Axness v. Edwards

515 P.2d 174, 9 Wash. App. 780, 1973 Wash. App. LEXIS 1266
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedOctober 15, 1973
DocketNo. 1573-1
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 515 P.2d 174 (Axness v. Edwards) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Axness v. Edwards, 515 P.2d 174, 9 Wash. App. 780, 1973 Wash. App. LEXIS 1266 (Wash. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

Horowitz, J.

Plaintiff Lyman B. Axness’ car and defendant Marineaux Edwards’ car collided at the intersection of 18th Avenue and East Madison Street, Seattle. Each party sued the other for negligence for damages sustained. Neither party recovered. The court granted a new trial to defendant for error in instructing the jury on the deception exception set forth in Martin v. Hadenfeldt, 157 Wash. 563, 289 P. 533 (1930). Plaintiff appeals.

[781]*781The controlling question presented is the sufficiency of evidence to support the deception instruction given based on the increased speed of a favored driver on an arterial after the disfavored driver, seeking to cross the intersection, first obtains a fleeting glimpse of the approaching car some distance away but is unable to judge the speed at which it is approaching the intersection he seeks to cross.

East Madison is a 4-laned arterial running in a generally easterly and westerly direction. Eighteenth Avenue intersects East Madison and runs generally in a northerly and southerly direction. Stop signs are posted regulating the north-south traffic on 18th Avenue. A very short distance east of 18th Avenue, East Madison Street declines sharply to 19th Avenue. Police officers testified that looking east on Madison Street from 18th to 19th Avenue would be comparable to looking out of a 2- to 3-story building. Plaintiff testified that it is hard to look east on Madison Street from the position of the stop sign on 18th Avenue as viewed by a driver traveling in a northerly direction.

On June 16, 1970, during the evening and while it was dark, although the streets were dry and the weather was clear, plaintiff was proceeding northbound on 18th Avenue in Seattle, Washington. Plaintiff pulled up to the stop sign at the intersection of 18th Avenue and East Madison Street. Plaintiff testified he stopped, looked to his right, and observed the headlights of defendant’s car approximately 350 feet away, but could not estimate the speed of that car. He then looked to his left, saw no approaching car, and proceeded into the intersection. After so proceeding, plaintiff next looked to his right for an instant and observed defendant’s car about 60 to 80 feet away, traveling at an estimated speed of 50 m.p.h. The two cars quickly collided.

There was testimony from disinterested witnesses that defendant’s car, proceeding westerly on East Madison Street, traveled at some 25 to 40 m.p.h. The speed limit was 30 m.p.h. There was also evidence from an independent [782]*782witness that the defendant substantially increased his speed between 19th and 18th Avenues. Prior to the collision the defendant; as he approached the intersection at 18th Avenue, applied his brakes, skidded and veered to the right, but nevertheless struck plaintiff’s car. The skid marks showed defendant’s car traveled a distance of 54 feet before his car came to a rest at a telephone pole at the northwest corner of the intersection.

Defendant contends plaintiff was negligent in failing to yield the right-of-way to defendant’s car, which he was •required to do by reason of the stop sign at the intersection of 18th Avenue and East Madison Street. Plaintiff contends he had a right to proceed as he did because he was deceived by the fact that the defendant increased his speed while traveling between 19th Avenue and 18th Avenue. The court instructed the jury in part as follows:

If the driver on the through street or highway wrongfully, negligently or unlawfully operates his vehicle in such a manner that it would deceive a reasonably careful driver facing a stop sign, so as to cause him to proceed into the intersection on the assumption that he had a fair margin of safety, and if the driver entering the intersection through the stop sign is in fact so deceived, then the right of way rule would not apply in favor of the driver on the through street or highway.

Paragraph 3, instruction No. 8.

Plaintiff’s sole assignment of error on his appeal is the entry of the order granting defendant a new trial based on the giving of the quoted instruction.

Defendant contends plaintiff’s claim of error is not reviewable because CAROA 43 requires instruction No. 8 to be set out in full. CAROA 43 is inapplicable. The portion of the rule on which he relies applies only if the appellant is assigning error to the giving of an instruction or the refusal of an instruction. Here plaintiff does not contend the court erred in giving the instruction. He contends the court gave a correct instruction but erroneously granted a new trial.

Plaintiff contends he was not required to yield the right-of-way to defendant’s approaching car because he was de[783]*783ceived by defendant’s increase in speed after he first saw defendant’s car; that being so deceived he had a right to proceed across the intersection in the reasonable belief he had a fair margin of safety. He particularly relies on the deception rule announced in Martin v. Hadenfeldt, supra, stated as follows:

(4) The driver on the left assumes and meets the burden of producing evidence which will carry to the jury the question of fact as to whether or no the favored driver on the right so wrongfully, negligently, or unlawfully operated his car as would deceive a reasonably prudent driver on the left and warrant him in going forward upon the assumption that he had the right to proceed.

Martin at 567. The first two paragraphs of instruction No. 8, to which no exception was taken, read:

■A statute provides that a driver approaching a stop sign at an intersection shall come to a complete stop before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection, and, having stopped, he shall yield the right of way to any vehicle which has entered the intersection from another street or highway or which is approaching so closely on the other street or highway as to constitute an immediate hazard during the time the driver who had the duty to stop is moving across or within the intersection.
This right of way, however, is not absolute but relative, and the duty to exercise ordinary care to avoid collisions at intersections rests upon both drivers. The primary duty, however, rests upon the driver who faces a stop sign, which duty he must perform with reasonable regard to the maintenance of a fair margin of safety at all times.

Before rule (4) from Martin v. Hadenfeldt is applicable, the deception relied on to excuse the disfavored driver from yielding the right-of-way “must be tantamount to an entrapment.” Gray v. Pistoresi, 64 Wn.2d 106, 110, 390 P.2d 697 (1964). The disfavored driver must be lured by the deception into crossing the intersection notwithstanding that, but for the deception, it would have been his duty to [784]*784yield the right-of-way to the approaching favored car. Gray v. Pistoresi, supra.

The deception rule has been frequently discussed in the Washington cases, latterly in Tobias v. Rainwater, 71 Wn.2d 845, 431 P.2d 156 (1967). In Tobias it is pointed out that excessive speed on the part of the favored driver is not in itself sufficient to justify the submission of the issue of deception to the jury. The court said:

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Related

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640 P.2d 1087 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1982)
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Bluebook (online)
515 P.2d 174, 9 Wash. App. 780, 1973 Wash. App. LEXIS 1266, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/axness-v-edwards-washctapp-1973.