Inai v. Ede

139 P.2d 76, 59 Cal. App. 2d 549, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 353
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 30, 1943
DocketCiv. 6858
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 139 P.2d 76 (Inai v. Ede) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Inai v. Ede, 139 P.2d 76, 59 Cal. App. 2d 549, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 353 (Cal. Ct. App. 1943).

Opinion

PEEK, J.

This is an appeal by defendant Takeuchi from a judgment against him alone. By its verdict the jury awarded damages to the plaintiffs for personal injuries suffered as the result of a collision between a car operated by the defendant Ede and the parked car of appellant.

On March 20, 1938, respondents, together with their families and several friends, journeyed to the high Sierras for a day in the snow. They parked their cars on Highway No. 40 approximately two or three miles south of the town of Emigrant Gap. The highway at that point runs in a general northerly and southerly direction. On this particular day the only available space for parking was a strip along the easterly side of the highway. A snow bank several feet in height and extending to the edge of the paved portion made it impossible to park on the west side. The appellant, looking for a space to park his car, but finding none, drove past this area to a point where he was compelled to turn back because of orders not to proceed further without chains. While driving slowly back along the line of parked cars he observed a *552 space on Ms left which he stated was probably the length of a car and one-half, and sufficient for him to park his ear. He headed his car into the bank leaving the rear extending onto the paved portion of the highway and made no effort to maneuver it.into a line parallel with the other cars parked along the highway. The briefs of both parties infer that the right hand door of the car was left open,—the width of which, as stated in appellant’s brief, was 49 inches. The distance which the rear of his car extended onto the paved portion was placed by witnesses from three to four or more feet. Some witnesses placed it parallel to the road and others at an angle so that the rear extended farther onto the pavement than did the front. The highway at that particular point was 20 feet in width with the easterly shoulder extending approximately four feet from the edge of the pavement to a snow bank, and sloping southerly on a five per cent down grade. The highway at the time was slushy.

Shortly after appellant parked, two of the respondents who were walking north and two who were walking south met at a point approximately opposite the open right door of appellant’s ear. While so stopped, the respondent, Suzanne’s mother, bent over to fix one of Suzanne’s galoshes. At this moment defendant Ede’s car, which had gone out of control when the driver endeavored to avoid hitting a small boy who had darted across the highway, skidded a distance of approximately 90 feet, striking the right rear fender and door of appellant’s car, which in turn struck the respondents and caused the injuries as alleged in their complaint.

Appellant contends that his car could at most be considered only as a remote condition and not the proximate cause of the accident; that even under these circumstances a violation of the parking law could not be actionable negligence in that respondents had voluntarily assumed positions next to the car, with the inference that by so doing they were not pedestrians. Further error is assigned in the giving and refusing to give certain instructions.

The appellant argues that the efficient and proximate cause of the accident was the skidding of the Bde ear. It is quite true that had not the Bde car gone out of control it probably would not have struck appellant’s car. Nevertheless, as in the case of Pastene v. Adams, 49 Cal. 87, the negligent piling of the lumber in the street did not cause the *553 truck to be driven against it, thereby toppling over and injuring the plaintiff, but the court in that instance held that piling lumber in such a fashion was concurring negligence in that it concurred with the negligence of the driver of the truck and the judgment against the defendant was sustained. This court cannot say that the situation here presented is at all different than that in the Pastene case. In the present case the alleged negligent parking by appellant was a question of fact and was found by the jury to be a continuing negligence and a violation of the Motor Vehicle Code, and therefore was a concurring negligence with that of the defendant Ede.

In substantiation of his contention appellant cites the case of Klarquist v. Chamberlain & Proctor, 124 Cal.App. 398 [12 P.2d 664], stating that there the defendant contractor obstructed the sidewalk; but he fails to mention that such obstruction was lawful. As the late Presiding Justice Pullen said in regard to the Klarquist case, when the instant case (Inai v. Ede, 42 Cal.App.2d 521, 526 [109 P.2d 400]) was before this court on appeal from an order sustaining defendant Takeuchi’s demurrer without leave to amend:

“There a contractor was lawfully building a sidewalk, and because of barriers around the work plaintiff was compelled to walk into the street, where he was struck by a negligently operated car. There the. contractor was constructing a necessary public work, under the authority of a municipality— and the contractor was therefore not bound to have anticipated the reckless act of a third person. There plaintiffs attempted to invoke the rule applicable to concurrent and negligent causes of injury, under which, liability of the defendant contractor would arise from the fact it should have anticipated the negligence of the driver in leaving his regular course, but the court said ‘.. . their argument fails to convince us that the liability of one legally constructing a necessary public way, under the authority of a municipality, who cannot be said to have anticipated the reckless act of a third party, should be predicated upon or measured by the same rules. ’ If, however, after completing its work of laying the sidewalk, the contracting company had then negligently placed a pile of gravel in the street alongside the sidewalk and had negligently permitted it to remain there unguarded, and a truck had, by reason thereof, been thrown from its *554 course and struck a pedestrian, undoubtedly the company would have been liable, or at least put upon its defense.”

It is obvious that the KLarquist case is not in point.

Fennessy v. Pacific G. & E. Co., 20 Cal.2d 141 [124 P.2d 51], is a case very similar to the one before us whereii the defendant, in violation of a statute parked a truck between the safety zone and curb, leaving insufficient space for traffic to pass between. Plaintiff was hit by a bus when she was standing in the pedestrian lane. On appeal it was contended that the bus driver broke the chain of causation but the court affirmed judgment for plaintiff, stating:

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Bluebook (online)
139 P.2d 76, 59 Cal. App. 2d 549, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 353, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/inai-v-ede-calctapp-1943.