Hackbart v. Rohrig

287 N.W. 665, 136 Neb. 825, 1939 Neb. LEXIS 167
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 29, 1939
DocketNo. 30601
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 287 N.W. 665 (Hackbart v. Rohrig) 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
Hackbart v. Rohrig, 287 N.W. 665, 136 Neb. 825, 1939 Neb. LEXIS 167 (Neb. 1939).

Opinion

Paine, J.

This is an appeal by the defendants from a judgment entered against them as the result of an automobile accident. Plaintiff brought the action as the executrix of the [826]*826estate of her late husband, Albert Hackbart. In the petition one cause of action was for wrongful death, one for pain and suffering, and another for medical and hospital bills. Plaintiff in open court dismissed the cause of action for wrongful death. On the remaining first cause of action, the jury returned a verdict for $1,900, and on the last cause of action, $674.20; total verdict, $2,574.20. The trial court required a remittitur of $900 on the first cause of action as a condition to overruling the motion for new trial. Judgment for $1,674.20.

At the close of the evidence the plaintiff dismissed the action as to John Rohrig, Edward H. Rohrig, Jacob E. Rohrig, and Robert Rohrig, individually and as doing business as the Shogo Lithia Springs Company and the Rohrig Distributing Company, leaving as defendants herein only Richard Rohrig, who testified that he was sole owner of Rohrig Distributing Company, and Conrad Knopp, who was the driver of the truck which was in the collision.

The Rohrig Distributing Company is the wholesale distributor for Budweiser beer in the general territory between Ashland on the east and Exeter on the west, but not including Lancaster county.

The defendants insist in their brief that “this accident never could have occurred, except by the driver of the Ford coupé turning out of his way and plunging into the front of the truck.” Defendants charge that this was the result of intoxication, and that the judgment should be reversed because the trial court entirely failed to instruct the jury on this phase of the case.

The defendants set out as their first proposition of law for reversal: “Where all the occupants of an auto engage in a drinking bout, none can recover for injuries caused by the negligent driving, if the jury find the drinking to be a contributory negligent act, which, even, if not amounting to drunkenness has rendered the parties incapable of exercising the care of a reasonably prudent person;” and as their second proposition of law: “It is reversible error for the trial court not to submit to the jury proper instructions [827]*827setting forth the defendants’ theory of the case, it being the positive duty of the trial court to submit all the issues to the jury.”

As to the place of the accident, we can best describe it by saying that, about 18 miles west of Lincoln on 0 street, that street divides, and two paved federal highways turn from it at this point, No. 34 turning to the north and going to Seward, while No. 6 turns to the south and goes to Milford, and across the top of the “Y” made by the separation of these two roads is No. 15, which runs north and south straight through on the section line, thereby closing the top of the “Y”. The accident occurred at the upper right-hand corner of the “Y”, where No. 15, running straight north, connects with No. 34, coming from Seward, and occurred in that part of the intersection just as No. 34 was starting to turn off from No. 15 to join No. 6 at the lower point of the "Y".

The first vehicle involved in the crash was a very. old light coupé, being a 1929 Model A Ford, in which three men were riding on the seat; the plaintiff’s decedent was riding as a guest, the Ford being driven by Peter Gerken, and Alonzo Weber was also a guest, these three men being all killed as a result of the accident. The other vehicle was a 1937 Dodge truck, loaded with a ton and a half to two tons of Budweiser beer, and being driven by Conrad Knopp, 35 years of age, who was riding alone, and was the regular driver for the Rohrig Distributing Company, of Lincoln.

The accident occurred about 5:30 p. m. on December 1, 1937, after dusk, when the lights were burning on both cars, and was a head-on collision between the truck coming from Seward on No. 34 and starting to make the turn at the intersection with No. 15, while the Ford was driving directly north on No. 15, and the driver turned the same to the right without giving any warning thereof, and failed to give the right of way in the intersection to Conrad Knopp, who was in the intersection first, and Knopp testified that the Ford turned to the east across the intersection and ran directly into his truck.

[828]*828The particular errors which the defendants rely upon for reversal are based upon the fact that the court, in giving its instructions to the jury, failed to set out the defense of intoxication in reference to the plaintiff’s decedent, or the driver of the car in which he was a guest, as charged in the answer.

The court in instruction No. 1, in setting out the allegations of the defendants’ answer, used this language: “Defendants specifically deny any negligence in connection with the accident on the part of their driver Conrad Knopp and allege that the accident and resulting damages and injuries to plaintiff’s husband, if any, were directly, solely and proximately caused by the negligence of the driver of the car in which Albert Hackbart was riding. Defendants allege tnat Peter Gerken, the driver of the car in which plaintiff’s husband was riding, was negligent, and that such negligence was the proximate cause of the accident in the following particulars: That Peter Gerken turned his car to the right immediately prior to the accident so as to run it directly into the truck driven by Conrad Knopp, and failed to keep a proper lookout and have his car under reasonable control; failed to apply his brakes, stop, or slacken the speed of his automobile before striking the truck; and failed to turn his automobile away from the path of the truck driven by Conrad Knopp, driving the same at an excessive rate of speed greater than reasonable and proper, having regard for the conditions of the roadway and the traffic thereon, and turned the same to the right without giving any warning of his approach, and failed to give the right of way in the intersection to Conrad Knopp who was in the intersection first and turning to the east across the intersection.”

In the answer, of which this instruction purported to be an abstract, we find the following allegations:

“7. Allege that if the said Albert Hackbart sustained the injuries and damages in the collision described in plaintiff’s amended petition which caused the death of the said Albert Hackbart, that the same were proximately caused [829]*829or contributed to by his careless and negligent acts of omission and commission in the following respects: * * * “c. In that the said Albert Hackbart at the time and place of the said accident and prior thereto was engaged knowingly and voluntarily in riding in an automobile being operated by Peter Gerken who had been drinking intoxicating liquor and who was at said time and place under the influence of intoxicating liquor. * * *
“h. In that Albert Hackbart himself had been, prior to the. said accident, engaged in drinking intoxicating liquor and was not in the condition physically and mentally to exercise due and ordinary care and did not at said time and place exercise due, ordinary and reasonable care.”

It therefore appears that the trial court omitted any reference whatever to drinking or intoxication in setting out the allegations of the answer, and the question at once arises whether the defendants produced evidence in support of these allegations.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
287 N.W. 665, 136 Neb. 825, 1939 Neb. LEXIS 167, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hackbart-v-rohrig-neb-1939.