Butts v. Collins

1932 OK 443, 12 P.2d 196, 158 Okla. 19, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 899
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 7, 1932
Docket20922
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1932 OK 443 (Butts v. Collins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Butts v. Collins, 1932 OK 443, 12 P.2d 196, 158 Okla. 19, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 899 (Okla. 1932).

Opinions

KORNEGAY, J.

This is a proceeding in error to review the action of the district court of Washington county in rendering a judgment against the petitioners for $1,200, on a three-fourths verdict of the jury, for damages alleged to have occurred by reason of the negligence of the plaintiffs in error in handling a passenger automobile, at an intersection between an ordinary dirt highway and the pavement, running generally north and south, about three miles north of Ramona, in Washington county, about 3 o’clock in the afternoon of July 9, 1928.

At all stages of the proceeding, both in the pleading» and at the conclusion of the evidence of both sides, the defendants below denied any negligence on their part, as plaintiffs in error assign as error the giving of instructions 1!, 3, 4, 5, 8, 17,.and 18, and the overruling of the demurrers of the plaintiffs in error to the evidence of the defendant in error, and rendition) of judgment on the verdict.

The petition avers that the plaintiff, in a car of his own, driven by big wife, on the 9th, of July, 1028, was driving along .the Bartlesville-Ramona- payed highway at not *20 more than 30 miles per hour, and the car was being handled in a prudent and careful manner, and the negligence charging part is as follows:

“* * * ^hat gc. plaintiff’s automobile reached the point above described, the defendant, A. L. Butts, was driving a Buick coupe automobile north on the east side of the middle line of said paved highway immediately in front of this plaintiff: that the said A. L. Butts was driving the said automobile at a slow rate of speed at approximately two or three miles per hour, and had come almost to a complete stop, at which ■time the driver of plaintiff’s automobile honked the horn of said car twice and swung out to the left side of the said paved highway to go around the automobile being-driven by the said A. L. Butts, that when plaintiff’s ear swung out as aforesaid, to pass the said Buick automobile, the said A. L. Butts, without any sign, signal or warning, carelessly, negligently and wrongfully and without regard t-o the safety and rights of this plaintiff, turned hiis said automobile abruptly to the left squarely across said paved highway, and coming to a complete stop directly in front of this plaintiff’s approaching automobile, and thereby suddenly obstructing (he said paved highway, and by reason of the defendant suddenly obstructing said highway, the driver of plaintiff’s automobile was unable to stop his said ear by reason of the close proximity of said automobiles, and in order to avoid a direct collision with the said Buick automobile, the driver of plaintiff’s ear turned said automobile abruptly to the left, and by reason thereof the left wheels of plaintiff’s said automobile left the paved highway and his said automobile swung around the side of the said Buick automobile, and in an effort of the driver of plaintiff’s automobile to swing said car back on to the paved highway in order to avoid an imminent crash into- the embankment of -said highway, the said Studebaker automobile swung to the right and turned completely over, throwing this plaintiff violently out of said automobile and upon the pavement of said highway, and thereby injuring tbis plaintiff and his said automobile.
‘ Plaintiff further says that at the time he received the injuries aforesaid, the defendant the- Mid-Kansas Oil & Gas Oompany was the owner of the Buick automobile being driven by the defendant A. L. -Butts., and the said A. L. Butts was then and there an employee, agent, and servant of the Mid-Kansas Oil & Gas Oompany, and was acting as the agent and -servant of the said Mid-Kansas Oil & Gas Company in operating said automobile at said time and place, and was about the business of the said Mid-Kansas Oil & Gas Oompany, the exact nature and character of said business being unknown to this plaintiff, and said A. L. Butts was acting within the scops of his authority and employment”

The petition then described the injuries that he received, which were very severe, and laid his personal damages at $5,000. It averred the automobile that was destroyed was worth $600, and asked for judgment foils, 600.

After some preliminary motions, the plaintiff in error Butts filed an answer, which was a general denial, and averred the speed of the car of plaintiff below was 50 miles per hour, and by reason thereof, when the plaintiff’s driver turned, out, she lost control of the car. There was a general allegation that the negligence of the driver was the cause of the accident, as follows:

“For further defense this defendant alleges and states that at the time of the accident complained of, the plaintiff and his vrife and agent driving the plaintiff in plaintiff’® Studebaker automobile, were guilty of negligence which either caused or contributed to the accident complained of in this, to wit,' that the plaintiff and his said agent failed to have said Studebaker automobile under control, and failed to exercise ordinary care in (he driving of said automobile as hereinabove set out.”

Reply by general denial was made to this answer. The oil company, in its answer, denied each and every allegation of the petition.

Trial was had before a jury. The plaintiff testified, and so did his wife, and the plaintiff also introduced an eyewitness of the transaction. In the pleadings the plaintiff did not state the full facts. The facts were that there was a truck, piled up with about 100 bushels of oats, that was between the car of the plaintiff and the car of the defendants below, traveling in the same direction. The truck was not traveling very fast, and the defendant below had just gone by the truck and got upon the proper side of the road, which was a double track paved road and when the plaintiff sought to' go by the truck the car of the defendant was out of sight of the plaintiff as the truck was between them. In plain view was a crossing, by a section line road of the paved highway. Just the angle at which it crossed, the evidence does not disclose, but it was an obtuse angle and much greater than a right angle at the left side of the road where the plaintiff below sought to go by the car that the plaintiff in error Butts was driving.

From the evidence, the car of the plaintiffs in error was under full control, and had it not been, the car of the defendant in error. *21 tin» plaintiff below, would have run into it, as it was in the intersection and endeavoring to turn to the left to take the intersection road. The truck, slowing down, was preparing to do the same at the time that the plaintiff below undertook to go by it, except that the truck had not reached the intersection, but the ear of the plaintiffs in error had. Apparently the manager of the car of the plaintiff below took no precaution towards getting the ear under control as she approached the intersection, though until she moved out from behind the truck the view in front of the truck was necessarily obstructed by reason of the width of the truck and the load of grain piled up on it. Just a few moments before, she had seen the car of the plaintiffs in error go by the truck and disappear from sight.

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Bluebook (online)
1932 OK 443, 12 P.2d 196, 158 Okla. 19, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 899, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/butts-v-collins-okla-1932.