Brown v. Wyoming Butane Gas Co.

205 P.2d 116, 66 Wyo. 67, 1949 Wyo. LEXIS 5
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedApril 12, 1949
Docket2407
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 205 P.2d 116 (Brown v. Wyoming Butane Gas Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. Wyoming Butane Gas Co., 205 P.2d 116, 66 Wyo. 67, 1949 Wyo. LEXIS 5 (Wyo. 1949).

Opinion

*71 OPINION

Riner, Chief Justice.

This proceeding is before the Court upon a direct appeal from a judgment of the District Court of Natrona County entered upon the verdict of a jury in an action brought by C. J. Brown and Dennis Carruth-ers, plaintiffs in the District Court, respondents here, against Wyoming Butane Gas Company as defendant, now the appellant, to recover for damages incurred in a collision between plaintiffs’ gas truck and semi-trailer tank equipment and defendant’s Butane truck and semi-trailer outfit, also consisting of a truck and tank semi-trailer. The plaintiffs’ unit was forty-two feet long, was loaded, carried five thousand gallons of gas and was proceeding in a southerly direction. It will usually be hereinafter referred to as the “gas tanker.” The defendant’s unit was thirty-five feet in length, was traveling empty and moving in a northerly direction. It will usually be mentioned subsequently as the “Butane tanker.” The parties to the action may be conveniently designated as aligned in the trial court. The accident occurred when these two units undertook to pass each other on a bridge located approximately five to seven miles south of the Town of Glendo, Wyoming on Highway 87, March 27, 1947 about five o’clock *72 in the morning, and when it was still dark. This bridge was forty-five feet long and the useable roadway width thereon was eighteen feet nine inches. The bridge had iron posts along each of its sides set in concrete shoulders which were raised above the useable roadway about a foot in height.

Plaintiffs’ petition charged the defendant with negligence in four particulars. These were, to state them briefly: That the defendant’s unit was on its left or wrong side of the highway at the time the collision occurred; that the brakes on defendant’s unit were defective and insuflficient; that the driver of the Butane tanker was traveling at such a fast rate of speed that he did not have proper control over his truck and trailer ; and that defendant’s driver violated a custom prevalent with operators of transports hauling liquid fuels upon the highway involved by giving a signal with his head lights, turning them off and on, thereby according plaintiffs’ unit the right of way over said bridge, and then, disregarding the signal he had thus given, proceeded towards and upon the bridge with the consequent collision with and damage to plaintiffs’ equipment.

Defendant’s answer denied these allegations of negligence and pleaded as an affirmative defense that while its Butane truck was being driven in a safe, prudent and careful manner, the accident in question was caused by plaintiffs’ driver’s negligence in that he failed to keep his unit to the right of the center of the highway, the center of which was marked with a yellow line, but instead crossed over that line and collided with the defendant’s equipment; that the brakes of plaintiffs’ unit were defective and insufficient to control it; and that said driver did not have a proper control over his gas tanker due to the fast rate of speed he was traveling and the insufficiency of his brakes. Plaintiffs filed a reply in the nature of a general denial.''

*73 As above stated the cause was tried before the court with a jury in attendance. At the conclusion of the plaintiffs’ case and also at the conclusion of the introduction of all the evidence in behalf of both parties, defendant moved for a directed verdict in its favor. Each of these motions was denied. The record shows an exception taken by the defendant to the denial of the first motion but apparently not to the second. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiffs in the sum of $6,108.16 which had been shown by plaintiffs’ repair bills stipulated by counsel to be the reasonable value and customary price thereof and for this amount the judgment in question was given.

We must examine the evidence in this case in the light of certain rules of law which have been invoked in this jurisdiction for many years and which accord with appellate practice in this country generally.

In Northwest States Utilities Co. vs. Brouilette, 51 Wyo. 132, 65 Pac. 2d. 223 the defendant presented a motion at the close of plaintiff’s case for an instructed verdict in its favor; also a similar motion at the close of all the evidence in the case; for a judgment, notwithstanding the verdict; and finally a motion for a new trial. All these were denied, error was claimed on account of the adverse rulings, and this was said in response:

“When a request is made to the court to wrest a case from the decision of the jury and direct the verdict or to enter judgment in opposition to the verdict, the principles of law upon which the decision of the court must be based are clear. In the first place, the credibility of the witnesses and the weight of their testimony are for the jury alone to determine. C. B. & Q. R. Co. v. Pollock, 16 Wyo. 321, 93 Pac. 847. Again, a motion for judgment at the close of plaintiff’s case is in the nature of a demurrer to plaintiff’s evidence, and admits its truth for the purpose of the motion. Boyle v. Mountford, 39 Wyo. 141, 270 Pac. 537. Further, where there *74 is a substantial conflict in the evidence, it is improper for the court to direct a verdict. Weaver v. Richardson, 21 Wyo. 158, 129 Pac. 828. In 64 C. J., 432-483, the rule is stated in this language:
“ ‘By moving for a directed verdict, the maker of the motion admits the truth of whatever competent evidence the opposing party has introduced, . . . not only of all that the testimony proves, but of' every material or ultimate fact which it tends to prove, . . . together with all fair and reasonable inferences or conclusions of fact favorable to the adverse party, fairly or reasonably inferable or deducible therefrom by a jury.’
“In case of Willis v. Willis, 48 Wyo. 403, 429, 49 P. (2d) 670, it is said:
“ ‘In this connection (where it is claimed the judgment is not sustained by sufficient evidence) it must be borne in mind that the appellate court must assume that the evidence in favor of the successful party is true, leave out of consideration entirely the evidence of the unsuccessful party in conflict therewith, and give to the evidence of the successful party every favorable inference which may be reasonably and fairly drawn from it.’ ”

The judgment below was affirmed.

Substantially similar rules were announced in Blackstone vs. First National Bank of Cody, 64 Wyo. 318, 192 Pac. 2d 411 where a motion for a directed verdict was sustained and the action of the trial court in so doing was upheld on appeal proceedings here.

It will not be necessary to review all the evidence either on behalf of the plaintiffs or what was submitted on behalf of the defendant where it is not in conflict with that for the plaintiffs, but enough of it will be given to make it clear whether the trial court erred in ruling as it did on the motions for a directed verdict, whether the verdict is supported by substantial evidence, and whether the evidence in the record on the issues raised is in substantial conflict.

*75

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Bluebook (online)
205 P.2d 116, 66 Wyo. 67, 1949 Wyo. LEXIS 5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-wyoming-butane-gas-co-wyo-1949.