Jones v. King

204 S.W.2d 548, 211 Ark. 1084, 1947 Ark. LEXIS 804
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 6, 1947
Docket4-8228
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 204 S.W.2d 548 (Jones v. King) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jones v. King, 204 S.W.2d 548, 211 Ark. 1084, 1947 Ark. LEXIS 804 (Ark. 1947).

Opinion

Holt, J.

Appellee, Carrie King, brought this action against appellant to recover damages in her own right, as widow of Harden A. King, deceased, and also as administratrix for the benefit of his estate, for alleged conscious pain and suffering of her intestate. She alleged that her husband’s death resulted from a rear-end collision of two trucks on paved highway 64, about iy2 miles east of Piney, Arkansas, caused by the negligence of the driver of appellant’s truck. A jury trial resulted in verdicts and judgments for appellee, in her own right for $20,000, and as administratrix in the amount of $7,000, or a total of $27,000.

This appeal followed.

For reversal, appellant says: “First. The court erred in refusing to direct a verdict at the conclusion of all of the testimony for appellant on the whole case, for the reason that the undisputed proof shows that the proximate cause of the injury was the failure of the driver of the pick-up to give the signal as required by law, and that the undisputed facts show no negligence on the part of appellant’s driver. Second. That the court should have instructed a verdict for appellant in the case of Carrie King, widow of Harden A. King, for the additional reason that Harden A. King died from lymphatic leukemia, a disease not traumatic in origin, and a disease from which he would have died had he never received the injury and that the injury was not the cause of his death. Third. That the allowance for conscious pain and suffering by the jury is excessive and the result of passion and prejudice.” It is also argued that the allowance of $20,000 to appellee in her own right was excessive.

(1)

Since appellant’s first and second contentions, in effect, challenge the sufficiency of the evidence, we consider them together.

Briefly stated, the evidence tends to establish the following facts: December 19, 1944, at about 2:30 p. m., appellee’s intestate, Harden A. King, was riding in a truck driven by H. R. Pierce, tbe owner. They were traveling west on concrete highway 64, approaching a gravel road, known as the Hickeytown road, that turned off to their right at a 45-degree angle. For approximately 500 feet before they reached this side road tbe highway is downgrade. As Pierce and King, driving at about 30 miles per hour, reached a .point approximately 100 feet from the side road, Pierce, the driver, reduced his speed to about 15 miles per hour and, at this rate of speed, began to turn off highway 64 onto the side road, and as his truck, with the exception of the rear wheels, left the concrete slab, appellant’s truck, going about 35 miles per hour, struck the rear of Pierce’s truck, turned it over twice, seriously injuring King.

The driver of appellant’s truck testified that the overall length of his truck and trailer was 34 feet, that the gross weight, including freight he carried, was about 11 tons. He further testified that for about 150 feet east on highway 64, just before the collision, he had followed Pierce’s truck at a distance of 50 feet to the rear and was within this distance when Pierce began to turn into the side road. Pierce admitted that he gave no signal to appellant’s driver of his, Pierce’s, intention to turn to the right on the side road.

Appellant’s driver further testified that two automobiles about 100 feet apart were approaching from the opposite direction and that for this, and the additional reason that there was a “blind hill” in front of him,' he could not go around the Pierce truck. There was, however, testimony on the part of appellee sharply denying that there were any cars coming from the opposite direction at the time as claimed by appellant.

We think it would serve no purpose to detail more of the evidence. It suffices to say that we have reviewed it all and after considering and weighing it in the light most favorable to appellee, as we must do under our long-established rule, we are unable to say that it is not substantial and insufficient to take the case to tbe jury.

Appellant earnestly argues that the proximate canse of the collision and injuries to appellee’s intestate was the failure of Pierce, the driver of the truck in which appellee’s intestate, King, was riding, to give any signal of his intention to turn off on the side road, as required ley 6725 and 6727 of Pope’s Digest, and this was negligence preventing recovery. We cannot agree for the reason that the evidence also shows that appellant’s driver was driving his heavily loaded truck at a speed of 35 miles per hour downgrade when it struck the rear end of Pierce’s truck, and, as indicated above, for 150 feet before the collision he had been following Pierce’s truck at a distance of only 50 feet. On this point, he testified: “Q. Traveling at 35 miles per hour, in what distance could you have stopped your truck? A. 35 miles, an hour —between fifty and seventy-five feet.” In these circumstances, the jury would have been warranted in finding, and evidently did find, that the proximate cause of the collision was the negligence of appellant’s driver, in following too close to Pierce’s truck and thereby was unable to stop or so manage his truck as to prevent the collision that followed.

This question of fact was submitted to the jury under instructions of which no complaint is made. The applicable rule of law is stated in the case of Acco Transportation Company v. Smith, 207 Ark. 70, 178 S. W. 2d 1011, where we said: “This case is more nearly like that of Madison-Smith Cadillac Co. v. Lloyd, 184 Ark. 542, 43 S. W. 2d 729, where we held that ‘the law of the road is that the automobile in front has the superior right to the use of the highway for the purpose of leaving it on either side to enter intersecting roads, ’ and that a driver in the rear who fails to observe such rule is guilty of contributory negligence. While there is no question of turning off the highway into an intersecting road in the case at bar, we think the principle stated there applicable here with more force, since the truck was proceeding straight ahead on its own right side of the road, and the car in the rear must recognize the superior right of the truck to so proceed on its own way, and so manage his own car as to cause no injury under the penalty of being chargeable with negligence.”

In his second contention, supra, appellant argues that appellee’s intestate, King, died from what is known as lymphatic leukemia, a disease not traumatic in origin and from which he would have died had he never received the injuries alleged, and that such injuries were not the cause of his death. The evidence on this question was conflicting.

It appears that appellee’s intestate was employed by H. K. Pierce Lumber Company at the time of the injuries complained of here and was a robust, able-bodied man. He was 51 years of age, with a life expectancy of 20.20 years, was married and lived on a farm near Clarksville with his wife.

Immediately following the collision he was taken to the office of Dr. Earle H. Hunt in Clarksville, a practicing physician and surgeon of some 38 years experience and of unquestioned ability. After leaving the doctor’s office he went to his home and was confined to his bed for a period of about three weeks during which time he suffered intense pain in his neck and head which required frequent administration of sedatives.

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Bluebook (online)
204 S.W.2d 548, 211 Ark. 1084, 1947 Ark. LEXIS 804, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-king-ark-1947.