Hardy Ex Rel. Adams v. Tesh

167 S.E.2d 848, 5 N.C. App. 107, 1969 N.C. App. LEXIS 1289
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedJune 18, 1969
Docket6921SC260
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 167 S.E.2d 848 (Hardy Ex Rel. Adams v. Tesh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hardy Ex Rel. Adams v. Tesh, 167 S.E.2d 848, 5 N.C. App. 107, 1969 N.C. App. LEXIS 1289 (N.C. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

Campbell, J.

The appeal presents only the question of whether “the evidence offered by [David], considered in the light most favorable to [him], was sufficient to warrant submission thereof to the jury as to the alleged actionable negligence of” Tesh. Jones v. Schaffer, 252 N.C. 368, 114 S.E. 2d 105.

David alleged that his injuries were caused by the joint and concurrent negligence of the two drivers. He alleged that Tesh drove at an excessive speed, failed to stop for a stop sign and to yield the right of way, failed to keep a proper lookout and failed to have the Pontiac automobile under proper control. He alleged that Edd drove at an excessive speed, failed to keep a proper lookout, failed to keep the Ford automobile under proper control, failed to drive on the right half of Robinhood and “instead left the highway and entered into the intersecting street, in violation of G.S. 20-147.” He further alleged that Edd “changed the course of travel of the vehicle which he was driving into the intersecting road upon which the automobile of . . . Tesh was stopped and did so in such a manner as to cause his vehicle to go into the left side of Shoreland Road and crash into the automobile driven by . . . Tesh in violation of G.S. 20-153(a)”.

With regard to the collision itself, the plaintiffs offered their own testimony and the testimony of Edd, Tesh and L. N. Ivester, the investigating police officer.

James testified that he was talking at the time of the collision and that

“when [Edd] came up to the top of the hill, he applied the brakes right quick and that is all we heard — the squeaking tires — and my head — I flew over the seat and hit the dashboard and knocked out my teeth.
I did not see the other car at any time before this collision.

Frederick testified:

“I can’t exactly remember nothing about this accident. . . . I don’t remember where I rode in the car. I don’t remember anything about the accident itself.”

*110 David testified:

“As to what I remember about the accident and the events leading up to it; as we was on our way, we was going along past the street and everything, and when we got down there about Robin-hood Road, me and my brother was carrying on a conversation, and we just talked like brothers do, and mostly we was talking about the trip, and all of a sudden I heard the wheels and things begin to slide on the car, and I turned around and I seen the car out there in the street — a quick glance is all I could get. Regarding whether or not I saw the car we hit, before the collision: I turned around, I got a quick glance at it, but I couldn’t see it because it happened so quick I just barely could see it. As to whether or not I saw where the car was right before we hit: when I seen the car it was approaching the street. I turned around, and all I know, my head or something, some part of my face hit the dashboard of the car, some part of the front of the car somewhere. . . .”

On direct examination by plaintiffs’ counsel, Tesh testified:

“Just preceding this accident, I pulled up to the intersection, stopped, looked to the right and there was nothing coming. I heard tires screeching, I turned to the left and the Hardy car was approaching. It skidded into the left front of my automobile and knocked it around at a 90-degree angle approximately. His car hit mine at my left front wheel, damaging the side up as far as the door back of the wheel and then the grille to the front of the wheel.”

On cross-examination Tesh testified:

“I pulled up and stopped on Shoreland Road in response to the stop sign which was there. When I came to a stop, the front of my car was 18 inches to 2 feet back into Shoreland Road from the edge of Robinhood Road as it crosses over Shoreland Road. My car was at a complete stop. I looked to my right, which mean I was looking in towards town, which is the direction indicated on the blackboard diagram as south. There was no traffic going out to the north on Robinhood. The noise I heard of tires screeching came from my left, and I turned to my left. At that point I observed the car driven by Mr. Hardy; it was about 80 feet from me, skidding toward me, and as it approached me it came in a broadside condition, ran off of the Robinhood Road into Shoreland Road and struck me. . . .
*111 ... I have an opinion satisfactory to myself that the speed to the Hardy car when I first observed it and as it came towards me was 45 to 50 miles an hour. . . .”

Edd testified:

“As to what happened as I approached this intersection leading up to the time of the accident: when I crossed Silas Creek down there I was coming up the hill and all at once this car just come out in the road and I applied brakes and I hit, and that’s the only thing I remember. As I approached this intersection before the accident happened, other than the car that I hit, I also saw a car that was meeting me and one was in front of me. The car that was in front of me had got by the intersection and one was meeting me.
Before the collision, the car that I hit was coming from my right on the intersecting street, coming into Robinhood Road. I .don’t know where it hit in the intersection there, exactly.”

On cross-examination by Saunders, Edd testified:

“When I approached Shoreland Road, coming up to it I just seed [sic] the car coming on out, and I applied brakes and I hit. That is all I remember: I applied brakes and I hit. I saw the car coming out Shoreland Road onto Robinhood Road. I saw the front of that car coming on out into Robinhood Road and I applied the brakes. I just jammed the brakes on. As far as remembering the car skidding at that time, it happened so quick. . . . After I applied the brakes, as far as observing the Pontiac automobile driven by Mr. Tesh then, I just observed — I tried to hold it and it hit and that is all I remember. I don’t remember trying to turn the wheel or nothing.”

Police Officer Ivester testified that he investigated the accident and that when he arrived he observed the Ford automobile in the middle of and sitting sideways across Robinhood, with the front pointed in a general northwesterly direction. No part of it was in Shoreland. The Pontiac automobile was sitting on the southwest corner of Shoreland and Robinhood, with the front pointed in a southeasterly direction. The rear portion of the Pontiac automobile was off the street, but the front was one or two feet on Robinhood. He testified that he observed tire marks and that these

“. . . tire marks had started on Robinhood and went off the pavement and came into Shoreland, and the tire marks stopped approximately 3 feet from the south curb line of Shoreland, 4 *112 feet west of Robinhood, and the cars were at that position shown on the diagram when I arrived. . . .
. . . By saying ‘4 feet west of Robinhood’ I am talking about 4 feet into Shoreland Drive. There was a gouge mark. . . .

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Related

Helvy v. Sweat
292 S.E.2d 733 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1982)
Herring v. McClain
169 S.E.2d 903 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1969)
Douglas v. Booth
169 S.E.2d 492 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1969)

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Bluebook (online)
167 S.E.2d 848, 5 N.C. App. 107, 1969 N.C. App. LEXIS 1289, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hardy-ex-rel-adams-v-tesh-ncctapp-1969.