Bumpus v. Drinkard's Adm'x

279 S.W.2d 4, 1955 Ky. LEXIS 497
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedMay 6, 1955
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 279 S.W.2d 4 (Bumpus v. Drinkard's Adm'x) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bumpus v. Drinkard's Adm'x, 279 S.W.2d 4, 1955 Ky. LEXIS 497 (Ky. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

SIMS, Judge.

Plaintiff, Anna Drinkard, as' adminis-tratrix of her husband, Hayward J. Drink-ard, brought this action to recover $25,000 damages to the estate of her decedent, whose death she averred was caused by the negligence, of defendant, T. R. Bumpus. The answer denied defendant was negligent and pleaded contributory negligence on the part of the decedent, and by way of counter claim defendant sought to recover $1,600 damages done his car and for personal injuries he received in the accident. The trial -resulted in a verdict for plaintiff in the sum of $10,000.

- In seeking to reverse the judgment defendant insists the court erred: (1) In not directing a verdict in his favor; (2) in instructing the jury; (3) in refusing to limit the judgment to the amount awarded plaintiff by the Workmen’s Compensation Board.

Plaintiff as appellee argues that due to the form of the notice of appeal, the only question before us is whether the court erred in refusing to limit the judgment to the sum awarded by the Board. We will first take up this question raised by her.

The notice of appeal reads:

“Notice is hereby given that the defendant, T. R. Bumpus, appeals to the Court of Appeals from the final judgment of the McCracken Circuit Court, entered in favor of the plaintiff, Anna Drinkard, as Administratrix of the estate of Hayward J. Drinkard, deceased, on the 26th day of November, 1953, from the order of January 18, 1954, refusing to' limit the judgment to the amount paid and to be paid by the Fidelity and Casualty Company, and from the order of June 10, 1953, sustaining demurrer and motion to strike paragraphs III and IV of the defendant’s answer, and motion to strike the second literary paragraph of paragraph I of defendant’s answer.”

The pertinent part of CR 73.03 reads:

“The notice of appeal shall specify the parties taking the appeal, and shall designate the judgment or part thereof appealed from.”

Even a casual reading. of the notice of appeal shows it meets the requirements of CR'73.03. The notice not only specifies the appeal is from the final judgment, which is sufficient within itself, but in addition thereto specifies certain orders which he seeks-to have reviewed.- Our Rule 73.03 is quite similar to Federal Civil Rule 73(b), 28 U.S.C.A., and under Long v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 10 Cir., 206 F.2d 829, and Fahs v. Merrill, 5 Cir., 142 F.2d 651, construing the federal 'rules, the-notice in [6]*6the case at bar complies with CR 73.03. See Clay CR, p. 600.

There is' no merit in -defendant’s contention that the court should have directed a verdict in his favor. The collision occurred at the intersection of 27th and Washington Streets in Paducah. There was no traffic light nor were there any stop signs at the intersection. There is a direct conflict in the testimony. Four witnesses testified as to how the accident happened; three of them were, disinterested ladies testifying for plaintiff and the fourth was defendant testifying for himself. The-three ladies testified Drinkard was driving a milk truck east on Washington Street and defendant was driving a Buick car south on 27th Street. However, defendant testified he was driving west on Washington Street and that Drinkard was driving south on 27th Street., One of the ladies testified the truck was traveling 35 or 40 miles an hour and the car was going faster than that. Another lady did not give the speed of the car but testified both vehicles “were going pretty fast, too fast for that corner.” The third lady could not estimate the speed of either vehicle.

Defendant testified he was traveling around 20 miles an hour and the truck was making 35 or 40 miles an hour and that he reached the intersection 15 or 20 feet ahead of the truck. When asked to describe how the accident happened, defendant testified:

“Well, when I come into the intersection there I noticed the vehicle started into the intersection at the same time. Evidently he was traveling at a greater rate of speed than I was because it showed I hit' him in the side, but when I seen him I applied my brakes and cut it to avoid the accident, you know.”

A diagram, shows Washington Street is 66 feet wide and 27th Stre'et is 60 feet wide. Pictures .taken at the scene of the accident soon after it occurred, and introduced 'in -evidence, show the truck was hit on its left side just in front of the door by the right front of the car. The truck had sliding doors which were opened and the force of the collision threw. Drinkard out of the truck (he was killed almost instantly) and caused the truck to change its- course practically at right angles and run into the yard of Mr. Seamon at the southwest corner of the intersection. The car came to a .stop on the southwest side of 27th Street near Seamon’s yard. There were no skid marks on the street showing brak.es had been applied on either vehicle with sufficient force to cause them to skid.

From the testimony and physical facts it is apparent Drinkard was not guilty of contributory negligence as a matter -of law and that this is a case for the jury. Although the evidence is highly conflicting, the jury very logically, could -have found the accident was caused by defendant’s negligence and the verdict, is abundantly supported by the evidence.

We cannot agree with defendant the court erred in not giving an instruction he offered, that it was Drinkard’s duty to have the doors closed on the truck he was driving. Defendant cites no authority to support this proposition and we have found none. He does refer us to KRS 189.020 which provides: “Every vehicle when on a highway shall be so equipped as to * * * protect the rights of other traffic, and to promote the public safety.” But this statute lacks much of requiring a milk truck to be driven with its sliding doors closed. It is common knowledge that milk trucks are often driven on city streets with their sliding doors open.

Defendant complains of the second instruction dealing with the right of way at the intersection because instead of requiring a vehicle to yield the right of way at the intersection to.another vehicle approaching from the right, unless the vehicle approaching from the right is farther from the intersection than the other vehicle, the ■ instruction required the vehicle to yield the right of way “at the intersection of its path with the path of another vehicle approaching from the right unless the vehicle approaching from the right is farther from the point of intersection of [7]*7the paths of the two automobiles than such-first named vehicle.” The instruction as given is in the language of KRS 189.330 (2) dealing with the right of way at intersections which uses the terms “intersection of their paths” and “the point of intersection of their paths”.

In Kentucky Livery Co. v. Meyers, 196 Ky. 822, 245 S.W. 882, and again in Fall City Ice & Beverage Co. v. Scanlan Coal Co., 208 Ky. 820, 271 S.W. 1097, we approved the use of the term “intersection of their paths”. In Tate v. Shaver, 287 Ky. 29, 152 S.W.2d 259

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279 S.W.2d 4, 1955 Ky. LEXIS 497, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bumpus-v-drinkards-admx-kyctapp-1955.