Jensen v. Jensen

279 N.W. 628, 228 Wis. 77, 1938 Wisc. LEXIS 166
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedMay 17, 1938
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 279 N.W. 628 (Jensen v. Jensen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jensen v. Jensen, 279 N.W. 628, 228 Wis. 77, 1938 Wisc. LEXIS 166 (Wis. 1938).

Opinion

Fritz, J.

The defendants, Jens Jensen and his automobile liability insurance carrier, appeal from a judgment against them for the recovery by the plaintiff, Viggo Jensen, of damages for personal injury sustained by him upon the overturning of Jens Jensen’s automobile, as the result of the sudden deflation of a tire. The word “defendant,” as used hereinafter, refers to Jens Jensen solely. The plaintiff was riding in the automobile as a guest of the defendant, who was driving the car. The accident happened in Alabama, while the parties were en route from Racine, Wisconsin, where they resided, to Texas. They had stopped in Indiana for two additional guests. On the morning of June 11, 1935, the third day of the trip, defendant learned that the right rear tire had become deflated, while the car was parked near the hotel at which the party stayed overnight in Decatur, Alabama. At defendant’s request, a hotel employee called a [79]*79garage serviceman to replace the tire by using one of the two spare tires on the tire racks of the car. While that change was being made, the plaintiff and his companions had breakfast, and when they returned they saw the tire which had been put on the wheel. Then from 7 o’clock a. m. they traveled about three hundred fifty miles until the accident happened at 4 o’clock p. m., when the right rear tire blew out. The car, which defendant was driving at sixty miles per hour, swerved to the left, off the concrete roadway, and overturned in a ditch on the left side thereof. It went about one hundred fifty feet before it came to a stop. It was totally destroyed by fire. The tire which blew out was not recovered, but one of the guests saw it lying on the left side of the road, off the rim, and that there was a large hole in it. During the trip the defendant and two of his guests had done the driving in shifts of fifty miles each, but the plaintiff had done none of the driving. He never protested or complained about the speed, or the manner in which the car had been operated. It was a Packard automobile, 1930 model, purchased by the defendant in 1932 as a secondhand car, driven about eleven thousand miles. It had gone about fifty-seven thousand miles when the accident occurred. But none of the original tires were on the car at that time; and the defendant testified that the tire, which blew out, was purchased by him in 1932.

The jury founcl/(1) that the defendant was negligent in unreasonably exposing the plaintiff to danger and injury by increasing the hazard of travel beyond that assumed by him upon entering the car (a) as to* speed, but that there was no such negligence on defendant’s part (b) as to the condition of the tires; (2) that such negligence (a) as to speed was a cause of the accident and plaintiff’s injury, but that negligence (b) as to the condition of the tires was not a cause; (3) and that the defendant ought not to have anticipated [80]*80that injury to others might follow from negligence on his part as h> either speed or “condition of tire;” and furthermore; (4) that the plaintiff assumed the risk incident tO' ridding in the automobile. On plaintiff’s motion after, verdict, the court changed the verdict by substituting for the jury’s answers findings by the court (1) (b) that there was likewise such negligence on the defendant’s part in respect to the condition of the tires; (2) (b) that such negligence was a cause of plaintiff’s injury; (3) that defendant ought to have anticipated injury to others from such negligence on his part in respect to speed, andalsO' the condition of the tire; and (4) that the plaintiff did not assume the risk incident to riding in defendant’s automobile. Then, on the verdict as changed by the court, judgment was entered for the plaintiff.

The defendants contend that the jury’s answers in the special verdict are sustained by the overwhelming weight of the evidence, and that, at all events, in view of the conflicts therein and the inferences to be drawn therefrom, it was beyond the court’s province to substitute its findings for some of the jury’s answers. On the other hand, the plaintiff contends that undisputed evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom support only the findings which the court substituted for answers of the jury. All parties appreciate that, if the evidence is conflicting, or the inferences to be drawn therefrom are doubtful and uncertain, and there is any credible evidence which will reasonably support or admit of any inference for or against the claim or contention of any party, then the proper inference to^ be drawn is a question for the jury, and, when it has returned a verdict, its answers should not be changed by the court’s substitution of its findings for the jury’s answers; and that, on an appeal, the problem is not whether the court’s findings are more warranted by the evidence than the jury’s answers, but the inquiry is limited to the narrow issue of whether there is any credible evidence [81]*81which, under any reasonable view, admitted of inferences which may have been drawn therefrom by the jury in arriving at its verdict. Trautmann v. Charles Schefft & Sons Co. 201 Wis. 113, 228 N. W. 741. Likewise, the parties recognize that, inasmuch as the state of Alabama does not seem to have had any statute in effect at the time of the accident in relation to the duties and obligations of a host to his guest, and the latter’s right to recover damages from his host under such circumstances as are involved herein, and as there was no proof as to the common law of Alabama in those respects, it must be assumed that the common law of that state is the same as that of Wisconsin. Consequently, the principles stated and applied in O’Shea v. Lavoy, 175 Wis. 456, 185 N. W. 525; Klein v. Beeten, 169 Wis. 385, 172 N. W. 736; Ormond v. Wisconsin Power & Light Co. 194 Wis. 305, 216 N. W. 489; Waters v. Markham, 204 Wis. 332, 235 N. W. 797; Pawlowski v. Eskofski, 209 Wis. 189, 244 N. W. 611; Eisenhut v. Eisenhut, 212 Wis. 467, 248 N. W. 440, 250 N. W. 441; Campbell v. Spaeth, 213 Wis. 162, 250 N. W. 394, are in point. Therefore, to entitle the plaintiff to recover herein he had the burden of establishing that (1) the tire was defective and his injuries were proximately caused by that defect; (2) that the defendant knew of that defect; (3) that, if he did know of the defect, he realized or should have realized that it involved an unreasonable risk to his guest, the plaintiff; (4) that the defect was so concealed or hidden as not to be reasonably obvious or patent to the plaintiff, and the defect and the risk involved were in fact unknown to him; (5) and that the defendant failed to warn the plaintiff as to the defective condition and the risk involved therein. Waters v. Markham, supra, p. 339. In so far as there were any issues of fact under the evidence in relation tó any of those matters, the determination thereof was for the jury and not for the court. If, for instance, [82]*82there was any credible evidence that reasonably admitted of inferences and the belief by the jury, because of which the jury was not satisfied, at least to a reasonable certainty, that the defendant knew that the tire was in fact defective, and that he realized or should have realized that it involved an unreasonable risk to his guests, then it was error for the court to substitute its affirmative findings for the jury’s negative

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Bluebook (online)
279 N.W. 628, 228 Wis. 77, 1938 Wisc. LEXIS 166, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jensen-v-jensen-wis-1938.