Colwell v. Jones

346 S.W.2d 450, 48 Tenn. App. 353, 1960 Tenn. App. LEXIS 125
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedDecember 2, 1960
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 346 S.W.2d 450 (Colwell v. Jones) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colwell v. Jones, 346 S.W.2d 450, 48 Tenn. App. 353, 1960 Tenn. App. LEXIS 125 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

[355]*355I

SHRIVER, J.

This is a suit by Mrs. Annie Helon Reeder Colwell, Administratrix of the estate of Anvel Colwell, deceased, against Jimmy Nelson Jones, Jessie E. Jones and Avalon Daries of McMinnville, Tennessee, brought to recover damages for personal injuries and death of Auvel Colwell, husband of the Administratrix, which injuries were sustained when a milk truck owned by defendant, Jessie E. Jones and driven by his son Jimmy Nelson Jones ran over Auvel Colwell on or adjacent to the Keltonburg Road in Warren County, Tennessee, on September 8, 1958.

The case was tried before Honorable Robert S. Brady, Judge of the Circuit Court of DeKalb County, and a jury, on December 16 and 17, 1959 when there was a verdict and judgment for plaintiff against the defendants, Jimmy Nelson Jones and Jessie E. Jones, for $10,000 and a verdict in favor of the defendant Avalon Dairies, and there was no appeal from the action of the jury in finding in favor of said defendant Avalon Dairies.

On the motion of defendants, Jessie E. Jones and Jimmy Nelson Jones, for a new trial the trial Judge suggested a remittitur of $3,500 and otherwise overruled the motion. The remittitur was accepted under protest and judgment was entered in the Court below in favor of plaintiff against said two defendants for $6,500.

Defendants Jessie E. Jones and Jimmy Nelson Jones have appealed in error to this Court and have assigned errors. Plaintiff also appealed in error from the action of the Court in suggesting a remittitur and has assigned said action of the Court as error.

[356]*356II

At the beginning of the trial the parties stipulated that the Jones’ milk truck was registered in the name of Jessie E. Jones and that the Colwell truck was registered in the name of plaintiff’s intestate, Auvel Colwell.

It is alleged and admitted in the pleadings that this accident occurred on Keltonburg Eoad in Warren County about 6:25 A.M. on Monday, September 8, 1958.

It is shown that Colwell left his home and family in his 1% ton pick-up truck about nine or ten o ’clock on Sunday Morning September 7, 1958, and took his sixteeen year old son with him, and this is the last time Colwell’s wife saw him until after the accident.

On Sunday afternoon and evening preceding the accident, Colwell’s father started looking for him and found him and his son in the late afternoon of that day and took the boy home but Colwell did not return home and it was later learned by the family that he was out with a neighbor named Spark Puckett.

The proof is that Colwell and Puckett were drinking liquor during Sunday afternoon and Sunday night and the truck in which they were riding became stalled in the road about a mile and a half from the place where the accident happened. Automobiles attempting to travel the road were blocked so that they had to seek another route around the truck. About five o’clock on Monday morning Puckett went to a farmer’s home nearby and persuaded him to pull the truck off with his tractor and, after it was started, Colwell drove on down the road towards where the accident happened later in the morning.

[357]*357The truck was again stopped near the middle of the road a short distance east of a curve and was in this position when the defendant Jimmy Jones came along in his milk truck and the accident occurred.

Colwell and Puckett had not put out any warning signals to indicate that the truck was stopped in the road and there was testimony that weather was foggy at this point, however, there was also testimony to the effect that it was clear.

There was a field of lespedeza almost knee high on the south side of the road and it was wet with dew.

A half gallon jug almost full of white whiskey was found about 30 feet from the point of the accident.

At the time of the accident Jimmy Nelson Jones was driving his father’s one and one half ton milk truck and was proceeding eastwardly along Keltonburg Road at a speed of from 30 to 35 miles an hour according to his testimony. The truck was loaded with 80 empty milk cans and was equipped with booster brakes which were in good working order.

Colwell’s farm truck was about 7 feet wide and was standing in Keltonburg Road which is a gravelled road about 16 feet wide at this point. At the time of the accident it was disabled so that it had to be pushed or pulled from the scene.

As defendant Jones rounded the curve approaching the place where the Colwell truck was standing he saw it at a distance that he estimated to be about 100 feet away and Colwell was standing in the road 4 feet behind the truck with his arms raised signaling Jones to stop. Jones [358]*358testified that-as lie went into the cnrve he let np on the accelerator so that he was travelling abont 25 to 30 miles an honr at the time he saw the Colwell track in front of him. lie stated that his brakes were in good order and he thought that he could have stopped his truck within the distance to the Colwell truck but, not being sure, and seeing Colwell standing behind the truck, he elected to cut to the right and went up an embankment about 18 inches high and into the lespedeza field. The record shows that he travelled a distance of 96 feet from the point where he left the road to the point where he brought his truck to a stop. In the meantime he ran over Colwell who had also run into the field south of his truck when he saw the Jones’ truck bearing down upon him. Colwell was run down and severely injured about 10 feet south of the road in the lespedeza field and later died from these injuries.

There is evidence that Jones’ truck left the road approximately 100 feet west of the Colwell truck and came to rest some 18 or 20 feet to the right or south of the Colwell truck and about even with it in the lespedeza field. Colwell received injuries to his head which paralyzed his left side and he remained paralyzed from the date of the accident, September 8, 1958, until he died on September 10, 1959. At the time of the accident Colwell was 36 years of age. He had been discharged from the army on March 26, 1958, being a Sergeant at the time of his discharge, and drawing $400 a month as pay. At the time of his death he had an earning capacity of from $4 to $5 a day as a farm laborer.

[359]*359III

Assignments of Error

The plaintiffs in error, defendants below, have filed five principal assignments of error with multiple sub-assignments which we will not attempt to discuss separately.

Assignment No. 1, with its sub-assignments, is to the effect that there is no evidence to support the verdict of the jury and, therefore, the motion at the conclusion of the evidence to direct a verdict in favor of defendants should have been sustained.

Assignment Nos. 2 and 3 complain of the action of the Court in admitting a map, plaintiff’s exhibit No. 1, and the testimony of O. E. Underhill relating to said map.

Assignment No. 4 complains of the admission of evidence concerning insurance.

Assignment No. 5 asserts that the verdict was the result of passion, prejudice and caprice on the part of the jury as well as sympathy and the injection of liability insurance into the evidence.

As hereinabove stated the plaintiff below appealed in error and has assigned as error the action of the trial Judge in suggesting a remittitur of $3,500.

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Bluebook (online)
346 S.W.2d 450, 48 Tenn. App. 353, 1960 Tenn. App. LEXIS 125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colwell-v-jones-tennctapp-1960.