Hulsey v. Patterson

121 S.W.2d 509
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 7, 1938
DocketNo. 4952.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 121 S.W.2d 509 (Hulsey v. Patterson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hulsey v. Patterson, 121 S.W.2d 509 (Tex. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinion

STOKES, Justice.

This is a suit for damages growing out of a collision between a motor truck owned and operated by appellee and an automobile owned by appellant. The record discloses that on the 20th of August, 1937, at a point in Floyd County, some three or four miles northwest of Floydada, late in the evening, appellee was driving his truck from Lockney to Floydada. There were three other persons with him in the truck and, upon reaching the point indicated, his gasoline became exhausted and the motor of his truck stopped. Upon discovering he was out of gasoline, appellee steered the vehicle to the right and when it came to a stop a portion of it was off of the paved portion of the highway, but the left rear corner and the left rear wheel were protruding over and resting upon the paved portion. Appellant was traveling in his automobile in the same direction and, before reaching appellee’s truck, another *510 automobile,- with.-' its lights burning, appeared some distance down the highway, ap-* proaching from the opposite direction. Appellant did not discover appellee’s truck until he' -'was within a few feet of it and ■ upon ’ discovering it, he immediately turn^ ed his car to the left in an effort to-prevent a collision' with it. His car struck the: protruding comer of the truck, which cut its way through the right side of the body of appellant’s automobile, resulting in serious damage to its right side. Immediately after colliding with the truck, appellant’s car came in collision with thq automobile that was approaching from the opposite direction, causing considerable damage to the left rear portion of appellant’s car.

Appellant alleged that appellee did not at the time have the rear of his truck equipped with a red light as provided by Sec. -9 of Article 827a of Vernon’s Annotated Penal Code. In defending against this contention, appellee contended that the collision occurred at a time when there was sufficient light to render clearly dis-cerhable any person upon the highway from a distance of at least 200 feet, and that it was less than a half hour after sunset, wherefore, it was not necessary ■ .and he was not required under the law to have his tail light displayed as provided by the third paragraph of Section 9 of the article referred to.

The case was submitted to a jury upon special issues and, under the contentions of the respective parties, the court properly submitted special issue No. 6 in which the jury were asked if they found from a preponderance of the evidence that the collision happened at a time when there was not sufficient light to render clearly dis-■cemable any person upon the highway for a distance of at least 20.0 feet. The jury answered this special issue in the negative ■and, other issues not here involved being answered in favor of appellee, the court entered judgment for him. The controlling question in this appeal is involved in the jury’s answer to this special issue No. ■6. Appellant presents the case here upon a single assignment of error which is substantially to the effect that the answer of the jury to special issue No. 6 is contrary to the law and the evidence and is without support in the evidence.

Article 798 of the Penal Code provides that motor vehicles, .while on the public highways, during the period between a half hour after sunset and a half hour, before sunrise, and at all times when fog or other atmospheric conditions render their operation unusually dangerous to traffic, shall carry at the rear a lighted lamp exhibiting one red light, plainly visible for a distance of 500 feet to the rear. The evidence shows that upon the day and at the time of the collision the sky was overcast with clouds and it was sprinkling rain. It had been raining during the day and the shoulders and ditches on either side of the highway were muddy and soft. It is shown, and is also well known, that under such atmospheric conditions, darkness approaches "earlier than it does’when the sky is clear, and a. large portion of the evidence concerns the actual atmospheric conditions and visibility at the time <?f the collision. Appellant contends that the finding of the jury in answer ■ to special issue No. 6 was wholly unsupported by the evidence or at least that it was so overwhelmingly against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and sufficiently so to constitute the basis of a conclusion that the jury was biased in favor of appellee. He contends further that, by answering special issue No. 6 without evidence to support it, the jury were precluded from answering the two following special issues Nos. 7 and 8. They were instructed by the court not to answer these two special issues if they had answered special issue No. 6 in the negative. The jury were asked in special issue No. 7 if they found from a preponderance of the evidence that appel-lee’s truck, at the time of the collision, did not carry at the rear a lighted lamp exhibiting a red light plainly visible for a distance of 500 feet to the rear. In special issue No. 8 they were asked if they found from a preponderance of the evidence that the failure of appellee to carry at the rear of his truck a lighted lamp exhibiting a red light plainly visible for a distance of 500 feet to the rear was a proximate cause of the collision. Inasmuch as the jury had answered special issue Noi 6 in the negative, in compliance with the instruction of the court, they did not answer these special issues Nos. 7 and 8.

It becomes a question, therefore, of whether or not there was sufficient evidence to support the finding of the jury in answering special issue No. 6 to the effect that the collision occurred at a time- when *511 a person was plainly visible upon the highway for a distance of 200 feet. If such a person were plainly visible, then, under the law, appellee was not required to have such a light displayed on the rear of his truck unless it was more than thirty minutes after sundown and that element of the question does not enter into the controversy.

Appellee testified that it was approximately fifteen minutes from the time his truck stopped until the collision occurred. Fred N. Clark, the sheriff of the county, testified that he went to the scene of the accident about 8:30 o’clock, as soon as he got the call and that he understood they had been looking for him in town “a right smart little bit” before he got the call. W. O. Kirk, one of the parties who was riding in the truck with appellee, testified that it was just about sundown or a little after when the truck ran put of gasoline and stopped. He said they had been stopped there about ten or fifteen minutes when the collision occurred. Roy Owens, another witness who was riding in the truck with appellee at the time, testified that about, a minute after the truck stopped he and another young man who was riding with them went to a nearby house in search of some gasoline and that they ran a considerable portion of the distance, both going and returning. He said they were gone about five minutes and that appellee turned his lights on shortly after they returned. He said they were there altogether about fifteen minutes when the accident occurred. A. J7 Standifer, a witness for appellant, testified that the truck stopped 150 or 200 yards from his house. He said when it passed his house the lights on the truck were not burning and that it was not dark enough to require lights.

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Bluebook (online)
121 S.W.2d 509, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hulsey-v-patterson-texapp-1938.