Glatt v. Feist

156 N.W.2d 819, 28 A.L.R. 3d 1278, 1968 N.D. LEXIS 124
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 29, 1968
DocketCiv. 8350
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 156 N.W.2d 819 (Glatt v. Feist) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Glatt v. Feist, 156 N.W.2d 819, 28 A.L.R. 3d 1278, 1968 N.D. LEXIS 124 (N.D. 1968).

Opinion

TEIGEN, Chief Justice (on reassignment) .

The defendant has appealed from a judgment which awards to the plaintiff damages for personal injury sustained when she was struck by defendant’s automobile in the city of Hague, where both parties reside.

The plaintiff was struck by the defendant’s automobile while it was being driven by the defendant on what is hereafter referred to as Main Street of the small town of Hague. Main Street was also State Highway No. 11, which passes through Hague in an east-west direction. Main Street is from 80 to 84 feet in width and is hard-surfaced. At the time of the accident *822 the roadway had been covered with a layer of loose gravel or gravel chips, and the automobile traffic following along the center of the street had removed the gravel from the center of the street and the driving lane so created was about 21 feet in width. Thus the width of the gravel covering the outside portions of Main Street was about 30 feet on each side of the driving lane.

A north-south graveled street intersected Main Street and it was near this intersection, but to the east thereof, that the accident occurred. Main Street was a through street being protected at this intersection by stop signs.

The plaintiff lived north of Main Street and east of the graveled intersecting street. On the morning of March 9, 1965, the date of the accident, she had walked from her home to her church to attend services. The church was located about two and one-half blocks south of her home and on the west side of the intersecting graveled street. It was located a distance of about one and one-half blocks south of Main Street. She walked to and from church and in so doing, had to cross Main Street.

The plaintiff was returning to her home from church and walked along the east side of the graveled intersecting street at about 8:15 a. m. The sidewalks were icy. She testified that as she proceeded north toward her home, she came to the stop sign located at the southeast comer of the intersection. She testified she looked in both directions; that she saw no vehicles, and that she then started across Main Street in a northerly direction following the unmarked crosswalk. She testified she does not know if she looked again after she started across the intersection, but was definite in her testimony that she neither saw nor heard the defendant’s automobile, which struck her as she was proceeding in a northerly direction across Main Street. As a result of the accident plaintiff was injured, for which injuries she seeks damages.

The defendant lived in a trailer house on the south side of Main Street about a quarter of a block west of the intersection described above. She operates a grocery store located on the north side of Main Street and east of the intersection some distance. It was a cold morning and she had started her automobile engine to warm it up. Her automobile was parked in front of her trailer home. The defendant testified she removed the frost from the windshield. The morning was clear; the sun was shining from the east. After her automobile was warmed up, she then drove east along Main Street. She testified that she had clear vision and that the sun did not obstruct her vision. As she came to the intersection she testified she saw the plaintiff standing at the curb east of the crosswalk near a steel quonset building. According to the evidence the steel quonset building was located on the south side of Main Street about 50 feet from the intersecting graveled street. Defendant testified she saw the plaintiff as she stepped off the curb and walked in a northerly direction crossing Main Street at a point some distance east of the crosswalk. She testified that she momentarily thought the plaintiff was going to stop but that-plaintiff “kept right on going.” Defendant was driving at about 8 to 10 miles per hour and as she was passing through the intersection which was slippery from ice formed on it, and toward where the plaintiff was crossing Main Street, she sounded her horn and thereafter applied her brakes and tried to turn to the right to avoid striking the plaintiff but that the left front of her automobile struck the plaintiff just a few feet before it came to a stop. She testified that when the plaintiff was struck she fell to the street at the left of her automobile and was not carried by the automobile; and that plaintiff lay on the street to the left of the automobile, where she remained until she was removed and placed into the back seat of defendant’s automobile. Defendant testified her automobile moved ahead a couple of feet after the accident; and it again moved forward a short distance when she placed it in neutral.

*823 Certain measurements were made by the deputy sheriff. He testified he found skid marks made by the defendant’s automobile. They commenced in about the middle of the unmarked crosswalk at the east side of the intersection; and extended in an easterly direction, south of the centerline, a distance of 21 feet, where they ended. He also measured the distance from the point where the skid marks ended to the rear wheel of defendant’s automobile where it stood after being stopped after the accident, which was 9 feet 7 inches. It appears from the testimony of the first two witnesses upon the scene, whose testimony is partially in conflict, that the plaintiff was found lying upon the street either just north of the centerline, as testified to by the first witness, or just south of the centerline, as testified to by the second; but both witnesses agree it was north of the defendant’s automobile a few feet, and was either left of the rear part of the defendant’s automobile or some distance farther toward the front thereof. However, it appears that the plaintiff was found by these witnesses lying on the street approximately 30 feet east of the unmarked crosswalk on the east side of the intersection. The only indication on the automobile of the impact was an area three inches in diameter below the left front headlight about one foot from the left side of the bumper.

The only material conflict in the evidence is in the testimony of the plaintiff and of the defendant. There were no eyewitnesses to the accident except the parties to the accident. The plaintiff testified that she was crossing Main Street upon the unmarked crosswalk at the intersection, whereas it is the defendant’s testimony that the plaintiff was crossing Main Street at a point some distance, perhaps 30 feet, east of the crosswalk on the east side of the intersection.

The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff and judgment was entered thereon. From the judgment the defendant has appealed to this court and in support of her appeal she has filed a number of specifications of error.

At the close of the plaintiff’s case, and again at the close of the whole case, the defendant moved for a directed verdict. These motions were denied in accordance with Rule 50(a) N.D.R.Civ.P. No motion for a new trial was made nor was there a motion for' judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The case is here on appeal from the judgment and this court may review the ruling on the motion for directed verdict. Section 28-27-29.1, N.D.C.C.

The motion for directed verdict specified the particulars upon which each claim was based.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
156 N.W.2d 819, 28 A.L.R. 3d 1278, 1968 N.D. LEXIS 124, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glatt-v-feist-nd-1968.