Davis v. Tobin

163 A. 780, 131 Me. 426, 1933 Me. LEXIS 5
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedJanuary 10, 1933
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 163 A. 780 (Davis v. Tobin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Tobin, 163 A. 780, 131 Me. 426, 1933 Me. LEXIS 5 (Me. 1933).

Opinion

Barnes, J.

In the Superior Court three cases, the two here considered and that of Frank A. Davis, the driver of the automobile in which the plaintiffs here were injured in collision with defendant’s car, were tried together.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant in the case brought by the driver, and verdicts for the plaintiffs here.

Defendant brings the plaintiffs’ cases up on general motions for new trial, and on exceptions.

The two cases may be treated effectually in one opinion.

The accident occurred in Union Square of Houlton village, at about 11.30 a.m., on August 31, 1929.

Frank H. Davis was then and there driving a roadster, his daughter Catherine seated at his right, his wife in the rumble.

He crossed the iron bridge, so-called, moving then southerly and proceeded into Union Square, which is an enlargement of the Bangor road.

Union Square joins Market Square on the east, Kendall Street on the south, and the Bangor road westerly.

Mr. Davis testified that he had previously driven up the Bangor road into Market Square a dozen times, but that he had never entered Houlton, by U. S. Route 2, over the iron bridge before; that he started from a stop near the mouth of the bridge, and moving in second gear, climbed the slight rise that faced him, if he should enter Kendall Street, a continuation of the road he was then on, or should turn to his right to proceed out along the Bangor road.

The turn to run out along the latter road is practically a right hand turn, and in the angle, flush with the sidewalk on Union Square and the northerly margin of the Bangor road, a hotel building cut off his view to the west, until he was up the hill and in the Bangor road.

As he drove into this intersection of four streets, an automobile standing before the hotel building further limited his field of vision.

At this time the top of the roadster was down, and the daughter, on the right front seat, was talking with her mother in the rumble, presenting, as she sat, her back toward the door and Bangor road.

[428]*428Defendant, just before the collision, drove his car, a Hudson coach, from a car service shop situated, as he testified, three hundred feet westerly from the point of collision, up the Bangor road.

He testified, and all witnesses agree, that he traversed the southerly, his right hand, portion of the street from a point seventy-five' or eighty feet westerly of the point of collision until very near the car of plaintiffs.

He testified that as he approached the intersection of Kendall Street and the Bangor Road he saw a car emerging from Kendall Street: that he soon saw the Kendall Street car swerve easterly as if to proceed into Market Square, and then for the first time saw the roadster when he was thirty-five feet from it, and thirty feet from the point of collision.

His words were, “It seemed to me as if he was going down Bangor himself; so I didn’t pay much more attention to him. I didn’t watch him strike at all, I was watching the other fellow; and the next time I looked around I see then he was starting to go straight across the street. When he did I turned sharp to the left to avoid him. I see I couldn’t go around behind him, so I slammed on the brake.”

While the jury had the above for consideration they had also the testimony of Mr. Davis that, on the scene and at the time, “I asked him what in the world was the matter that made him run into me, and he said he never saw me. He said positively that he never seen me.” Of two men who were near the cars when they came together, had unobstructed view, and who testified that they looked at defendant’s car as it rolled to collision, called by defendant, one gave no testimony as to speed of defendant’s approach, or slackening before impact, the other that the approach was at about twelve miles an hour and that he observed no slackening.

Two disinterested men who stood almost in the path of the road- • ster, in depositions, aver that defendant’s close approach was at a speed between thirty-five and forty-five miles an hour, and that he did not slacken speed until the cars were in collision.

A woman, who was seated in the car that stood in front of the hotel building, in her deposition testified that defendant drove his car, “at a fast rate of speed, and he was looking at my car which was standing on the side of the street and he was not looking in the [429]*429direction in which he was going . . . the driver was looking at a monkey playing in my car.”

Further testimony of defendant, in cross examination, reads,

“Q. And at the rate of speed you were travelling just before the collision, with the condition the car was in and the brakes, how far do you say your car would have travelled if you had put your brakes on when you deemed a collision imminent?
A. It wouldn’t have went very far.
Q. How far in your opinion?
A. Oh, somewheres around a foot.
Q. You thought the Davis car was about stopping, you say?
A. Well, I thought he was either stopped or he was stopping right there.
Q. What made you think that?
A. He was coming in on my left and I supposed I was protected on that side.
Q. Don’t you know whether the Davis car was in motion or standing still when you first saw it ?
A. I didn’t pay much attention to it.
Q. Then why do you say that you thought it was going to stop if you didn’t pay any attention to it ?
A. I thought it was either going to stop or turn and go down Bangor.
Q. What made you think that?
A. Because he was coming in on my left-hand side.”

A right forward part of the coach hit the right rear wheel of the roadster, with sufficient force to throw the Davis passengers violently about, and both cars stopped.

The testimony quoted above, with all the other admissible testimony, not including such as was by deposition, would seem to justify the finding of negligence on the part of defendant.

Mrs. Davis testified that she saw the sedan and screamed just before the impact, and remembered no details of the collision until after it was over, and someone was presenting a glass of water to her.

[430]*430Miss Davis was precipitated through the doorway, falling so that her head and shoulder struck the roadway, her feet not clearing the car, and lapsed into unconsciousness.

It is not disputed that both women were injured, and the amount of damages is attacked as excessive only in the case of the girl.

It is urged that Mrs. Davis was negligent because of what she saw of the approach of the coach, and because she failed to do anything to avert an accident, or gave no suggestion to the husband, who was driving.

She did not attempt by act to participate in the driving, a course certainly not required of a passenger in the rumble. She did not continue conversation regarding defendant’s approach.

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Bluebook (online)
163 A. 780, 131 Me. 426, 1933 Me. LEXIS 5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-tobin-me-1933.