Armer Ex Rel. Armer v. Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Co.

44 N.W.2d 640, 153 Neb. 352, 1950 Neb. LEXIS 41
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 10, 1950
Docket32798
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 44 N.W.2d 640 (Armer Ex Rel. Armer v. Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Co.) 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
Armer Ex Rel. Armer v. Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Co., 44 N.W.2d 640, 153 Neb. 352, 1950 Neb. LEXIS 41 (Neb. 1950).

Opinions

[353]*353Carter, J.

This is an action for damages for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff in a collision of a bus of the defendant and a bicycle which plaintiff was riding. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff. The trial court thereafter sustained defendant’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and entered a judgment of dismissal for the defendant. Plaintiff appeals.

This is the second appeal to this court in this case. Armer v. Omaha & Council Bluffs St. Ry. Co., 151 Neb. 431, 37 N. W. 2d 607. In the former appeal it was held that the evidence was sufficient to take the case to the jury and that the trial court erred in directing a verdict for the defendant at the close of plaintiff’s evidence. Plaintiff contends that this decision is the law of the case and requires the submission of plaintiff’s case to the jury. The effect of the former decision will be discussed later in the opinion.

The accident occurred on Thirty-third Street in the middle of the block north of Lincoln Boulevard in Omaha. Plaintiff says she turned north from Lincoln Boulevard into Thirty-third Street and rode up the center of the street. She says that at a point about 50 feet south of the alley she angled to the west to enter the alley on the west side of the street. There is evidence that defendant’s bus was coming north behind her at a rate of 38 to 40 miles an hour. The driver of the bus turned it to the left to avoid striking her, but hit the bicycle near the entrance to the alley on the west side of the street. A more detailed statement of plaintiff’s evidence will be found in the former opinion by this court.

In addition to the evidence given at the previous trial, plaintiff produced one Lorenda Skeen, who testified that at the time of the accident she was sitting at the east front window of the second house north of the alley on the west side of the street. She says she saw plaintiff riding up the street on her bicycle, that she saw the bus angle to the left across the street, and that [354]*354the bus struck the bicycle near the entrance to the west alley. She testifies that she first saw the bus 65 or 70 feet back of the plaintiff and that it was traveling 40 or 45 miles an hour. The defendant contends that the evidence of this witness is not worthy of belief because of certain conflicts with the evidencé of the plaintiff and the nature of the view of the accident as it was described by the witness. These are matters, however, for the jury to determine. It is for the jury and not the court to weigh the evidence and determine the credibility of the witnesses.

It is contended by the defendant that plaintiff made changes in her testimony from that given at the previous trial to meet the exigencies of the case as pointed out in the first appeal. It is asserted that plaintiff testified in the first trial that she proceeded north on Thirty-third Street to the first alley on the west side and “* * * turned and went into the alley. I wanted to go up the sidewalk.” The record shows that she testified in the present case as follows: “Why, I was going in about the center of the street, and then I sort of angled across, and I was going to turn into the alley.” She testifies that she started to angle over about 50 feet south of the point of the accident. The defendant cites Peterson v. Omaha & Council Bluffs St. Ry. Co., 134 Neb. 322, 278 N. W. 561, and Gohlinghorst v. Ruess, 146 Neb. 470, 20 N. W. 2d 381, in support of his contention. We do not think the foregoing cases are applicable.

The plaintiff was a young girl of 11 years at, the time of the accident. It cannot be said that' the change in the description of the accident as herein stated was a change to meet the exigencies of the previous appeal. It was held in the previous appeal that plaintiff had' made a case for the jury. There were no exigencies; that she had to meet, the court having held that all necessary requirements for submission to a jury had been met. It is true that her former testimony left a distinct impression that she came straight north in or-[355]*355near the center of the street until opposite the west alley, at which point she turned west to enter it. The testimony given in the case now before us indicates that she came north to a point 50 feet south of the west alley and then angled across to it. The latter description tends to show that the driver of the bus was more negligent than in the former in that he had more notice of her intent to turn or angle across the street to the left. The jury was informed of this alleged change in plaintiff’s testimony. It was for the jury, however, to weigh the impeaching effect of the evidence and to determine the weight to be given to it.

In Peterson v. Omaha & Council Bluffs St. Ry. Co., supra, it was held that a complete change in the evidence as to where the automobile was traveling, in order to get the case within the last clear chance doctrine, does not find favor and is discredited testimony as a matter of law. But in the present case the plaintiff was not confronted with any such dilemma. All that plaintiff had to do was to testify as before in order to make a case. The motive for the change was not the exigencies resulting from the former appeal as in the Peterson case. What the motive was that induced the change in the present case and the effect thereof upon the weight and credibility of her evidence was for the jury to determine under proper instructions. While a party will ordinarily not be permitted to insist at different times on the truth of two conflicting allegations according to the necessities of his own interest, the rule that a prior conflicting statement discredits subsequent testimony as a matter of law has no application where such motive does not exist. An unexplained change in the evidence of a litigant not required by the exigencies pointed out in a previous trial is a matter of impeachment, credibility, and weight for the jury to determine. See, also, Ellis v. Omaha Cold Storage Co., 122 Neb. 567, 240 N. W. 760; Gohlinghorst v. Ruess, supra. In any event, the present version of the facts was corrob[356]*356orated and the evidence of plaintiff did not stand alone as the basis for the jury’s finding. We think there is nothing in the record to warrant a direction that plain-tiff did not make a case for the jury as we held in the former appeal. The ruling in the former appeal is there-, fore the law of the case, unless defendant’s evidence is so conclusive of want of credence on the part of plaintiff’s witnesses as to require a contrary verdict as a matter of law.

The rule in the latter instance is: “It is the duty of a trial court to direct a verdict at the close of the evidence where the evidence is undisputed, or where evidence, though conflicting, is so conclusive that it is insufficient to sustain a verdict and judgment.” Fairmont Creamery Co. v. Thompson, 139 Neb. 677, 298 N. W. 551. This rule simply means that a mere scintilla of evidence is not enough to sustain a verdict. If there is evidence which, if believed, will sustain a verdict, it becomes a jury question.

In the present case the issue of fact, for all practical purposes, is whether plaintiff rode her bicycle up Thirty-third Street as she and her witness assert, or whether she rode up the sidewalk on the east' side of Thirty-third Street and turned into Thirty-third Street at the alley entrance into the path of the oncoming bus.

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Armer Ex Rel. Armer v. Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Co.
44 N.W.2d 640 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1950)

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Bluebook (online)
44 N.W.2d 640, 153 Neb. 352, 1950 Neb. LEXIS 41, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/armer-ex-rel-armer-v-omaha-council-bluffs-street-railway-co-neb-1950.