Duckworth v. Greyhound Lines, Inc.

469 F.2d 424
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedOctober 19, 1972
DocketNos. 71-2018-71-2021
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 469 F.2d 424 (Duckworth v. Greyhound Lines, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Duckworth v. Greyhound Lines, Inc., 469 F.2d 424 (6th Cir. 1972).

Opinions

CECIL, Senior Circuit Judge.

In a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, in which two wrongful death actions and two personal injury actions were combined, judgments were recovered by plaintiffs-appellees against defendants-appellants, Greyhound Lines, Inc., and Leander F. Davenport, as follows:

Clarence Duckworth, Sr., and Marshall Duckworth as parents of minors Glen-dora Duckworth, age 20, and Charles Duckworth, age 17, eight thousand dollars on behalf of each minor child for wrongful death; Lizzie King and Walter King, her husband, ten thousand and nine thousand dollars, respectively, as a result of injuries sustained by Lizzie King as a passenger in a bus of the Greyhound Lines; Evelyn Hood, forty-five hundred dollars against Greyhound Lines, Inc., only, as a result of injuries sustained as a passenger in the same bus.

Defendants-appellants, Greyhound Lines, Inc., and Leander F. Davenport, appeal.

The actions arose out of a collision between a Greyhound bus driven by Leander F. Davenport, and an automobile at the intersection of United States Highway 70 and Tennessee State Highway 138 in Madison County, Tennessee. The bus in which Lizzie King and Evelyn Hood were passengers was traveling west on U. S. Highway 70. The automobile in which Glendora and Charles Duckworth were passengers, driven by their brother Clarence Duckworth, Jr., was traveling north on State Highway 138.

[426]*426Route 70 is a preferential Highway and vehicles on 138 are required to stop before entering it. Approaching from the south on Highway 138 the highway was well marked advising a motorist that a stop was required before entering upon the intersection ahead. There was a black and yellow intersection sign 862 feet from the intersection, two black and yellow signs side by side, stating “Stop Ahead” 382 feet from the intersection, and two standard size red stop signs at the intersection together with other signs indicating the intersection. There were trees and shrubbery on the southeast corner of the highway which may have obstructed, to some extent, the view from Route 70 south on Highway 138. The speed limit in the area of the intersection on Route 70 was sixty-five miles per hour.

Clarence Duckworth, Jr. drove his automobile at a high rate of speed, estimated at 100 miles per hour, into the intersection without stopping and struck the bus on the left front side with such force that it knocked it off the highway to the north and into a ditch where it overturned. The driver of the automobile was guilty of gross negligence without which the collision would not have happened. His negligence, however, cannot be imputed to his passengers, Glendora and Charles Duckworth.

In order for any of the appellees to recover they must establish negligence on the part of the bus driver which concurring with the negligence of the driver of the automobile was the proximate cause of the collision.

The Greyhound Lines, through the driver of its bus at the time and place of the collision, owed to its passengers, including Lizzie King and Evelyn Hood, the highest degree of care compatible with the practical operation of its bus. In other words negligence for a public carrier of passengers is the failure to exercise the greatest and highest degree of care and caution approved by human knowledge and experience and consistent with the nature, extent and operation of its business. Wallin v. Greyhound Corp., 341 F.2d 521, 523 (6th Cir. 1965); Memphis St. Ry. Co. v. Bobo, 232 F. 708, 711 (6th Cir. 1916), aff’d 243 U.S. 299, 37 S.Ct. 273, 61 L. Ed. 733 (1916); Schindler v. Southern Coach Lines, 188 Tenn. 169, 174, 217 S.W.2d 775, 777 (1949).

The duty of Greyhound Lines, through its driver, Leander F. Davenport, toward the passengers in the automobile was to use ordinary care for their safety. The failure to use ordinary care is negligence. “Ordinary care is that degree of care which a person of reasonable prudence would exercise under . . . the same or similar circumstances”. Smith v. Roane-Anderson Co., 30 Tenn.App. 458, 207 S.W.2d 353 (1947); Dixon v. Lobenstein, 175 Tenn. 105, 132 S.W.2d 215 (1939); Long v. Tomlin, 22 Tenn.App. 607, 125 S.W.2d 171 (1938); Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Wade, 127 Tenn. 154, 153 S.W. 1120 (1913).

In determining whether the driver of the bus was negligent in any respect there are two presumptions of law to be considered. The law presumes that he could have seen what was in plain view to be seen. The law also presumes that he had a right to assume that the driver of the automobile would obey, the law, that is that he would stop before entering the intersection. The driver of the bus had a right to rely on this assumption until it became obvious that the driver of the automobile was not going to stop.

We consider here a factual situation. Under the most favorable view of the evidence for the plaintiffs-appellees was there any evidence that the driver of the bus failed to use that degree of care which he owed to his passengers, King and Hood, for their safety or that he failed to exercise ordinary care for the safety of Glendora and Charles Duck-worth, passengers in the automobile?

We conclude that there is no evidence that the driver of the bus failed to use the proper degree of care in either situ[427]*427ation and accordingly reverse as to each of the appellees.

We consider first the claim of the ap-pellees that Davenport, the driver of the bus, was driving at an excessive rate of speed under the circumstances.

The plaintiff-appellee, Mrs. Hood, testified: “The bus was traveling at a high rate of speed.”
Being asked if she could be more definite, she said, “(E)xcept for the fact that it seemed to be swaying as it traveled along the road * * * so it seemed to be swaying and we were going very, very fast, and I couldn’t say, I couldn’t see the speedometer.”
Asked whether it was swaying unusual in relation to other buses, she said, “It was unusual.”
“Prior to seeing the car I had begun looking from side to side, because I had become afraid.” She was afraid, “Because of the rapid rate the bus was traveling.”
On cross examination, “(T)he bus seemed to be swaying a bit and it was going extremely fast * * “Well it was going at a speed that it was frightening.”
In a deposition taken at the hospital two hours after the accident, she said, “He wasn’t driving too fast. They all drive, you know, the usual speed.” * * * “No, I don’t think he was speeding.”
Plaintiff-appellee, Lizzie King, testified: “I don’t know what happened, but the driver was driving so fast I think that’s when I fainted, and I don’t know nothing else until they took me over to the Jackson, Tennessee Hospital.”

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