Hollingsworth v. Hall

242 N.W. 39, 214 Iowa 285
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 5, 1932
DocketNo. 41170.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 242 N.W. 39 (Hollingsworth v. Hall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hollingsworth v. Hall, 242 N.W. 39, 214 Iowa 285 (iowa 1932).

Opinion

Grimm, J.

Briefly stated, it appears that this accident occurred during the late afternoon of November 21, 1929, in the city of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, at the intersection of Main Street and Saunders Street in said city. Main Street runs north and south; Saunders Street runs east and west. Main Street is paved with brick; Saunders Street is paved with bitulithic. Main Street is approximately 341/2 feet wide from curb to curb; Saunders Street is approximately 25 feet wide from curb to curb.

Late in the said afternoon of November 21, 1929, the defendant Marguerite Hall Weir, daughter of the defendant M. C. Hall, was driving a Buick sedan owned by the defendant M. C. Hall, south on Main Street. The plaintiff was driving a Model T Ford Sedan west on Saunders Street. The cars collided in the intersection and the plaintiff was injured.

At the close of all of the evidence, the court directed a verdict for the defendants.

I. Certain motions to strike and to dismiss the appeal have been filed in this court by the appellee. They have been carefully considered and are overruled, except in so far as the same pertain to the fourteenth error relied upon for reversal, which, by an amendment, was filed too late.

II. In the separate answer of the defendants, it is alleged, in substance, that on or about May 18, 1927, there was duly passed by the city council of Mount Pleasant an ordinance known as ‘ ‘ Ordinance No. 59 — Boulevards. ’ ’ The ordinance provided, in substance, that certain streets in the city should there *287 after be designated as boulevards, and included therein was that portion of Main Street at which the accident happened. The ordinance also provided that it shall be the duty of the mayor to place a “stop sign” at each point where a street intersects any one of such designated boulevards and also provides that “all vehicles entering such boulevard street from intersecting streets shall come to a full stop before such entrance. ” It also provides that any violation of its provisions shall, upon conviction, subject the violator to imprisonment not exceeding thirty days, or to a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars.

It is the contention of the appellant that this ordinance is not properly before the court and that the trial court erroneously admitted it in evidence.

There was presented at the trial and identified as Exhibit 16, a book of ordinances of the city of Mount Pleasant. The certificate thereto attached was introduced as a separate exhibit and reads as follows:

“I hereby certify that this book of ordinances was published at twelve o’clock noon, on the 25th day of July, 1927, City of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. John P. Budde, Clerk of Mount Pleasant, Iowa.”

To this the plaintiff objected as “incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, in no way authenticated or proper showing of publication, as required by law. ”

There was also introduced as a separate exhibit Ordinance No. 59, which appears on pages 173 and 174 of said Exhibit 16, being the book of revised ordinances of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, 1927. Objection was made to this exhibit on the ground that it was “incompetent, irrelevant, immaterial, no showing of any proper publication or identification of that ordinance as required by statute.”

Section 5721 of the Code provides:

“Book form. When any city or town shall cause or has heretofore caused its ordinances to be published in book or pamphlet form, siich book or pamphlet shall be received as evidence of the passage and legal publication of such ordinances, as of the dates mentioned or provided for therein, in all courts and places, without further proof. When the ordinances are so published, *288 it shall not be necessary to publish them in the manner provided for in the preceding section. ’ ’

In Barrett v. C. M. & St. P. Ry. Co., 190 Iowa 509, l. c. 516, where a similar question was before this court, after quoting said section 5721, it was said:

‘ ‘ The dates appearing, the ordinances are presumed to have been properly adopted and published, as exacted in the section preceding that quoted. Their inclusion in such a book is sufficient authentication, and therefrom it is to be presumed that they had been legally adopted. Incorporated Town of Hancock v. McCarthy, 145 Iowa 51. The statute quoted does not contemplate the re-enactment or the republieation of the ordinances, but merely their compilation, for convenient use and to simplify the method of their proof. Gallaher v. City of Jefferson, 125 Iowa 324, 328; Rocho v. Boone Electric Co., 160 Iowa 94.

The record as made presented prima-facie proof of the ordinance. No proof to the contrary was introduced. The ordinance is properly in the case.

III. Included in the numerous grounds urged in a motion for a directed verdict made at the close of all the evidence, is the one that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence and therefore cannot recover.

Main Street, at the point under consideration, clearly appears to be not only in name but in fact one of the principal thoroughfares and traveled streets in the city of Mount Pleasant. It appears to lie immediately east of the city square. A portion of Main Street, in addition to being on the public square, has been for many years a principal artery of traffic to many of the important institutions in the city. North of the intersection in question is the Iowa Wesleyan College, with its various buildings, including gymnasium, chapel and conservatory of music. On the west side of this street is what is known as the P. E. 0. Memorial Library. A fuel company is located on the other side. The Mount Pleasant Free Public Library is on this street approximately two blocks south of the intersection of Main and Saunders Streets. The Phi Delta Theta Fraternity House is on the east side of Main Street about a block south of the intersection in question. The main line double track of the Burlington *289 road is about 500 feet north of the intersection. North of this main line is a railroad switch. These and other facts clearly show that Main Street was a busy thoroughfare. Saunders Street is described as about three blocks north of the city square and is narrower than Main Street. At the intersection in question, the curb line on the north side of Saunders Street on the west side of Main Street is six feet farther south than the north curb line of Saunders Street on the east side of Main Street. Saunders Street is not only narrower, but in much less use than Main Street.

The plaintiff had lived in Mount Pleasant for a period of about three years. He was thoroughly familiar with this intersection, having crossed it frequently, and likewise familiar with the general conditions, as to traffic and otherwise, which surrounded the intersection in question.

About five o’clock in the afternoon of the day in question, the plaintiff was driving west on Saunders Street. He had left his place of employment in his own Model T Ford Sedan and was in a hurry, as he was preparing to attend a banquet. According to his own evidence, he drove into this intersection without stopping before entering it.

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Bluebook (online)
242 N.W. 39, 214 Iowa 285, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hollingsworth-v-hall-iowa-1932.