict between them and the decision of the District Court of Appeal in the present action. While the collision in each of these cases occurred upon a street in which there was a “jog” or “offset” at the intersection of said street, in the Waldorf and Robertson cases, the driver of the automobile after crossing over the intersection collided with the curb and sidewalk in front of the abutting property which extended beyond the property line on the opposite side of the cross street. In other words, he ran over and upon the curb and sidewalk along the property which formed the “jog” in the street. It was held that the curb, sidewalk, and the parkway with the trees growing in the parkway, in front of that portion of the property included within the jog or offset “constitute a barrier or warning sufficient to avert disaster and as readily visible to the alert driver as a sign informing him of the condition” in the street. In the present action the driver did not collide with the jog in the road, but drove across the intersection onto the unpaved right of way of the railway company, and there was no curb, sidewalk, or parkway, or other barrier to warn him of the changed condition in the highway. The curb referred to in the present action was not across the course which the automobile was traveling as it was in each of the two cases cited by appellant, but was parallel to said course and only a surface of some eight inches square was visible to the driver. Due to the fact that the street west of the crossing was only 40 feet wide, it was necessary for the driver to operate the automobile along or near the car track. This course when continued beyond the crossing brought him onto the unpaved portion of the railway right of way, and as we have just stated, there was no barrier of any kind whatever to inform bim of the changed condition in the street. [251]*251As stated in the opinion of the District Court of Appeal, “when dealing with eases falling within the provisions of Public Liability Act of 1923, each of such cases must depend upon its own state of facts”. As the factual situations in the Waldorf and Robertson cases were fundamentally different from that in the instant case, the decision in those cases should not control the present decision. We, therefore, adopt the opinion of the District Court of Appeal, written by Presiding Justice York, as the opinion of this court. It is as follows:

“This is an appeal by the City of Burbank from a judgment in favor of respondents, Mike Arellano and Frances Arellano, father and mother of Valentina Alma Arellano, for her death, and in favor of respondent Tomasa Dorothy Arellano for personal injuries resulting from an automobile accident which occurred at the intersection of Glenoaks boulevard and Providencia avenue in the City of Burbank at 8:20 o’clock on the evening of October 5, 1935.
“At the intersection where the accident occurred, Glen-oaks boulevard and Providencia avenue cross at right angles, Providencia running northerly and southerly and Glenoaks easterly and westerly. Abutting the easterly side of the intersection is the westerly end of the Pacific Electric Railway Corporation’s forty-foot right of way extending easterly. For some distance west of the intersection, Glenoaks is fifty feet wide; at the east side of the intersection, Glenoaks divides and abuts the Pacific Electric right of way on the north and south thereof, being forty feet wide on the north side and forty feet wide on the south side of the said right of way. Pacific Electric Railway Corporation maintains an electric car track along Glenoaks west of and across said intersection, continuing on the said forty-foot right of way easterly of said intersection. The streets within the intersection, as well as Glenoaks to the west thereof, are paved with a surfacing of the same substance, color and appearance, and the top of the rails of the car track is flush with the surface of the pavement. The forty-foot right of way east of the intersection is not paved, and for about six feet immediately east of the intersection, the top of the ground is about level with the top of the rails and then drops off to about the top of the ties, or six inches below the rails. Westerly along Glenoaks from the intersection, the southerly rail of the car track is seventeen feet and three inches north of and parallel with the south curb of Glenoaks, and continues [252]*252in a straight line across the intersection and upon the right of way.
“East of the intersection and dividing the right of way from the southerly portion of Glenoaks there is a concrete curb which abruptly ends at the east side of the intersection, presenting to the west a face eight inches wide at the bottom, eight inches high and reducing to six inches at the top. This curb does not extend across Glenoaks at the easterly side of the intersection, and the end of the said curb is about three feet and nine inches to the north of the projected line of the southerly curb line of Glenoaks west of the intersection. About three feet and nine inches to the north of this dead end curb is a pole sixteen inches in diameter painted dark for about eighteen inches from the ground and for ten or fifteen feet above that point has been painted with aluminum paint which has lost its lustre so that the pole appears drab or dull gray. To the east of this pole other poles and posts are located extending easterly in the direction of the car tracks. To the north of this pole, at the east side of the intersection, the car track extends into an open space free from posts or poles and across which there is no curb, thereby presenting to one approaching from the west an apparent unobstructed continuation of the boulevard and car track to the east of the intersection. In other words, the situation is such that a person driving easterly on Glenoaks with his left wheels ‘straddling’ the car track would collide with the unpaved right of way and drop down upon the railway ties, unless he turned either right or left around the end of the unpaved right of way and thereby reached the north or south lane of Glenoaks boulevard.
“At the intersection in question boulevard stop signs were maintained regulating traffic on Providencia avenue, but no such signs were maintained on Glenoaks and there were no speed signs on Glenoaks west of said intersection at the time the accident occurred.
“On the evening of October 5, 1935, the employees of a dehydrating plant located in Burbank had planned a surprise party at the home of Joe Suppon, one of their foremen. Urban Goebel, an employee of the plant, called for Howard Wills, another employee, and after driving around in Goebel’s car for about three-quarters of an hour, they proceeded to the Suppon home, where they met the two Arellano girls, who were also attending the party. Since it was early, i. e., around 8 o’clock, and the other guests had not arrived, the [253]*253two boys asked the girls to take a ride with them around the block and return later to the party.

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Arellano v. City of Burbank
89 P.2d 113 (California Supreme Court, 1939)

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Bluebook (online)
89 P.2d 113, 13 Cal. 2d 248, 1939 Cal. LEXIS 253, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arellano-v-city-of-burbank-cal-1939.