Johnson v. Fishbein

267 So. 2d 405, 289 Ala. 328, 1972 Ala. LEXIS 1066
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedSeptember 29, 1972
Docket1 Div. 694
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 267 So. 2d 405 (Johnson v. Fishbein) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. Fishbein, 267 So. 2d 405, 289 Ala. 328, 1972 Ala. LEXIS 1066 (Ala. 1972).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Appellant, Mary Johnson, plaintiff below, was struck by an automobile driven by the appellee, Cassius Fishbein, defendant below, in the late afternoon hours of November 29, 1968. She received injuries to her buttocks, flank, and abdomen, as well as a fractured pelvis. The accident occurred about 5:00 to 5:30 in the afternoon. It was cold and misty with intermittent drizzling rain. Darkness was falling and some automobiles had their headlights turned on. The rush hour traffic was heavy.

Shortly before being struck, the plaintiff had alighted from a city bus at a bus stop on Wilson Avenue in the City of Mobile, near the intersection of Wilson Avenue and St. Stephens Road.

Plaintiff contends that she had traversed the entire width of Wilson Avenue and was at the western most curb, when defendant’s car knocked her down as it approached from the north. The defendant, his wife, as well as another driver who saw the accident, all testified that plaintiff was crossing in the opposite direction, and had just stepped off of the western most curb at the time she was struck.

Further evidence indicated that the defendant had stopped his automobile at a red light north of the point where plaintiff was struck, and that he had accelerated from a complete stop to a speed of approximately fifteen to twenty miles per hour when the right front fender of his car hit the plaintiff as he rounded a curve to his left.

The defendant contends that he did not see the plaintiff until he struck her, and that he stopped his car almost immediately.

In any event, no evidence was adduced that plaintiff was crossing in a marked crosswalk between intersections, or, that she was crossing at an intersection.

Apparently, the jury concluded that the plaintiff was “jay walking” and denied her any recovery as their verdict indicated. The case was submitted to the jury on a one-count complaint, based on simple negligence, and the defendant’s pleas of the [331]*331general issue and contributory negligence.

On this appeal appellant urges seven separate assignments of error.

ASSIGNMENTS I AND VII

In Assignment of Error I, appellant complains the trial court erred in its denial of the motion for a new trial. Appellant’s argument raises the question that the verdict is contrary to the great weight of the evidence.

Assignment of Error VII claims the lower court erred in refusing to grant a new trial on the ground that one of the trial jurors was guilty of prejudicial misconduct.

These assignments require us to review particular issues of fact before the lower court. We do not believe that appellant has Sufficiently complied with Rule 9 so as to provide adequate review of these issues.

“ ‘ . . . “It is well established that a reviewing Court starts with the presumption that the record contains evidence to sustain every finding of fact. It is not the province of the reviewing court to search the record in order to ascertain whether it contains evidence that will sustain a contention made by either party to the appeal. [Citing cases.] Where an appellant claims that some particular issue of fact is not sustained by the evidence, he is required to set forth in his brief all of the material evidence on the point and not merely his own evidence. If this is not done, the error assigned is deemed waived.” . . .’ Slovick v. James I. Barnes Construction Co., 142 Cal.App.2d 618, 298 P.2d 923, 927.” Evergreen Heading Co. v. Skipper, 276 Ala. 623, 624, 165 So.2d 705, 707. [Emphasis supplied.]

For this reason, we consider Assignments of Error I and VII as waived. Rule 9(b), Revised Rules, Supreme Court of Alabama, 279 Ala. XXVI.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR II AND III

Appellant elected to argue Assignments of Error II and III together. Assignment of Error II urges reversal for the trial court’s having given defendant’s requested charge No. 1. Assignment of Error III is concerned with the trial court’s refusal to give plaintiff’s requested charge No. 14. These charges attempted to state the law as it applies to pedestrians crossing a roadway at a point other than at an intersection or in a marked crosswalk, and to pedestrians crossing near a crosswalk.

Defendant’s charge No. 1 (which will be set out hereinafter) was apparently an attempt to follow the statutory rule of the road which appears in Tit. 36, § 58 (16(a)), Code 1940 Recompiled 1958, viz:

“Crossing at other than crosswalks.- — ■ Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right of way to all vehicles upon the roadway.” [Emphasis supplied.]

When defendant’s charge No. 1 is read, a typographical error appears which completely misquotes the section above, viz:

“The Court charges the jury that Pedestrians attempting to cross a roadway at any point within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right of way to all vehicles upon the roadway, and if you are reasonably satisfied from all the evidence in this case that the Plaintiff, Mary Johnson, on the occasion complained of, attempted to cross St. Stevens Road [sic] at a point other than at a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection and failed to yield the right of way to the Defendants motor vehicle, then I chai-ge you as a matter of law such attempt to cross St. Stevens Road [sic] was negligent, and if you are further reasonably satisfied from all the evidence that such negligence on the Plaintiff’s part proximately contribut[332]*332ed to her injuries and damages then your yerdict must be for the Defendant, Cassius Fishbein.”

Charge I, as given, does not contain the words “other than” after the words “pedestrians attempting to cross a roadway at any point.” Since the words “other than” are omitted from charge I, the charge treats, although incorrectly, the law applicable to pedestrians crossing roadways within marked crosswalks or within unmarked crosswalks at an intersection.

On the trial below, the question of the exact point where plaintiff crossed the street was not without some conflict in the evidence, but even under the scintilla rule, there was no evidence before the lower court which would support a finding that plaintiff crossed the street at, or near, a marked crosswalk, or at an intersection in or near an unmarked crosswalk. On the contrary, the evidence was clear that plaintiff crossed the street between intersections where there was no marked crosswalk. Conflicts in the testimony of plaintiff’s and defendant’s witnesses were mainly concerned with the direction of plaintiff’s travel, the plaintiff attempting to prove a westerly crossing and other witnesses testifying that she crossed in the opposite direction.

In the case of Ray v. Richardson, 250 Ala. 705, 36 So.2d 89, this court held that where issues under the evidence were simple and clearly presented by other requested charges, as well as the court’s oral charge, error could not be predicated on the ground that certain given written instructions were erroneous as being abstract, argumentative, or misleading, under Supreme Court Rule 45. See also, 2A Ala.Dig., Appeal and Error, ^1066.

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Bluebook (online)
267 So. 2d 405, 289 Ala. 328, 1972 Ala. LEXIS 1066, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-fishbein-ala-1972.