Elkin Motor Co. v. Ragland

6 Tenn. App. 166, 1927 Tenn. App. LEXIS 126
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedOctober 1, 1927
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 6 Tenn. App. 166 (Elkin Motor Co. v. Ragland) 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
Elkin Motor Co. v. Ragland, 6 Tenn. App. 166, 1927 Tenn. App. LEXIS 126 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

FAW,.P. J.

This is an action brought in the circuit court of Wilson county by Joe Hatton Ragland, a minor suing by next friend, to recover for personal injuries and the loss of an automobile suffered by him as the result of a collision between his automobile and an automobile owned by defendant below, Elkin Motor Company, a Tennessee corporation.

In the circuit court the case was tried' to a jury upon the issues made by defendant’s plea of not guilty to plaintiff’s declaration, and the jury found the issues in favor of plaintiff and assessed his damages at $4,500, for; which sum,, and for the costs of the cause, judgment of the court was rendered against the defendant Elkin Mjotor Company.

The defendant has .prayed, obtained and perfected an appeal in the nature of a writ of error from the order of the trial court denying and overruling defendant’s motion for a new trial.

For convenience, we will continue to designate Joe Hatton Ragland as plaintiff and the Elkin Motor Company as defendant.

*168 Through its first and second assignments of error defendant asserts that the trial court erred (1) in overruling defendant’s motion for peremptory instructions to the jury to return a verdict in favor of the defendant, and (2) that ther¡e is no evidence to sustain the verdict of the jury. In substance, the first and second assignments, supra, raise the same question, for if there was sufficient evidence to carry the case to the jury, there was necessarily some evidence to support the verdict of the jury. Citty v. Miller, 1 Tenn. App. R. 1.

It is disclosed by the evidence, and is undisputed, that, about ten o’clock p. m. on Sunday, June 20, 1926, there was a collision between an automobile owned by defendant and an automobile owned and driven by plaintiff, which inflicted serious personal injuries on plaintiff and practically destroyed the value- of his automobile. The collision occurred about a half-mile west of Watertown, Tennessee, on the public'highway leading from Watertown to Lebanon. There is ample evidence to support a finding that as plaintiff’s automobile approached the scene of the collision, and when the collision occurred, plaintiff was driving at a lawful rate of speed and in compliance with the law of the road embodied in our statute which requires that drivers of vehicles meeting on opposite courses shall each keep to his right side of the road.

There is also ample evidence to support a finding that defendant’s automobile was being driven around a curve on its left side of the highway when it struck and completely overturned plaintiff’s car. The record discloses no occasion for the presence of defendant’s car on the wrong side of the highway. Where no overruling necessity for a non-compliance with the law of the road appears, it will be assumed that one who failed to comply with it was negligent, and, if injury- and damage results, that such negligence was the proximate-cause of such injury and damage.

In this court it seems to be conceded by defendant, at least tacitly, that the evidence before the jury was sufficient to sustain a finding that the collision, and the resulting injury to plaintiff, was caused by the negligent operation of the defendant’s automobile. Such concession is amply justified bj the record.

Tn his brief, the learned and able counsel fori defendant limits the scope of defendant’s first and second assignments of error to two inquiries, as follows:

(1) “Was the defendant’s automobile, at the time of the accident, being used in furtherance of the defendant’s business ? ’ ’

(2) “Was Mrs. Ingram an- agent or servant of the defendant, justifying the application of the doctrine of respondeat superior?”

The facts bearing upon the questions thus raised ai’e these: The defendant Elkin Motor Company has 'its principal place of business at Lebanon, but, at the time of the transactions which gave rise to this lawsuit, it had a branch establishment at Watertown, where it *169 sold new and used automobiles and repaired automobiles for the public. L. R. Stevens was tlie manager of defendant’s; Watertown business, wbicli was conducted under the name and style of Wilson county Motor Company. J. H. Ingram, an automobile mechanic, was employed as foreman of the repair shop of the Wilson county Motor Company at Watertown. As such foreman and mechanic, Ingram was subject to the direction and control of Stevens, the manager. Ingram was not employed primarily as a salesman, and the proof tends to show that he did not effect any sales of automobiles while in the service of defendant, but Stevens testified that, in his absence, Ingram had authority to show ears to prospective purchasers; and Ingram testified, without objection, that in the absence of Stevens he (Ingram) had “full authority and charge” of the defendant’s business at AAatertown, including the right to show and sell cars.

Stevens, the manager, was not in Watertown on Sunday, June 20, 1926. He had gone to Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday, the 19th, and remained there over Sunday. Before leaving Watertown on Saturday, Stevens instructed Ingram to make a “service call” at Commerce, a few miles from Watertown, on the next day, Sunday. This order of Stevens was executed by Ingriam during the forenoon of Sunday, the 20th, and about the middle of the afternoon of the same day, Ingram, accompanied by his wife, drove to Lebanon, a distance of about twelve miles, in a used car (a Ford coupe) owned and held for sale by his employer, the defendant, at Watertown. Ingram and his wife remained in Lebanon until about nine o’clock in the evening of that day and then returned to Watertown in the same can, but before leaving Lebanon, Ingram turned the wheel over to his wife, at her request, and about midway between Lebanon and' Watertown Ingram "fell asleep, and remained asleep for several miles and until he was awakened by the “crash” of the collision with plaintiff’s car, which occurred, as before stated, about a half-mile from Watertown. The defendant’s counsel sought to show by Ingham that he was intoxicated and for that reason surrendered the wheel to Mrs. Ingram and fell asleep, but this was denied by Ingram, who testified that he took only one small dkink while in Lebanon, and that he was entirely sober throughout the evening. There was no other testimony on that subject.

It is insisted for defendant that the purpose of Ingram and wife in driving to Lebanon was to visit their parents, who lived in Lebanon, and that they were using defendant’s ear on that occasion purely for their own convenience and pleasure, and not in the service or upon the business of the defendant. It is an undenied fact, appearing from the testimony of Mir. and Mrs. Ingram, that they spent a part of the afternoon at the home of Mrs. Ingram’s parents, and that Mrs. Ingram spent the remainder of their stay in Lebanon *170 on that evening at the home of Mr. Ingram’s mother. Mr. Ingram was with his wife at his mother’s home during a part of her stay there, but he was “around town” for thirty minutes, possibly longer, while his wife was at his mothers home.

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Bluebook (online)
6 Tenn. App. 166, 1927 Tenn. App. LEXIS 126, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/elkin-motor-co-v-ragland-tennctapp-1927.