Berry v. Harmon

329 S.W.2d 784, 1959 Mo. LEXIS 639
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 14, 1959
Docket46994
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 329 S.W.2d 784 (Berry v. Harmon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Berry v. Harmon, 329 S.W.2d 784, 1959 Mo. LEXIS 639 (Mo. 1959).

Opinion

DALTON, Judge.

Action for damages for personal injuries sustained in a collision between two automobiles, in one of which the plaintiff was riding as a guest. Verdict and judgment were for plaintiff for $25,000 and against the operators of the respective automobiles. Defendants have appealed from the judgment entered against them.

The collision occurred about 9 p. m., November 2, 1954, on U. S. Highway 67, about one mile north of Fredericktown and five or six hundred feet north of a bridge over Village Creek. At the point of the collision and for some distance north and south, the highway was straight and level. It was paved with concrete approximately 20 feet in width and had broad earth *787 shoulders on each side. The weather was clear and the pavement dry.

Plaintiff, an unmarried female minor, was riding as a guest passenger in a 1949 Chevrolet coach operated by defendant Roy Eugene Berry with whom she was keeping company. They were married subsequent to the date of the collision in question and prior to the date of the institution of the present action. On the occasion in question they were traveling north on the highway, intending to go to Flat River, when the Chevrolet collided with a southbound 1950 Ford club coupe owned and operated by defendant Victor L. Harmon. Defendant Harmon was en route from St. Louis to Poplar Bluff on a hunting trip. All parties were severely injured and plaintiff was rendered unconscious and remained so for 25 days. She had no personal recollection as to how or why the collision occurred. She called the two defendants as her witnesses.

Defendant Harmon testified that, as he was traveling south on his own side of the highway, he first saw the headlights of the Berry car approaching from the south about one-half mile away from him. Harmon’s speed was about 50-60 m. p. h. He could not estimate the speed of the Berry car. At that time, the Berry car was apparently in its own trafile lane. As the Berry automobile came off of the Village Creek bridge, when the vehicles were approximately 300 yards apart, the Berry vehicle swerved to Harmon’s side of the road and then returned to its northbound traffic lane when the two vehicles were about 200 yards apart. In the meantime, Harmon had slowed to about 50 m. p. h., and he continued driving at about that speed until the collision occurred. When the two vehicles were approximately 100 yards apart the Berry vehicle returned to Harmon’s side of the road and Harmon pulled his automobile off onto the west shoulder of the highway. The Berry car crossed Harmon’s southbound traffic lane to the west shoulder and Harmon, believing that the Berry car was going to stay on that shoulder, turned back to the pavement, as did the Berry car, and the collision occurred in the middle of Harmon’s southbound traffic lane. Harmon had cut back to his left when the Berry car was 30 feet away. Harmon cut to his left a little before the Berry car turned back to the pavement, but the Berry car came back sharp and more abruptly than the Harmon car. Harmon said he told the patrolman that Berry .“came over on my shoulder and I had cut back to miss him then we hit.” The debris from the collision was on the west side of the highway. The Berry car had crossed to Harmon’s side of the road twice or more before the collision. It seemed to Harmon that the Berry car wobbled in its own lane as well as crossed over into Harmon’s lane. Harmon had no recollection of applying his brakes at any time. Harmon did not “come to himself” for several minutes after the collision and could not remember what had happened before the collision until after he was being removed to the doctor’s office. There was evidence that defendant Flarmon (sometime after the collision) said: “I do not remember a thing about the accident.” Harmon denied making the statement.

A State Highway Patrolman, who arrived at the scene a few minutes after the collision, found the wrecked 1950 Ford coupe headed to the northwest on the west side of the highway. About one-fourth of the car was off on the west shoulder of the highway. He also found the wrecked 1949 Chevrolet coach lying on its left side in the northbound lane headed back to the south, completely on the east half of the highway. Plaintiff and Berry were both pinned in the car. The two vehicles were approximately 500 feet north of the .north end of the bridge over Village Creek. The right side of the Harmon car was about 15 feet south of the front end of the Berry car. There were no skid marks on the pavement. Practically all the glass, dirt and debris were on the northbound lane, that is, on the east side of the high *788 way and out on the east shoulder. In the doctor’s office Harmon told the patrolman that Berry “was coming up the road weaving back and forth and I didn’t think I could miss him by staying on my side of the road so I cut to his side of the road.” The frame of the Berry car was sprung to the left.

Defendant Berry testified that when he first saw the Harmon car both cars were on their own respective sides of the highway and approaching each other. He was driving the Chevrolet at about 55 m. p. h. and the speed of the Harmon car was from 70 to 80 m. p. h. When they were close together the Harmon car veered to Berry’s side of the highway. Berry tried to brake and swerve to the right but had no time to do so. He tried to, “because Mr. Harmon was on my side of the road coming straight at me.” The whole front end of the Harmon car struck the Chevrolet about one foot from the right headlight. The collision occurred on Berry’s side of the highway. On two previous occasions Berry, prior to the present trial, had testified that he had no memory of the collision, but four years later and a few weeks before the present trial, his memory suddenly returned as he was passing the scene of the collision. He did not immediately report the matter to his attorney for fear no one would believe him, but later did so. Plaintiff’s witnesses, Dr. Lam and Dr. McFadden, testified that such a sudden return of memory was possible and had happened to others. Berry was 17 years of age at the time of the collision, and had drunk about one-half bottle of beer before leaving Fredericktown for Flat River. There was testimony that defendant Berry’s breath bore the odor of beer at the scene of the collision and the odor of alcohol at the Bonne Terre Hospital, where he was taken in an unconscious condition following the collision. Between 7 and 8 p. m. that evening he had seemed perfectly sober.

The cause was submitted against the respective defendants by separate instructions and solely on negligence in operating their respective automobiles at a high and dangerous rate of speed under the facts and circumstances then and there existing and in failing to drive and operate the automobiles as close to the right-hand side of the highway as practicable. These assignments of negligence were submitted in the conjunctive. All other theories of negligence pleaded or supported by evidence were thereby abandoned. Guthrie v. City of St. Charles, 347 Mo. 1175, 152 S.W.2d 91, 93(1); Quinn v. St. Louis Public Service Co., Mo.Sup., 318 S.W.2d 316, 323(16).

Instruction No.

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Bluebook (online)
329 S.W.2d 784, 1959 Mo. LEXIS 639, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/berry-v-harmon-mo-1959.