Graham v. Dawson Produce Co.

1924 OK 1145, 234 P. 185, 106 Okla. 294, 1924 Okla. LEXIS 587
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 23, 1924
Docket14917
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1924 OK 1145 (Graham v. Dawson Produce Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Graham v. Dawson Produce Co., 1924 OK 1145, 234 P. 185, 106 Okla. 294, 1924 Okla. LEXIS 587 (Okla. 1924).

Opinion

Opinion by

RUTH, C.

This action was filhd in the district court of Oklahoma county by the plaintiffs in error against the defendants in error, to recover damages for the death of a son of plaintiffs, and the parties will be designated herein as they appeared in the trial court.

Plaintiffs’ petition alleges in substance that plaintiffs are the father and mother or Edwin Graham, deceased; that while deceased was crossing the intersection of Oklahoma avenue and East Eighth street, in Oklahoma Oity, deceased was struck by an automobile truck owned by the Dawson Produce Company, and operated by the defendant McAdams, who was in the employ of the Dawson Produce Company, and as a result he was knocked down and the front and real wheels of the truck ran over him; and the injuries s. inflicted and sustained resulted in Edwin Graham’s death a short time after the infliction of the injuries.

Plaintiffs further allege negligence in that defendants “neglected to keep a proper lookout for pedestrians at the street crossing, where East Eighth street intersects Oklahoma avenue; that they neglected to use ordinary diligence in bringing the truck to a stop or standstill or slackening its speed; that they failed to give timely, proper, or sufficient warning of the approach of the truck to the street crossing; that they operated the truck at an excessive and dangerous rate of speed, that it was the duty of the Dawson Produce Company to employ a careful and skillful driver and furnish him with a truck, the brakes of which were in good order, but that they disregarded their duty in this behalf, and employed the defendant McAdams, and furnished him with a truck, the brakes on which were not in proper working order, and which” would not stop the truck within a reasonable distance after the brakes were applied.”

After answer and reply thereto were filed, a jury was duly empaneled, and plaintiffs introduced evidence and rested, whereupon defendants interposed a demurrer to the plaintiffs’ evidence, and the demurrer was •by the count sustained, and judgmént entered for defendants, to which plaintiffs ea&-cepted, and after motion for a new trial was filed and overruled, plaintiffs appealed, and •bring this cause here for review upon petition in error and ease-made.

The evidence disclosed the fact that Edwin Graham, the deceased, was a boy whose age was between five and six years, and lived with his parents on the north side of East Eight street, about 100 feet east of Oklahoma avenue. His mother permitted him to go out of the house to play. Several of the plaintiffs’ witnesses saw deceased just before the accident, and he was proceeding diagonally across the street, coming from the northeast, and going in a southwesterly direction toward the southwest coi--ner of the street intersection. Eighth street runs due east and west, and Oklahoma avenue runs due north and south. Two horses attached to a wagon were heiag driven north on Oklahoma a i onu?. and the defendants’ truck was being driven south on Oklahoma avenue. The driver of the truck “slowed doun” on the north side of Eighth St.'eet to permit two boys to pass in front of him, but as the boys stopped, the .truck proceeded to cross Oklahoma avenue in front of the boys. Those witnesses for plaintiffs., who testify to the speed of the truck, state the truck was not crossing the intersection at a speed in excess of eight or ten miles per hour. The deceased, proceeding diagonally across the street interserir n •’*’■< m the n. rth-east to the southwest walked to the rear of the wagon, .and about four or five feeit therefrom, and in stepping from behind the wagon was struck by the truck and death resulted. Two of plaintiffs’ witnesses were driving an automobile west on Eighth street, and were only 50 feet from where the boy was struck; they testified the truck was only going about eight or ten miles per hour; they did not see the boy when the truck struck him, but looking under .the bed of the wagon saw the boy rolling on the street pavement, and the truck made a “good stop” and pulled out to the side along side the curb and might have gone in. all 20. to 30 feet, including the distance necessary to pull the truck to the side . of the street and ■against the curb, and .the driver alter parking- his truck came back to where the boy was lying.

The plaintiff George W. Graham testified he had secured a new truck of the same make as the one by which the boy was struck, but of different model, and found *296 that such a truck going at the rate of ten miles per hour, lafit a “skid mark ten feet long after the wheels were locked by the brake,” but could not state the distance within which such a truck could be stopped after signal 'to apply the brakes, when the truck was running 10 miles per hour, so his testimony throws no light upon the issues. No evidence was offered to show the brakes of defendants’ car were not in perfect condition, or that the driver was inexperienced in handling such a truck.

It is not alleged that any ordinance of the city pr statut.e of the state was being violated. The plaintiffs’ evidence tends to prove the driver of the truck was careful, as he slowed down on the north side of Eighth street to let two boys cross Oklahoma avenue in front of his truck, and there was no .evidence that he was driving at a high, reckless and dangerous rate of speed. The deceased was east of the northbound horse-drawn wagon, and was proceeding diagonally across the intersection. The truck was southbound on the west side of the wagon, and it is not reasonáble to assume the driver of the truck could see the boy until he stepped or “darted out” from behind the wagon, and in front of the truck, and a careful review of all the evidence of the plaintiffs fails to prove negligence, as alleged, or prove any facts from which negligence might be reasonably or logically inferred, or upon which the minds of ¡reasonable men might differ. Where the facts are such that all reasonable men must draw the same conclusion, the question of negligence is for the court. M., K. & T. Ry. Co. v. Shepherd, 20 Okla. 626, 95 Pac. 243; Pine Belt Lumber Co. v. Riggs, 80 Okla. 31, 193 Pac. 990; Harris v. M., K. & T. Ry. Co., 24 Okla. 341, 103 Pac. 758; Mean v. Callison, 28 Okla. 737, 116 Pac. 195; Neeley v. Southwestern Cotton Seed Oil Co., 13 Okla. 356, 75 Pac. 537.

Upon this proposition it is unnecessary to cite additional authorities, as the same is well settled in this and other jurisdictions.

“In order to entitle a party to maintain an action for tone, there must be a violation of some duty, either of commission or omission on the part of the defendant, prejudicial to the rights of the plaintiff, and the burden is upon the complainant to establish such wrongful acts by a preponderance of the evidence; and the mere fact of the injury is not sufficient proof of the defendant’s negligence.” Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Nagle, 55 Okla. 235, 154 Pac. 667; St. Louis & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Fick, 47 Okla. 530, 149 Pac. 1126; Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Tate, 57 Okla. 215, 156 Pac. 1182; Lusk v. White, 58 Okla. 773, 161 Pac. 541; St. Louis & S. F. R. Co. v. Davis, 37 Okla. 340, 132 Pac. 337; Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co. v. Watson, 36 Okla. 1, 127 Pac. 693.

Prom a careful review of the evidence it is apparent there was no violation of duty, either of omission or ■ commission, on the part of the produce company, or the driver of the truck.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1924 OK 1145, 234 P. 185, 106 Okla. 294, 1924 Okla. LEXIS 587, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/graham-v-dawson-produce-co-okla-1924.