Johnston v. Selfe

251 N.W. 525, 190 Minn. 269, 1933 Minn. LEXIS 914
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedDecember 8, 1933
DocketNo. 29,624.
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 251 N.W. 525 (Johnston v. Selfe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnston v. Selfe, 251 N.W. 525, 190 Minn. 269, 1933 Minn. LEXIS 914 (Mich. 1933).

Opinion

LORING, Justice.

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries received in an automobile accident the plaintiff had a verdict, and the defendant has appealed from an order denying his blended motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or a new trial.

The accident out of which this action arose occurred at two a. m. on the 11th day of October, 1931, at the intersection of Cedar avenue and Thirty-first street in the city of Minneapolis. Cedar avenue is an arterial street running in a northerly and southerly direction, protected at Thirty-first street by the usual boulevard stop signs. The plaintiff was a passenger in a Chevrolet sedan owned and driven by Hamilton Hall. According to the view of the evidence most favorable to the plaintiff, Hall stopped his car for the so-called boulevard stop sign as he was approaching Cedar avenue from the west on Thirty-first street. The weather was misty, and the plaintiff testified that there were no car headlights to their right on Cedar avenue nearer than three-quarters of a block. They proceeded to cross Cedar avenue and were struck by the defendant’s Nash car as he was driving in a northerly direction on the avenue. The collision occurred in the southeast quarter of the intersection, and from the damage to the cars the jury might well draw the conclusion that the Chevrolet was struck well back on the right side. According to the testimony it is probable that Hall did not see the defendant’s car approaching until the moment of impact. The collision was so violent that the Chevrolet car was thrown across Thirty-first street *272 and collided with the boulevard stop sign on the east side of Cedar avenue and was thence thrown 15 to 25 feet easterly thereof and somewhat to the north, coming to a stop, wrong side up, and resting upon the front of the top and the radiator. Plaintiff was lying under the rear end of the car. The Nash car -was thrown northerly on Cedar avenue and landed just outside of the east curb on the north side of Thirty-first street and facing south. There were four people in the Nash car and two in the Chevrolet. Both the plaintiff and Hamilton Hall were shocked into unconsciousness and know nothing of events subsequent to the impact. It is claimed that Hall does not recall the events immediately prior thereto.

Plaintiff testified that defendant’s car struck the Chevrolet to the rear of where she was sitting. The damage to the car tends to support her testimony. It was the claim of the defendant that the Hall car did not stop for the boulevard stop sign and that it was coming at a high rate of speed into the intersection when defendant first observed it, too late for him to avoid the collision. It is the claim of the defendant that there was no evidence from which the jury could find him negligent. We think that the character of the damage to the two cars and the violence of the collision was such as entirely to refute the defendant’s claim that he was traveling at a moderate speed. This conclusion is supported by the plaintiff’s testimony as to the distance of the nearest lights to the south when Hall was at the west side of Cedar avenue. It was defendant’s claim that as he approached the intersection he was traveling not to exceed 25 miles per hour and entered it at not over 15 miles per hour, that he was not going over five miles per hour at the moment of the collision. Obviously no such result as occurred would ensue from his striking the Chevrolet at five miles per hour. The jury might well have drawn the conclusion that he was going at a much higher rate of speed and that he approached the crossing without the exercise of ordinary care.

If the plaintiff’s story is to be believed, she is free from contributory negligence and the defendant’s negligence was a question for the jury. There is nothing in the admitted facts or those conclusively proved that compels the rejection of her testimony as in *273 herently improbable. If no car was nearer than three-quarters of a block, plaintiff as a passenger was certainly not guilty of negligence in failing to warn Hall of approaching vehicles.

The boulevard stop signs do not require cars to enter the arterial street at their peril but only to exercise ordinary care with regard to the traffic on the through street before entering thereon. Bell v. Pickett, 378 Minn. 540, 227 N. W. 854.

The operators of cars upon such through streets are bound to operate them with reasonable care as to the traffic entering from the side streets. Jacobsen v. Ahasay, 188 Minn. 179, 246 N. W. 670.

After the Hall car had stopped for the intersection, the usual rules in regard to right of way applied. Jacobsen v. Ahasay, 188 Minn. 179, 246 N. W. 670. 1 Mason Minn. St. 1927, § 2720-21, which authorizes the establishment of arterial highways, does not in any way modify other statutes which control right of way and speed. The jury might well have found that Hall had the right of way and was crossing the street in the exercise of ordinary care. Certainly if the plaintiff’s evidence is true there was nothing about his driving that should indicate to the plaintiff as a passenger that she should warn him of something that he did not see. The jury might also well have found that defendant was operating his car at a rate of speed unreasonable and improper and inconsistent with the exercise of ordinary care and the safety of cross traffic.

If defendant was traveling at an unreasonable, improper, and unlawful speed he forfeited his right of way under the statute. 1 Mason Minn. St. 1927, § 2720-18.

It is further contended that the verdict of |7,500 is excessive and indicates that it was the result of passion or prejudice. We do not so regard it. The trial court thought it was liberal but not so large as to require either reduction or a new trial. There was a severe head injury, a fracture of the skull, several bones having been taken out therefrom, and there is reasonable necessity of a further operation thereon. There is evidence tending to show a limitation of vision and severe headaches resulting from the head injury. There was a fracture of the shoulder blade and collar bone. *274 All this was necessarily accompanied by pain and suffering. There is evidence that a certain amount of pain and suffering will result in the future from the shoulder injury and also from the skull fracture until the head operation is performed. Upon the whole record we do not think we should interfere with the verdict.

The defendant assigned as error the refusal of the trial court to strike out a part of an answer given by one of the doctors. He had testified that the plaintiff had a fracture of the right scapula.

Q. “That is the back bone (sic) in the shoulder, is it?
A. “Yes, sir. She had a fracture of the right clavicle.
Q. “And what bone is the clavicle?
A. “That is the collar bone. She had a fracture of her skull, and we thought at the time that she had a fracture of her dorsal vertebra in the spinous processes; it has never been proven or disproved since.”

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Bluebook (online)
251 N.W. 525, 190 Minn. 269, 1933 Minn. LEXIS 914, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnston-v-selfe-minn-1933.