Hogan v. Cunningham

172 So. 2d 409, 252 Miss. 216, 1965 Miss. LEXIS 1092
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 1, 1965
DocketNo. 43386
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 172 So. 2d 409 (Hogan v. Cunningham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hogan v. Cunningham, 172 So. 2d 409, 252 Miss. 216, 1965 Miss. LEXIS 1092 (Mich. 1965).

Opinion

Brady, Tom P., J.

The appellant, James H. Hogan, brought suit in the Circuit Court of Noxubee County on behalf of himself and his six children, as the heirs at law of his son, Tom Edward Hogan, deceased, against J. B. Cunningham and his son, William W. Cunningham, for the wrongful death of his son, Tom Edward Hogan, alleged to have been caused by the negligent operation of an automobile by William W. Cunningham. Suit was instituted under the provisions of Mississippi Code Annotated section [219]*2191453 (1956), as amended. From a verdict in favor of the appellee, the appellant appeals.

The relevant facts in this cause are as follows: Tom Edward Hogan, a young Negro male, twenty-six years of age, had been employed at the cafeteria at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi for approximately three years. He resided in his father’s home located in Starkville. On the morning of March 12, 1962, being a Sunday morning, he proceeded, as was his custom, to walk to work by going out University Drive from Starkville to Mississippi State University, at about the hour of five o’clock A. M. The record discloses that this was the time he customarily left to report for work.

William W. Cunningham, the defendant below, appellee here, is a resident citizen of Noxubee County and resides at the home of his parents. On the date of March 12, 1962, he was enrolled as a student at Mississippi State University. He had obtained the permission and consent of his father to keep, while at the University, a 1959 white Ford G-alaxie convertible, which he had registered in the office of the State University. He was at that time a pledge of the S.A.E. Fraternity at the University.

On Friday, March 10, 1962, immediately preceding the date of the formal dance of the S. A. E. Fraternity to be held on the evening of March 11, 1962, William Cunningham, in the company of another student, had obtained from some of the other students a list of whiskeys desired, and make a trip to Jackson, Mississippi in the 1959 Ford G-alaxie automobile for the purpose of seeing a dentist. On this trip he purchased, for use at the dance to be held in Columbus, Mississippi, the whiskey which his fellow students had requested him to bring. He testified that he had purchased for himself a fifth of champagne. None of the whiskey or champagne was consumed on the date of March 10, 1962.

[220]*220On the following day, March 11, 1962, shortly after lnnch, William Cunningham picked up the young lady who was his companion for the dance and returned to Starkville, where they proceeded to a party which was held that afternoon. The record discloses that at this party the appellee consumed two or three drinks of intoxicating liquor. The champagne was placed in the automobile of the appellee, and subsequently he proceeded with his enamorata and friends to the dance at Columbus, Mississippi.

The appellee admitted that he consumed four or five glasses of champagne at the dance, which continued until about twelve-thirty A.M. on Sunday morning, March 12. The record shows that he and his companions stayed up until about the hour of four-thirty in the morning, most of which time, according to appellee’s testimony, was spent in searching for an elusive Patterson Lake, which is reported to be located somewhere around Starkville, Mississippi.

Around four-thirty in the morning, after taking his girl to the house where she was to spend the night, he went to the apartment of a friend named Lamont Rowe, who was also a student at Mississippi State. The record discloses that he stretched out, with his clothes on, upon a bed in his friend’s apartment and slept until about five-thirty. The record is in sharp dispute as to the time in which the subsequent events transpired. However, sometime prior to five-fifty, the appellee, after about one hour’s sleep, left Lamont Rowe’s apartment, got into his car,.and proceeded to drive to Mississippi State University for the apparent purpose of going to his dormitory. According to appellee’s testimony, he was traveling at approximately the maximum legal rate of speed of thirty miles per hour, driving' out on College or University Drive, from Starkville Main Street to Mississippi State University; that he had reached a point approximately midway, in the vicinity of the Catholic [221]*221church, when he saw Tom Edward Hogan running down the sidewalk. The morning was foggy, the pavement was wet, and the automobile and street lights were necessary.

The defendant testified that upon seeing the deceased come out suddenly from between two parked cars on the right-hand side of the street, he swerved his car to the right in trying to avoid striking the deceased, applying his brakes at the same time, but that he sideswiped a parked automobile and struck the deceased. The record discloses that the deceased was thrown against the windshield of appellee’s car, breaking it, so that appellee thereafter could not see what occurred to the deceased. The undisputed testimony shows, however, that the deceased was either drug or knocked one hundred and fifty feet, and that his boot was carried or flung an additional sixty-nine feet. The record discloses that the appellee finally stopped his car, got out and walked over to where the deceased was lying and endeavored to talk to him, and asked the deceased, who appeared to be unconscious, if he was all right. The record shows that the appellee recognized the fact the appellant was alive.

The record also shows that the two parked cars were separated by a considerable distance and that the automobile driven by the appellee struck the rear of the first car, sideswiping it with the right side of his car, tearing-off the word ‘ ‘ Galaxie ’ ’, which was fastened or embossed in metal upon the right rear fender of the appellee’s car; that the right front fender of appellee’s car was dented, and the grillwork in the front of appellee’s car to the right side had been dented by the impact with the deceased.

The record discloses, according to appellee’s testimony, that he got back in his car and went back along the same street, for the alleged purpose of looking- for the police. The record shows that he looked down Main Street for one instant at the spot where the police car [222]*222is usually parked, but that he did not endeavor to go down the street and contact the police who, the record discloses, were in that neighborhood, and within a few minutes were back at their post beside the police call box located by the Peoples Bank in Starkville, Mississippi, but that he drove again to the apartment of his friend, Lamont Rowe, for the purpose, he said, of locating a telephone. The record discloses, however, that there was no telephone in Lamont Rowe’s apartment and that the appellee was familiar with his friend’s apartment and had been in the apartment only a few minutes before, and knew that there was no telephone there.

The appellee prevailed upon Lamont Rowe to put on his clothes, and in Lamont Rowe’s car they returned to the scene. Appellee testified he did not want to stop; that when they returned to the scene in Rowe’s car they saw the police there at the scene, saw the ambulance there, and saw the deceased being loaded into the ambulance; that they went up to the end of the street, turned around, and slowly came back by the scene, passing within five feet of the deceased, but they did not stop, and at no time did the appellee endeavor to contact the police or explain to the police that he was a participant in the wreck which had injured the deceased.

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Bluebook (online)
172 So. 2d 409, 252 Miss. 216, 1965 Miss. LEXIS 1092, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hogan-v-cunningham-miss-1965.