Gabel v. Hanby

193 P.2d 239, 165 Kan. 116, 1948 Kan. LEXIS 299
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedMay 8, 1948
DocketNo. 37,045
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 193 P.2d 239 (Gabel v. Hanby) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gabel v. Hanby, 193 P.2d 239, 165 Kan. 116, 1948 Kan. LEXIS 299 (kan 1948).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Thiele, J.:

This was an action to recover damages for injuries sustained in a collision between the plaintiff’s truck and a bus owned by the corporate defendant and driven by the defendant Hanby. Plaintiff recovered and the defendants have appealed.

The gist of the pleadings filed follows: Plaintiff alleged that U. S. Highway No. 40 extending easterly and westerly in Wyandotte County is a four-lane thoroughfare and that it is intersected by Nearman Road which runs north and south about two miles west of the city limits, of Kansas City; that on August 9, 1945, at about 11:00 o’clock a. m. plaintiff was driving his Ford truck in an easterly [118]*118direction, and defendant Hanby was driving a bus of defendant Interstate Transit Lines in an easterly direction and in the rear of plaintiff’s truck; that at the time plaintiff slowed his truck down to about twelve miles per hour and was in th.e act of turning to the left or north from the U. S. Highway into Nearman Road when the defendant Hanby driving the bus so negligently and carelessly operated it that he drove it into and against the plaintiff’s truck, wrecking it and causing plaintiff to be severely injured; that the defendant Hanby was negligent in the operation of the bus in that he drove and operated the bus at a careless, reckless and unlawful speed of from sixty to seventy miles per hour; that he carelessly and negligently failed to keep a proper lookout and observe the movement of plaintiff’s truck upon the highway and failed to have the bus under proper control so that he could stop or turn out in time to avoid striking plaintiff’s truck. Allegations as to injuries received need not be set out.

The answer of the Interstate Transit Lines admitted that a collision occurred but denied it occurred by reason of any act, omission or want of due care by its driver but that the collision was proximately caused by the negligence and want of care on the part of plaintiff in that he suddenly and without warning turned his truck from the outside lane where he was proceeding to the left and drove the truck across the inside east-bound lane of the highway at a time when defendants’ bus was passing or about to pass plaintiff’s truck, thereby driving his truck into the right side of the bus; that the plaintiff made the sudden turn to the left when he heard, or by the exercise of reasonable care should have heard, the horn sounded by the driver of the bus and when he knew, or by the exercise of due care should have known, that the bus was approaching and was about to pass; that plaintiff failed to operate his truck with due regard for the safety of others using the highway in that he moved from one traffic lane to the other without first ascertaining that such movement could be safely made, and that he saw or by exercise of due care could have seen the bus closely approaching from the rear. Defendants’ cross petition for damages to its bus need not be reviewed. The general tenor of the answer of defendant Hanby was to deny negligence and to charge the plaintiff with negligence in language similar to that used by his codefendant.

On the issues thus joined a trial was had as a result of which the jury returned a general verdict in favor of plaintiff and answered [119]*119special questions submitted. Defendants’ several post-trial motions including a motion for a new trial were denied and the trial court rendered judgment on the verdict in favor of the plaintiff. The defendants duly perfected their appeal to this court, specifying error in particulars which will be considered as set forth in their brief. The parties will be referred to as the plaintiff and the defendants.

In the briefs many cases are cited in support of contentions made. These cases have all been examined, but all will not be mentioned as they are cumulative in character.

Defendants first contend that their demurrer to plaintiff’s evidence should have been sustained, and under this heading they present two propositions, first that the evidence shows that plaintiff was guilty of negligence which was the legal cause of his injuries, and second that the evidence did not prove the defendants were guilty of negligence which was the legal cause of plaintiff’s injuries. Of these in their order.

Defendants direct our attention to Houdashelt v. State Highway Comm., 137 Kan. 485, 21 P. 2d 343, and Crowe v. Moore, 144 Kan. 794, 62 P. 2d 846, as upholding their right to demur because plaintiff’s evidence disclosed his contributory negligence. Those cases do recognize the rule that while the burden of proving contributory negligence is on the defendant, where plaintiff’s own evidence shows him guilty of negligence which precludes his recovery, the defendant may take advantage by demurrer. We note, however, that the instant demurrer, as set forth in the abstract, is only on the ground that the evidence does not tend to prove a cause of action against either defendant. It certainly did not directly challenge the trial court’s attention to any claim the evidence disclosed plaintiff’s contributory negligence. The abstract, without disclosing it, states there was extensive argument on the demurrer, and as we are not advised what that argument may have been, we shall consider the contention.

The principal contention by defendants is that plaintiff’s testimony disclosed that nothwithstanding he had a clear vision with every opportunity to see the bus approaching, he never saw it and did not know with what object he collided. In a minor way, stress is laid on a claim that plaintiff’s evidence showed he did not give a statutory signal of his intention to turn.

Before reviewing the evidence, we note the oft repeated rule that in testing the sufficiency of evidence, the court is to consider plain[120]*120tiff’s evidence as true, shall consider that favorable to him and disregard that which is unfavorable, shall not weigh contradictions, nor differences between direct and cross-examination, and if so considered there is any evidence which sustains the plaintiff’s case the demurrer must be overruled. (See, e. g., Robinson v. Short, 148 Kan. 134, 79 P. 2d 903, and cases noted in Shepard’s Kansas Citations.) Under the above rule parts of the evidence may not be stressed, but the whole situation must be reviewed.

In order to discuss the contentions presently under consideration, as well as those later mentioned, we shall review the evidence generally. There is no dispute as to the topographical situation. U. S. Highway 40 runs east and west and is intersected by Near-man Road which runs north and south. The surrounding country is hilly and about 150 feet welt of the intersection represent a low place on the U. S. Highway, which at all places concerned is wide enough for four lanes of traffic. From a point about 125 feet west of the west side of the intersection and extending west there is a dividing strip of land between' the north and south strips of pavement, each strip of pavement being wide enough for two lanes of traffic. The north strip is devoted to west-bound traffic and the south strip to east-bound traffic. Eastward from the above point the pavement is not divided but consists of a broad strip forty feet wide, the lanes being marked by lines along it. About 150 feet west from the intersection there is an upward grade extending eight or nine hundred feet and further west the highway slopes downward. To the east from the above point the highway has an upward grade. There is dispute concerning the accident.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
193 P.2d 239, 165 Kan. 116, 1948 Kan. LEXIS 299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gabel-v-hanby-kan-1948.