Beeson v. Perry

253 P. 1097, 123 Kan. 164, 1927 Kan. LEXIS 88
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedMarch 12, 1927
DocketNo. 27,223
StatusPublished

This text of 253 P. 1097 (Beeson v. Perry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beeson v. Perry, 253 P. 1097, 123 Kan. 164, 1927 Kan. LEXIS 88 (kan 1927).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Harvey, J.:

This is an action for personal injuries resulting from the collision of two automobiles at the intersection of two city streets. Plaintiff recovered, and defendant has appealed.

The facts are substantially as follows: On the morning in question plaintiff and her husband, who conducted a dairy, were delivering milk to their customers in the city. They were in a Ford touring car. Plaintiff’s husband was driving; plaintiff occupied the front seat beside him; crates of milk in bottles were on the running boards and in the back of the car. The side curtains were on the car. It was a wintry morning, the streets were slick with sleet and snow. It was snowing and misting. The falling snow clung to the windshield and side curtains making it difficult to see well enough to drive a car. Central avenue in the city of Coffeyville is a north and south street. It is intersected by Sixth street, an east and west [165]*165street. Both streets were paved 31 feet wide. There are no obstructions at this intersection which interfere with the view of one approaching the intersection on one street of a car approaching on the other. Plaintiff and her husband were proceeding north on Central avenue and had turned, or were turning, east into Sixth street. Defendant, driving a Studebaker, special six, five-passenger touring car with a winter enclosure, was going east on Sixth street; he was returning home from taking his son to high school. The two cars collided near the southeast corner of the intersection. They came-together in such a way that the left front portion of the Ford came in contact with the right side of the Studebaker about where the front fender joins the running board. After the cars were stopped, the Ford was on Sixth street, facing east, about 12 or 15 feet east of the curbing on Central avenue, the right front wheel up against the south curbing of Sixth street, and the right hind wheel about 18 inches north of the curbing, and the Studebaker was a little east of the Ford, but over on the north side of Sixth street. Plaintiff and her husband were in their car; defendant got out of his car, went over to them, offering his assistance, which was declined, and gave them his name and place of business.

In plaintiff’s petition it is alleged that the collison occurred on Sixth street, about 60 feet east of Central avenue, while both cars were going east, and that defendant, coming from the rear of the car in which plaintiff was riding, so negligently drove and handled his car as to drive it against the car in which plaintiff was riding. Plaintiff’s testimony tended to show that the car in which she was riding had turned the corner into Sixth street and proceeded a few feet when the collision occurred, and that the Ford never moved after the impact. Defendant’s evidence tended to show that the collision took place in the intersection near the southeast corner, just as the Ford was turning into Sixth street, and that the force of the impact pushed the Ford to the place where it stopped.

The jury answered special questions as follows (omitting some repetitions):

“1. Was the defendant, B. L. Perry, guilty of any negligence, alleged in plaintiff’s petition, that contributed to and was the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injury? A. Yes.
“2. Was the plaintiff guilty of any negligence that contributed to her injuries? A. No.
“3. If you find from the evidence in this case that the defendant was guilty of negligence, please state in what the negligence consisted. A. Beeson car [166]*166had right of way. Perry testified he saw the possibility of a collision and continued across the intersection regardless.
“4. At what rate of speed was the car in which the plaintiff was riding being driven at the'time of the accident? A. About 5 or 6 miles per hour.
“5. At' what rate of speed was the car in which the defendant was riding being driven at' the time of the accident? A. From 12 to 15 miles per hour.
“6. How far was the Beeson car from the south side of Sixth street at the time of the accident? A. 18 inches from the curb.
“7. How wide is the street at the place where the accident' occurred? A. 31 ft.
“8. Was there sufficient space on the north side of the plaintiff's car for the car in which the defendant was riding to have safely passed? A. Yes.
“12. Where, with reference to the intersection, did the collision take place? A. Near the southeast corner of the intersection.
“13. Who entered the intersection first, the plaintiff, Emma Beeson, or the defendant, B. L. Perry? A. About the same time.”

There was a verdict and judgment for plaintiff for $2,500.

Appellant contends, first, that the court should have sustained his demurrer to the evidence of plaintiff on the ground that plaintiff . was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law. She testified that when her husband drove into the intersection she did not see the defendant’s car. She was asked:

“Q. You didn’t look towards the west? A. No; I didn’t look toward the west, we turned and went east'.”

Both plaintiff and her husband testified that they did not see defendant or his car until after the collision. Then defendant’s car was right in front of them. When the demurrer was interposed, the evidence was that the collision did not take place in the intersection, but east of it a short distance and while both cars were going in the same direction. In that state of the evidence the court could not say, as a matter of law, that the failure of plaintiff to look to the west as she entered the intersection was such contributory negligence on her part as barred her recovery.

Appellant argues that plaintiff and her husband were engaged in a' joint enterprise, and therefore that the negligence of her husband in driving into the intersection without looking for a car approaching the intersection on Sixth street, and with his vision impaired by his windshield partly covered with snow, was in fact her negligence, each being the agent of the other. This point appears not to have been specifically urged in the court below. No instruction was given upon that question, and none requested. The case [167]*167was tried and submitted to the jury on the theory that the plaintiff was a guest of her husband. The court told the jury:

“You are instructed that the plaintiff herself is charged with the duty of looking out for her own safety as far as practicable, and if you find that plaintiff, in the exercise of reasonable and ordinary care, could have warned her husband who was driving the car, in time for him to have avoided the accident, or if the plaintiff could herself have stopped the car in time to have avoided the accident, and she did not' do so, then the plaintiff could not recover in this action, and your verdict should be for the defendant, B. L. Perry.”

In view of this situation we are not able to say, as a matter of law, that plaintiff and her husband were engaged in such a joint enterprise, or that she was so jointly with him in control of the car that his negligence is imputed to her. The jury found that the plaintiff was not negligent.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
253 P. 1097, 123 Kan. 164, 1927 Kan. LEXIS 88, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beeson-v-perry-kan-1927.