Hansen v. Lawrence

30 N.W.2d 63, 149 Neb. 26, 1947 Neb. LEXIS 5
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 5, 1947
DocketNo. 32305
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 30 N.W.2d 63 (Hansen v. Lawrence) 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
Hansen v. Lawrence, 30 N.W.2d 63, 149 Neb. 26, 1947 Neb. LEXIS 5 (Neb. 1947).

Opinion

Paine, J.

This is an action for damages for personal injuries suffered by plaintiff in the overturning of defendant’s cattle truck at about 1 a. m., on March 23, 1945. The jury returned a verdict for defendant, and plaintiff appealed. The case was tried in the district court on the same pleadings used in the county court.

The plaintiff assigns as error that the evidence and the law do not sustain the verdict and judgment, and assigns as error on the part of the court the giving to the jury of instructions Ños. 5, 6, 7, 10, 14, 15, and 16 on its own motion. Plaintiff finally assigns as error the refusal of the court to give the jury the plaintiff’s requested instructions Nos. 1 to 7 inclusive.

The facts in regard to this accident, as they appear in the evidence, are about as follows: Mariane Hansen, the plaintiff, lives on a farm about four miles southeast of O’Neill, Holt- County. She was about 68 years old at the time of the accident, and was a widow. On March 22, 1945, she went to Ewing, Nebraska, in the morning with her daughter Luella in Bill Sparks’ automobile. Bill had been keeping company with her daughter, and Bill and the plaintiff were both planning to buy cattle at a sale held that day in Ewing. At the sale pavilion plaintiff bought five head of cattle, giving her check for $277.46. Immediately after the sale she employed the defendant, who was 40 years old at the time of the trial and had been a regular trucker since 1934, to haul these cattle from Ewing to her home in his Ford truck.

The defendant also planned to haul in the same load that night two head of cattle bought by Bill Sparks and three head owned by George Coleman.

The defendant first hauled a load of cattle to Creigh[28]*28ton, northeast of Ewing, after the sale, and did not return from this trip until around 11 o’clock that night,’ and then loaded up the cattle belonging to the three different parties.

The plaintiff testified that she wanted to ride home with her daughter in Bill Sparks’ car, as, she did not like to ride in a truck. Late at night the defendant came to the tavern where the plaintiff and many others were present, and she testified that the defendant told her if she did not ride back with him and show him where to put them he would not take her cattle, but would put them back in the sales pavilion.

The evidence of the defendant is that the plaintiff gave him the sales ticket for the five cattle she had purchased about sundown, told him to get the cattle, and asked if she could ride home with him. Defendant positively denied that he told her that she would have to go with him to show him where to unload the cattle or he would not take them.

On the trip to her farm, defendant dozed off to sleep; the truck ran across the road and tipped over on the left side of the road, with wheels in the air; and plaintiff suffered some injuries.

The plaintiff in her cross-examination was asked: “Q You were sitting there looking at the road? A Maybe I was sleeping too, I don’t remember; that was a long time ago. Q If you were asleep you would remember that, wouldn’t you? A He was supposed to drive the truck.”

As it is very important how plaintiff came to be in the truck at the time of the accident, we will outline what some of the other witnesses said.

John Hawk, a farmer and rancher, who lived in that vicinity for about 35 years, heard the plaintiff and defendant talking, and in reply to a question answered as follows: “He said he had the cattle loaded and was ready to go; if some of them didn’t go with him to show him where to put them he was going to unload them.”

[29]*29Lynn S. Flakus had known defendant for about a year and was present in a tavern between 10. and 12 on the night of the accident, and said there were a number of people there, and that the defendant “said that he wanted one of the Hansens to ride with him to show him where to unload the cattle; if they didn’t he was going to unload them back in the stockyard.”

The plaintiff’s daughter, Luella Hansen, testified that she lived on the farm with her mother; that-she had been going with William Sparks for some time and that morning Sparks had taken her and her mother to Ewing to the sale in his car; that her mother went down to buy some cattle. She testified that defendant made the statement that night that “he was going to take mama’s cattle to the sale barn and unload if she didn’t ride with him.”

Although there were a number of people in the tavern, others of whom may have heard this conversation, the defendant called no witness to support his denial of the plaintiff’s evidence as to why she was riding in his truck.

It appears from the instructions that the trial judge kept in mind the guest statute, section 39-740, R. S. 1943, and from these instructions appears to have instructed the jury on the theory that the evidence indicated that the facts clearly brought this case within the rule of the guest statute. On such theory he instructed the jury in instruction No. 5 that the defendant would not' be liable for any damages to such guest riding by his invitation unless the damage was caused by the gross negligence of the owner or operator of the motor vehicle.

Instruction No. 6 set out that the standard of duty of an invited guest is the same as that of the driver; that a guest is under the duty to warn the driver of dangers which would be apparent; and that if by ordinary care and observation the plaintiff could have seen the danger in time to have given warning and failed to do so, the jury would be warranted in finding the plaintiff negligent. Instruction No. 7 set out the com[30]*30parative negligence law. Instruction No. 14 defined gross negligence.

The guest statute, section 39-740, R. S. 1943, exempts from its provisions passengers for hire, and in the case at bar, where the plaintiff paid for transporting her five cattle to her home and was -then, by her statement, if believed, compelled to go with them to show where the driver should put them, there appears to be consideration for her transportation.

“ ‘Compensation’ means that which constitutes or is regarded as an equivalent or recompense; that which makes good the lack or variation of something else; that which compensates for loss or privation; amends; remuneration; recompense. The phrase ‘without giving compensation therefor’ in the statute indicates an intention not to limit compensation to persons specifically paying for transportation in cash or equivalent, or to require that it pass exclusively from the passenger to the driver. 8 Words and Phrases (Perm, ed.) 197; Crawford v. Foster, 110 Cal. App. 81, 293 Pac. 841; Haney v. Takakura, 2 Cal. App. (2d) 1, 37 Pac. (2d) 170; 5 Am. Jur. 634, sec. 239.” Van Auker v. Steckley’s Hybrid Seed Corn Co., 143 Neb. 24, 8 N. W. 2d 451.

The answer alleged that the plaintiff and defendant were pursuing a common purpose and enterprise and that the operation and management of the truck were under their joint control; that plaintiff failed and neglected to warn the driver that the truck was leaving the highway, and failed to keep a lookout ahead; and that her own carelessness and acts of omission contributed to the accident.

This question of joint enterprise, alleged in the answer, was thus in the case, if supported by competent evidence. Instruction No.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
30 N.W.2d 63, 149 Neb. 26, 1947 Neb. LEXIS 5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hansen-v-lawrence-neb-1947.