Gleason v. Baack

289 N.W. 349, 137 Neb. 272, 1939 Neb. LEXIS 214
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1939
DocketNo. 30669
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 289 N.W. 349 (Gleason v. Baack) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gleason v. Baack, 289 N.W. 349, 137 Neb. 272, 1939 Neb. LEXIS 214 (Neb. 1939).

Opinion

Messmore, J.

This is an action for personal injuries suffered by the plaintiff (appellee herein) in a collision upon the highway between the automobile in which she was riding and defendant’s truck, which had temporarily stopped upon the highway. The cause was tried to a jury, and a verdict returned in favor of the plaintiff in the sum of $3,250. Motion for a new trial was overruled. Defendant appeals.

The record discloses the following facts: John Doherty, [274]*274the owner of a 1928 DeSoto coach automobile, was driving on the evening of November 28, 1937, from Greeley to Grand Island, Nebraska, accompanied by the plaintiff and four other companions. The party left Greeley at 7 o’clock. The plaintiff was returning to her duties at St. Francis Hospital in Grand Island. The radiator of the car leaked, and the driver had a can of water in the back of the caito replenish the radiator when needed. Between Greeley and St. Paul water was put into the radiator on two occasions. At St. Paul the party remained for an hour and a half to two hours at the Whale Café. After leaving St. Paul they delivered one member of the party at her home shortly before midnight, when plaintiff moved to the front seat of the car-. The windshield was cleaned and water put in the radiator before the party entered highway No. 281. They proceeded south on the highway, an oil mat, 26 feet in width, with a white stripe down the center.

Floyd Hester, driving a G. M. C. truck, with an Omaha standard stock trailer attached, approached an intersection of highway No. 281 from the west. The width of the body of the trailer was 7 feet, 10 inches, and the height from the ground -11 feet. The trailer was loaded with 17 head of cattle, weighing 16,500 pounds, and the weight of the trailer was 13,800 pounds. The owner of the cattle, Henry Volke, was riding in the truck cab with the driver. Herbert D. Baack, the defendant, owner of the truck, and W. A. Munson were riding in an automobile following the truck. As the truck approached the intersection some of the cattle in the trailer were down, and the truck was stopped to rectify this condition. The truck was on an incline and was moved onto highway No. 281 about 100 feet south on said highway, where it was stopped temporarily on the west edge of the paving. There was a light at each corner of the truck, a cluster of three lights across the center, and a tail or stop light; in all, six lights, burning. When the truck stopped on the highway Munson remained in the car following the truck on the side road leading- into the intersection. The highway at the point where the truck stopped was [275]*275level for a half-mile or more ahead, and for a quarter of a mile back, of the truck.

The DeSoto car proceeded south on highway No. 281 for a distance of about two miles, when the collision occurred, about 80 rods south of a filling station opposite St. Libory. The driver Doherty explains the accident, in substance, as follows: The DeSoto car was proceeding along the pavement on the right-hand side of the center thereof, going south, at a rate of speed of 30 miles an hour, and when within 10 or 15 feet of the truck, and just before the crash, the driver applied his four-wheel brakes, which were in good condition. A red light appeared all at once. There was no person signaling with a flashlight. The front part of the DeSoto car from the radiator back to the windshield went under the truck, took the top off the radiator and drove the hood of the engine back, breaking out the windshield and throwing the driver through the left front door. The driver stated that the night was very dark, bitter cold, and blustery, and the highway was dark. Other witnesses, including an expert, testified that the night was clear and stars were shining, and some of the witnesses for the plaintiff testified that there was frost in the air and it was foggy.

When the truck stopped on the highway the driver stepped out on the running board, looked back towards the north, and could see no cars. He went immediately to the back of the truck, found that some of the cattle were down and endeavored to get them up. When Volke, who had remained in the driver’s seat, was getting out to go back to see what had happened, the crash occurred, he said, within two or three minutes altogether. Munson stated he saw the DeSoto car immediately at the time the truck stopped; he did not contemplate going onto the highway until the cattle were up; he blinked the lights on his car two or three times before the DeSoto car arrived at the point adjacent to the intersection. Defendant Baack stated that before the truck entered the highway he noticed that some cattle were down and concluded that there was no use try[276]*276ing to get them up, because of the incline on the side road, so suggested to the driver to pull onto the highway, and as the driver got into the cab to comply defendant walked on the right-hand side of the truck, watching the driver maneuver to the place where he stopped the truck. After the truck stopped defendant “walked to the rear end to examine the cattle, saw that two of them were down, and proceeded towards the front end of the cab to obtain flares.

With reference to the shoulder of the road, west of the edge of the oil mat, the road boss testified that the shoulder was between four and five feet in width, of clay soil, solid and rolled with a heavy roller. Volke testified that the shoulder did not appear to be solid. The defendant testified that he observed the shoulder of the road and considered that it was not packed well enough to carry the weight of the truck, and, further, that the truck was parked less than four inches from the west edge of the pavement; that is, the west edge of. the truck wheels were four inches from the west edge of the pavement. Doherty stated that the truck was standing so that the inside edge of the box of the truck would be a distance of 12 inches, or thereabouts, from the white line. Leo Cordes, a witness for plaintiff, testified that he observed the truck on the right-hand side of the highway, facing south, and that all wheels were on the pavement. Sheriff Petersen testified that the shoulder of the road was a little sandy and did not look to be firmly packed.

There is evidence of a conversation between Doherty and defendant, wherein defendant said that he did not have the flares out; also that he went around the side of the truck next to the ditch, back of the DeSoto car, got the flares out and came back with them. The foregoing statement of the evidence brings us to a consideration of the following statutory provisions:

Section 39-11,112, Comp. St. Supp. 1937, provides in part: “The operator of a motor truck or combination thereof, * * * shall immediately upon bringing his vehicle to a stop upon or immediately adjacent to the traveled portion of [277]*277the highway at any time during the period of from one-half Tiour after sunset to one-half hour before sunrise, place one lighted flare at the side of such vehicle just inside the black line marking the center of paved highways and near the center of dirt or gravel highways, place one lighted flare approximately one hundred feet to the rear of such vehicle and place one lighted flare approximately one hundred feet to the front of such vehicle; and shall maintain such lighted flares in such position during the time said vehicle remains parked.”

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Bluebook (online)
289 N.W. 349, 137 Neb. 272, 1939 Neb. LEXIS 214, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gleason-v-baack-neb-1939.