Douglass v. Webb

209 Cal. App. 2d 290, 26 Cal. Rptr. 60, 1962 Cal. App. LEXIS 1687
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 7, 1962
DocketCiv. 25965
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 209 Cal. App. 2d 290 (Douglass v. Webb) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Douglass v. Webb, 209 Cal. App. 2d 290, 26 Cal. Rptr. 60, 1962 Cal. App. LEXIS 1687 (Cal. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

*294 LILLIE, J.

Defendants appeal from an $18,000 judgment based on a jury verdict for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff when a pickup truck in which she was riding rolled over an embankment; they raise three main issues—the insufficiency of the evidence and errors in reference to insurance and certain instructions.

In connection with appellants’ first point, we view the evidence in a light most favorable to respondent indulging all reasonable inferences in her favor. (Ades v. Brush, 66 Cal.App.2d 436 [152 P.2d 519].) Plaintiff’s husband, Jack Douglass, borrowed a Ford pickup truck from a coemployee and friend, Mr. Khoury, for the purpose of hauling some furniture. Sometime previously Khoury had attached a rear bumper to the truck frame with only one bolt on each bumper frame, although they provided for two; the bumper was smaller than the width of the truck and extended a distance from its rear. Khoury did not know that Douglass intended to use a trailer. Douglass and another friend and fellow employee, Orville Nutt, took the truck to The Valley Trailer Rentals owned by defendants Webb. Douglass picked out a four-wheel trailer and rented it from them for $8.00. Gary Edwards, the employee in charge, was then 17 years old; he filled out the rental contract and with the help of another hooked the trailer to the bumper of the truck. Defendants’ instructions to their employees in mounting trailers was to hook the trailer to the bumper and test the latter for looseness and vertical movement by moving it up and down and standing on it. No other inspection or test was made by Edwards or his coemployee, nor did they check the trailer for sideways motion (lateral stability) or “elasticity;” their only inspection or test consisted of moving the hitch up and down and then standing on the bumper. While the bumper protruded a distance from the rear of the truck Edwards conceded he did not consider this in his inspection test; the bumper had one bolt on each frame although the frames provided for two. At no time did Douglass receive any instructions relative to the trailer. He then returned to his home and Nutt helped him load the trailer with furniture, putting the heavy appliances forward which tilted the trailer to the front. In loading it Nutt attempted to achieve a balanced load. With plaintiff and Nutt in the cab and the children in the bed of the truck, Douglass drove to the Ventura Freeway. He had the truck in low gear when he entered the on-ramp, then shifted to second as he entered the freeway and reached a cruising speed *295 of 40 to 45 miles an hour. As he shifted into high gear the trailer swayed widely right and a violent lurch to the left caused the truck to turn sharply back to the right and go over the embankment. The force broke the coupling; the trailer did not overturn. Plaintiff was injured.

The evidence shows the bracing and reinforcement of the rear bumper of the truck and its supports were inadequate to pull the trailer; it also establishes that the inadequacy of the bumper frame extension on which indirectly the hitch was fastened and the low lateral load of the trailer bearing against the bumper created a deflection and that this elastic link between the trailer and the truck prevented the trailer from following the truck in a responsive manner — there was a delay — and when a steering correction was made the trailer was slow to respond and moved laterally or horizontally, and that this caused the swaying and the accident.

Appellants claim plaintiff failed to establish any duty on their part to be responsible for the inadequacy of the bracing and reinforcement of the bumper of the truck. But this was never plaintiff’s position. She contended in the court below that defendants mounted the trailer and that one who mounts or attaches a trailer to an insufficiently reinforced or braced frame acts contrary to the standard set forth in section 701, subdivision (d), Vehicle Code, and the custom and practice of the trailer rental industry, and is negligent; on the other hand, defendants claimed that the cause of the accident was an unbalanced load heavily weighted in the rear, and excessive speed of the truck. Former section 701, subdivision (d), Vehicle Code, provides in pertinent part: “. . . Every draw-bar and trailer hitch or coupling used as a means of attaching the towed and towing units shall be properly and securely mounted and be structurally adequate for the weight drawn. The mounting of the trailer hitch on the towing motor vehicle shall include sufficient reinforcement or tracing of the frame to provide sufficient strength and.rigidity to prevent undue distortion of the frame.” (Emphasis added.) It can hardly be doubted that the trailer renting industry is expected to concern itself with the safety of those of the public for whom it mounts trailers; those so engaged do and should, by reason of their trade and experience, as between themselves and the general public, possess superior knowledge of the physical propensities of trailers and vehicles to which they are to be attached and how to test the adequacy of both, and are and should be familiar with any practice, standard or rule regu *296 lating the mounting of trailers. The practice of the trailer renting industry when mounting trailers on vehicles brought in by the public, according to defendant Webb, is—to first cheek to see if a hitch can be put on the bumper; if it can, to secure the hitch to the bumper and either stand on it or push up and down with a hand on the hitch to see if it “is securely fastened and see if there are any bolts loose in the bumper, and if there are, to either tighten the bumper or turn it down—tighten the bolts up on the bumper or turn the customer down.” Webb further testified it was the custom and practice to inform those renting trailers how they should be loaded (heavily in the front) and the speed limit (then 45 miles).

Plaintiff claims that the manner of mounting the trailer to the bumper of the truck was contrary to the standard set forth in section 701, subdivision (d), Vehicle Code, and the custom and practice of the trade, in that defendants’ mounting did not include sufficient reinforcement or bracing of the frame; that defendants, in the trailer rental business, and who mount trailers, know or should know whether use of their equipment is proper and safe with a specific vehicle, that to make such a determination they must inspect and test the vehicle to which they attach the trailer, and that in making the mounting they bring themselves within the ambit of section 701, subdivision (d), which relates to any mounting of a trailer hitch on a towing vehicle; and that it was a question for the jury whether defendants acted reasonably in this connection and whether their negligence was a proximate cause of the accident. The condition of the bumper clearly showed insufficient reinforcement or bracing of the frame for properly mounting a trailer, defendants’ inspections and tests at the time they mounted the trailer were inadequate, and Douglass was given no instructions by defendants relative to the trailer; the jury found these facts to be true, and properly so, and in light of section 701, subdivision (d) and the custom and practice of the trade, determined defendants to be negligent.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
209 Cal. App. 2d 290, 26 Cal. Rptr. 60, 1962 Cal. App. LEXIS 1687, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/douglass-v-webb-calctapp-1962.