Cushing Refining & Gasoline Co. v. Deshan

1931 OK 319, 300 P. 312, 149 Okla. 225, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 232
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 9, 1931
Docket20081
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 1931 OK 319 (Cushing Refining & Gasoline Co. v. Deshan) 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
Cushing Refining & Gasoline Co. v. Deshan, 1931 OK 319, 300 P. 312, 149 Okla. 225, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 232 (Okla. 1931).

Opinion

ANDREWS, J.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the district court of Payne county, Okla., in favor of the defendant in error, Ethel May Deslían, as widow and next of kin Qf James S. Deshan, deceased, the plaintiff below, and hereinafter referred to as plaintiff, and against the plaintiff in error, defendant below, and hereinafter referred to as defendant. The original proceeding joined as defendants L. Y. Lewellan and C. L. Virtue, partners doing business under the firm name of Sooner Trucking Company, who were jointly charged with liability with defendant. The verdict of the jury was in favor of those defendants.' They will be hereinafter referred to as the trucking company. The action was for the wrongful death of' James S. Deslían, who will be hereinafter referred to as the decedent. The verdict of the jury was in the sum of $20,000. Judgment was rendered thereon in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant.

The facts in the case are substantially as follows: The decedent was in the employ of the defendant, the place of employment being some distance in the country. During the period of the employment the defendant, under its agreement with the plaintiff and the custom of the defendant in carrying on its business, conveyed the decedent from his home to the place of his employment and from the place of his employment to his home. On the night of the accident the field superintendent of the defendant, in the performance of his duty to the defendant; waa *227 conveying the decedent and other employees oí defendant from the place of employment to their homes in a Buick automobile which belonged to the defendant and was furnished by it for that purpose. The decedent was riding in the front seat of the automobile, which was being driven by the field superintendent of the defendant, who had entire charge thereof. A truck with a trailer in the rear belonging to the trucking company was stopped on the highway. A piece of rig timber extended from the truck and trailer to the rear. The roadway was straight for some 600 feet from the parked truck in the direction from which the automobile was coming. The automobile struck the end of the piece of timber, the piece of timber going through the right side of the front windshield, passing through the ear and out the rear of the automobile on the left side. The decedent was instantly killed. The decedent left a widow and two small children as his legal heirs. His wages were $140 per month at the time of the accident. He contributed as much as $100 each month for the supp'ort of his family. He was 29 years of age and in good health. He was an affectionate husband and father. His wife was 27 or 28 years of age and the ages of the children were six and three years, respectively.

Since the verdict of the jury in favor of the plaintiff was a general verdict, we are bound by the rule that the judgment thereon Will not be disturbed by this court if there is any competent evidence reasonably tending to support the same. Moses v. Harris, 111 Okla. 54, 237 Pac. 591. For that reason, in referring to further testimony, we will consider that favorable to the plaintiff.

The evidence further shows that the driver of the automobile was driving at the time of the accident at a rate of speed somewhere between 45 and 55 miles per hour. The driver of the ear testified that he could not stop the car at the rate of speed it was moving after discovering the truck. He further testified that he was not farther than 35 feet from the truck when he first saw it. There was some dispute as to whether both of the headlights of the car were burning at the time of the accident, one of the witnesses testifying that only one of them was burning and the driver of the car testifying that he did not know whether they were both burning or not, for sometimes one of them was burning and sometimes both of them were burning. The driver testified that he “had got out on that trip and fixed one of the lights,” but he refused to testify that both of the lights were burning at the time of the accident.

There is only one primary question in this case, and that is, whether or not the death of the decedent was caused by the negligence of the defendant, acting through its agents and employees. That question was determined by the verdict of the jury and thé judgment based thereon, and being supported by competent evidence, it will not be disturbed.

The attack on the judgment consists of assignments of error all except one of which relate to the instructions offered, refused, and given. That one is as follows:

“Said court erred in permitting the plaintiff below to offer in evidence mortality tables showing the life expectancy of the widow, Ethel May Deshan, who was younger than her deceased husband.”

Since the amount of the recovery is less than that shown by the evidence to be warranted, the error, if any, in the admission of the evidence was not such as to warrant a reversal of this cause. Twelve hundred dollars per year for the 36 years of the expectancy of the decedent justifies a verdict in excess of the amount recovered in this case. The error, if any, in permitting the introduction of the evidence complained of was harmless. Muskogee Electric Traction Co v. Ellison, 92 Okla. 200, 218 Pac. 829.

Objection was made to the giving of instruction No. 1. It is contended that that instruction consisted of a summary of the allegations of the pleadings, some of which were not supported by any evidence. It is urged that, inasmuch as there was no evidence as to the condition of the brakes on the automobile, no reference thereto should have been made in the instruction. Under the rule stated in Lambard-Hart Loan Co. v. Smiley, 115 Okla. 202, 242 Pac. 212, it is reversible error to submit the pleadings to the jury for them to determine what the issues are. where the pleadings are voluminous and involved, and the clear import of the decision is that the court should state the issues to the jury in its instructions. The instructions given fairly stated the issues in this case. The court confined the right of recovery to the failure of the driver of the automobile to use ordinary care in the operation thereof and to the negligence of the driver of the automobile in operating the car at the rate of speed at which it was being operated. Nowhere did the court submit to the jury any issue as to the defective condition of the brakes on the automobile. While instruction No. 1, standing alone, might be considered to be erroneous, it must be construed along with the other instructions given in which the *228 issues were clearly outlined. In Newton v. Allen, 67 Okla. 73, 168 Pac. 1009, this court held that the incorporation of the petition and answer in the court’s instructions is not prejudicial error, where in other portions of the instructions the issues are clearly stated. See, also, Schmucker v. Clifton, 62 Okla. 249, 162 Pac. 1094.

'Instruction No. 4 was as follows:

“You are instructed that the rules of the road in Oklahoma provide all vehicles overtaking others shall, in passing, keep to the left of the center of the road and shall not go over to the right unless entirely clear of the vehicle passed. And the maximum speed limit shall not exceed 35 miles per hour.”

That instruction follows the statute in force at the time of the accident. We see no reason why it was not applicable to the facts in this case. In Tully v. Wetzel, 97 Okla. 22, 222 Pac.

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Bluebook (online)
1931 OK 319, 300 P. 312, 149 Okla. 225, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 232, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cushing-refining-gasoline-co-v-deshan-okla-1931.