Butts v. Ward

279 N.W. 6, 227 Wis. 387, 116 A.L.R. 1441, 1938 Wisc. LEXIS 107
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedApril 12, 1938
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 279 N.W. 6 (Butts v. Ward) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Butts v. Ward, 279 N.W. 6, 227 Wis. 387, 116 A.L.R. 1441, 1938 Wisc. LEXIS 107 (Wis. 1938).

Opinion

Fowler, J.

The defendants Kroger Grocery & Baking Company and Bunders assign as error the refusal of the court to direct a verdict and award judgment in their favor on the grounds that, (1) Ward was negligent as matter of [391]*391law; and (2) that his negligence was a superseding or intervening cause that rendered Bunders’ leaving the truck on the highway not a proximate cause of the injuries sustained by the parties; and that if not entitled to1 a directed verdict they are entitled to a new trial because the court, (3) refused to submit to the jury questions requested by them; (4) they were denied a fair trial on the question of Ward’s lookout; (5) the damages awarded were excessive; and (6) the court erred in instructing the jury as to damages. The defendant Ward assigns as error that the court refused to direct judgment in his favor as against the plaintiffs, in awarding contribution against him in favor of the other defendants, and in not awarding him judgment against his codefendants for the full amount of his damages for injury to his automobile, on the ground that, (7) he, as matter of law, was not guilty of any negligence, and the collision was wholly due to the negligence of the defendant Bunders.

(1) and (7) involve the controversy as to the negligence of Ward and the other defendants. The findings of the jury as to Bunders’ negligence as stated in the preceding statement of facts are all amply sustained by the evidence.

The evidentiary facts appearing without dispute or properly inferred that bear upon Ward’s negligence in addition to those stated preceding the opinion may be summarized as follows: The collision occurred shortly after the time after sunset when sec. 85.06 (1), Stats., prohibits operations of automobiles on the highway without lights, and when sec. 85.06 (2) (d) requires flares or fusees to be placed when trucks are left standing on the road. The lights were turned on on both automobiles but not on the truck. The highway was paved; the pavement was twenty feet wide; the shoulders were hard and dry. The west shoulder was ten and the east twelve feet wide. There was a shallow ditch outside the shoulders. Butts turned onto Highway No. 89 at the inter[392]*392section of it with another road fifteen hundred feet north of the place of collision and noticed the standing truck when he entered No. 89. The road was straight, and. there were no depressions or elevations to interfere with vision north at any point within a distance of nineteen hundred feet south of the standing truck. Ward did not notice the truck until he was about two hundred feet from it, nor did his seat mate. Both Ward and his seat mate claimed to be watching the road ahead closely. Ward was driving about forty-five miles per hour on his own side of the road. His lights were good and would disclose objects two hundred feet ahead. His brakes were good and at forty-five miles per hour his car could be stopped in one hundred thirty-five feet. As soon as Ward noticed the truck he applied his brakes. He did not turn left sooner because, hp says, he thought a vehicle might be coming from the nortR He kept to the right until it appeared that he would collide with the truck unless he turned, and he then turned left instead of right, although there was room to pass the truck on the right by turning onto the shoulder. Looking north from points south of the place where the truck stood, the background formed by trees and farm buildings was dark. The color of the truck was similar to that of the background. Experienced drivers testified that it is difficult to discern objects against a dark background that are of color similar to that of the background. Dark objects against a dark background are hard to distinguish, while they show up plainly against a light background. The difficulty of discerning objects in the roadway of dark color in the nighttime, even with most efficient headlights, was recognized by this court in Colby Cheese Box Co. v. Dallendorfer, 213 Wis. 331, 251 N. W. 447. It is there pointed out that the rule laid down in Lau-son v. Fond du Lac, 141 Wis. 57, 123 N. W. 629; Kleist v. Cohodas, 195 Wis. 637, 219 N. W. 366, and Knapp v. Somerville, 196 Wis. 54, 59, 219 N. W. 369, is too strict for [393]*393practical application under all circumstances. The statute in existence when the two cases last above cited were decided were considered in the Dallendorfer Case as legislative indorsement of the rule of the Lauson Case, that an automobile should always be driven at such speed that it can be stopped within the range of its lights. Those statutes lay down the positive requirement of carrying lights sufficient to enable the driver to distinguish obstacles two' hundred feet ahead under any and all conditions. The statutes when the Dallendorfer Case was decided, and now in existence, sec. 85.06, subs. (1) and (2) (a), introduce the element of “normal atmospheric conditions.” The rule of the Lauson Case was limited in Mann v. Reliable Transit Co. 217 Wis. 465, 470, 259 N. W. 415, to situations where “the phenomenon of camouflage” does not exist, and in applying it situations are excluded in which “an object may not reasonably be distinguished, though within the range of his [the driver’s] lights, because of its invisibility to a person in the exercise of ordinary care as to lookout.” Owing to background and the dark color of the truck in the instant situation, we have a situation of “camouflage,” as the word is used in the Mann Case opinion. Upon all the evidence we are of opinion that the jury might properly find Ward not negligent as to lookout for not perceiving the truck sooner than he did.

The jury also found Ward not guilty “with respect to making observation before turning to pass the truck as to whether the left or west lane was free of oncoming traffic for a sufficient distance ahead to permit such passing of the truck to be made in safety.” This was equivalent to finding he was not negligent for turning left. If not negligent as to lookout, Ward was in an emergency not of his own creation, and his exercise of judgment in turning left might properly be held excusable by the jury, although it may appear in retrospect that it would have been less unsafe to turn right. With these two findings justified, Ward is freed from negli[394]*394gence in any respect. The jury found that he was negligent for “not turning out sooner.” But there was no occasion to turn out or do anything at all until he saw the truck. He turned in time to clear the truck, and turned as soon as he perceived he would run into the truck if he did not turn. He was in an emergency. Pie would traverse two hundred feet in approximately three seconds at forty-five miles per hour. It would take him at least a split second to remove his foot from the accelerator and press the brake, another for the brake to act on the wheels and for the wheels to act on the road. It appears to us that he acted as promptly as and did all that could reasonably be expected under the findings that he was not negligent as to lookout or in turning left. The jury’s inference of negligence in the respect found was not warranted. It follows that the complaint should have been dismissed as against Ward, the cross complaint against him for contribution should have been dismissed, and judgment should have been entered upon his cross complaint against his codefendants for the full amount of the damages to his car, unless' the other defendants are entitled to a new trial upon the grounds laid therefor.

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Bluebook (online)
279 N.W. 6, 227 Wis. 387, 116 A.L.R. 1441, 1938 Wisc. LEXIS 107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/butts-v-ward-wis-1938.