City of Denton v. Mathes

528 S.W.2d 625, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 3089
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 3, 1975
Docket17646
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 528 S.W.2d 625 (City of Denton v. Mathes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Denton v. Mathes, 528 S.W.2d 625, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 3089 (Tex. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

OPINION

SPURLOCK, Justice.

Cornelius Holden, as next friend for his daughter, Dorothy Holden, brought suit against Pargas, Inc., for damages for personal injuries resulting from a collision between a motorcycle on which she was riding as a passenger and a truck being driven by an employee of Pargas at an intersection in the City of Denton, Texas, where the traffic was controlled by a traffic control system of lights installed and operated by the City of Denton.

Pargas, as third party plaintiff, sued the City of Denton, charging negligence of the City of Denton in its operation of the traf *627 fic control signals and asked for contribution or indemnity from the City of Denton.

Clayton Mathes, the operator of the motorcycle, had also filed suit, and after the marriage of Miss Holden and Mathes subsequent to the accident, these suits were consolidated and tried.

Upon answers to issues submitted to the jury, the court rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs and against Pargas and the City, jointly and severally, and judgment in favor of Pargas against the City for full indemnity. The City has appealed.

We affirm.

On August 18,1972, these plaintiffs were proceeding south on South Elm Street on a green traffic signal light when the driver for Pargas, driving a pickup truck and coming from the opposite direction, made a left turn into them. A vehicle travelling south on South Elm Street would be on a one-way southbound street until the driver reached its intersection with Eagle Drive, at which point the name changed to Fort Worth Drive and two-way traffic began.

About two months before the collision the City of Denton had installed a new traffic control device and changed the sequences. At one point in the new sequence, traffic proceeding south on Elm had a green light indicating that traffic was allowed to proceed south, and the signal facing traffic going north was changed so that a vehicle preparing to turn left onto Eagle would face a red light with a green arrow.

Immediately prior to the collision Mr. Mathes slowed the speed of his motorcycle to make sure that he could stop in the event the green light changed to red before he arrived at the intersection. At that time the Pargas truck was going very slowly, apparently stopping. When the light facing Mathes remained green as he entered the intersection he accelerated slightly. The driver of the Pargas truck, going in the opposite direction had slowed for the red light facing him but before he stopped a green left-turn arrow appeared in the red light indicating to him that he could make a left turn, which he did, striking the motorcycle with his left head light and fender. Mrs. Mathes was thrown from the motorcycle and struck a city owned vehicle occupied by an assistant warrant officer of the City of Denton who was then on duty.

Mr. William Moore, Traffic Control Engineer for the City of Denton, stated that prior to the change in the traffic light on June 1, 1972, the traffic lights were in conformity with the 1971 National Manual. This manual went into effect in Texas on June 1, 1972. After this manual went into effect, the City, under Mr. Moore’s direction, had the lights changed so that they would not then conform with state law which adopted the 1971 National Manual. He stated that: lights remained in that condition until the date of the accident; the signal sequence in question permitted a ear going south to come in conflict with a vehicle coming in the opposite direction which was making a left turn on a red light with green error; and each of the drivers of the vehicles here involved would then assume he had the right-of-way and would not know the signals would permit the vehicles to come in contact with one another.

The witness Moore testified that the City was obligated to comply with this manual. In addition, he admitted that under existing law at the time of the collision such signal should not be used when a two-way street merged into a one-way street and that the City was bound by the manual. He admitted that: no warning signals were posted advising the travelling public of the danger involved; this was the only signal light that functioned in this manner in the City; it would take from one to two days to change the lights so that they would conform with existing law; he had been in the traffic department of some cities prior to his present position; and at the time of the accident he was a college student majoring in economics.

The driver for Pargas testified that he saw plaintiffs proceeding toward him and thought they would stop because they *628 would surely have a red light facing them. He then ceased looking toward the approaching motorcycle and looked to his left and proceeded until the collision occurred.

In response to special issues the jury found that the driver of the Pargas truck failed to keep a proper lookout which was a proximate cause of the occurrence in question; he was not driving at a greater speed than a person using ordinary care would have driven; and that he did not turn left at a time when a person of ordinary care would not have done so.

The jury was given the following definition of “actual notice”:

“. . . actual notice embraces those things of which the one sought to be charged has express information, and likewise those things which a reasonably diligent inquiry and exercise of the means of information at hand would have disclosed.”

The jury answered “We do” to each of the following issues having to do with actual notice:

“Issue No. 7: Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that THE CITY OF DENTON, at or near the time of the collision in question, had actual notice that CLAYTON MATHES received some injury therein?

“Issue No. 8: Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that THE CITY OF DENTON, at or near the time of the collision in question, had actual notice that DOROTHY HOLDEN MATHES received some injury therein?

“Issue No. 9: Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that THE CITY OF DENTON, at or near the time of the occurrence involved herein had actual notice of the material facts pertaining to the time, manner and place of the collision involved in this suit and the personal injuries sustained by CLAYTON MATHES and DOROTHY HOLDEN MATHES?”

The jury also answered “We do” to these issues:

“Issue No. 10: Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that at the time and on the occasion in question the Defendant, City of Denton, Texas, used a steady green arrow indication on Fort Worth Drive which would be in conflict with other vehicles crossing the intersection?

“Issue No. 11: Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such use was negligence?

“Issue No. 12: Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such use was a proximate cause of the occurrence in question?

“Issue No. 13: Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the Defendant, City of Denton, Texas, failed to correct said conflicting traffic condition within a reasonable time after notice of said condition?

“Issue No.

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Bluebook (online)
528 S.W.2d 625, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 3089, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-denton-v-mathes-texapp-1975.