Kehm v. Dumpert

162 N.W.2d 520, 183 Neb. 568, 1968 Neb. LEXIS 589
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1968
Docket36916
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 162 N.W.2d 520 (Kehm v. Dumpert) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kehm v. Dumpert, 162 N.W.2d 520, 183 Neb. 568, 1968 Neb. LEXIS 589 (Neb. 1968).

Opinions

Newton, J.

This is a personal injury action. On trial to a jury, a verdict was returned for the defendant. A motion for new trial was subsequently filed which was sustained by the court.

Plaintiff Mollie A. Kehm had attended a dance on the night of October 2, 1965, with one Emil Krupicka. On leaving the dance, which was held at the Legion Club in Exeter, Nebraska, the couple went to a restaurant and on finding it closed, they drove west on U. S. Highway No. 6 to a filling station and restaurant. Finding that this was also closed, they drove on past for a ways, then decided to turn around and go home. Emil Krupicka was driving an automobile owned by him. According to his testimony, he stopped at a country lane just across some railroad tracks. He said he pulled off onto the shoulder of the road intending to wait until traffic had cleared before turning, that his right-hand signal lights were on, but he did not actually enter the lane. Defendant testified he approached the Krupicka car from the rear, his lights were turned down and he did not observe the Krupicka car until he was within about 50 feet of it. He conceded that at least one of the Krupicka tail lights was on, but is not certain whether the other was or not. He denied that any signal lights were operating on the Krupicka car at the time. He stated he slowed down to about 25 miles per hour but could not stop in time to avoid striking the car. Another car was [570]*570approaching from the west; the Krupicka car was on the blacktop pavement about 2% feet from the edge of the pavement and defendant passed on the right-hand side with the left wheels of his car on the pavement and the right wheels on the shoulder of the road. He said that as he passed the Krupicka car, it turned somewhat to¡ the right toward the lane, with the result that the left-rear end of defendant’s car struck the extreme right-front fender and the corner of the bumper on the Krupicka car. Damage done, to the Krupicka car was very slight, consisting of a small indentation in the bumper and three or four very shallow gouges in the extreme front end of the fender. Defendant drove on to an intersection, turned around, and came back at which time he stated the Krupicka car was in the lane facing north. This is denied by Krupicka. Some conversation then occurred. Krupicka stated that he asked the plaintiff if she was injured and that she replied in the negative. On the following day plaintiff said she became ill and consulted her doctor. She contended that she sustained a whiplash injury and an aggravation of a previous arthritic condition in her spine. Her doctor verified the nature of her injuries, attributed them to the accident, and stated that she was permanently partially disabled. Plaintiff stated that prior to the accident she had been in good health, but admitted that a few months after this accident, she was in another accident in which she sustained injuries similar to the ones she contended she received in the accident presently being considered.

Defendant had the plaintiff examined by Dr. Harold R. Horn, an orthopedic surgeon, a few days before trial. At that time Dr. Horn could find no abnormalities and testified that she was not suffering from any disability. Dr. Horn further stated that plaintiff had consulted him in 1961 about trouble she was having with her back and side at which time she stated that she had had such trouble for a period of many years; that the backache radiated around to her lower chest and anterior ab[571]*571domen; and that she had fallen more of late. In December 1960, she had tripped on a dance floor, during the following January, she fell down a flight of basement steps, had fallen on the ice, and also fell on getting up in the morning. Plaintiff denied that she had ever seen or consulted Dr. Horn although he gave the address which had been given to him by her in 1961 and produced X-rays taken of her at that time.

Plaintiff seeks to sustain the granting of a new trial on several grounds. She stated that the trial court erroneously failed to sustain challenges for cause to certain jurors. The record does not disclose the proceedings had in regard to the picking of a jury or that plaintiff exhausted all of her peremptory challenges. In this respect, it was determined in Brumback v. German Nat. Bank of Beatrice, 46 Neb. 540, 65 N. W. 198, that: “It is the settled law of this state that error cannot be predicated upon the overruling of a challenge to a juror for cause, when the record does not disclose that the complaining party has exhausted all his peremptory challenges.” Plaintiff further stated that the granting of the motion for new trial should be sustained because she was surprised by the evidence of Dr. Horn regarding her previously consulting him in 1961. No motion for a continuance on this ground was made by the plaintiff, but she elected to permit the case to go to the jury. She cannot now complain. In Remington Typewriter Co. v. Simpson, 83 Neb. 848, 120 N. W. 428, this court held: “A party will not be entitled to a new trial for surprise occasioned by his adversary’s evidence when he could have procured all available evidence to refute it by procuring a short continuance of the trial, but fails to ask for such continuance.” In Jensen v. John Hancock Mutual Life Ins. Co., 145 Neb. 409, 16 N. W. 2d 847, it was held: “A motion for a new trial on the ground of surprise is properly overruled where a request for a continuance for that reason was not made at the trial.” In Countryman v. Ronspies, 180 Neb. 76, 141 [572]*572N. W. 2d 425, it is said: “A party may not proceed with trial without objection and speculate on the outcome of the jury’s verdict and, if unfavorable, obtain a reversal on a ground upon which he might have but did not move for a mistrial at the time.”

Plaintiff also contended that the verdict of the jury is not sustained by the evidence. In this connection it appears, by the defendant’s own testimony, that he failed to drive at such a speed and to maintain such a lookout as would have enabled him to stop in time to avoid the car in which plaintiff was riding as a guest passenger. This court has repeatedly stated that it is negligence as a matter of law for a motorist to drive so fast on the highway at night that he cannot stop' in time to avoid collision with an object within the area lighted by his headlights. See, Robins v. Sandoz, 177 Neb. 894, 131 N. W. 2d 648; Bartosh v. Schlautman, 181 Neb. 130, 147 N. W. 2d 492. Defendant failed to give any excuse or reason for his failure to see the Krupicka car in time to stop and did not contend that the facts of this case bring it within the exceptions to the foregoing rule. It must, therefore, be concluded that although plaintiff did not move for a directed verdict on the question of liability, the evidence is such that a verdict for the defendant on the question of liability cannot be sustained. In this regard, it may be well to point out that in submitting the issue of negligence to the jury, the trial court did not commit error. In the absence of a motion for a directed verdict on the issue of liability, the plaintiff cannot complain of the failure of the trial court to withdraw that issue from the jury. See, Robinson v. Meyer, 165 Neb. 706, 87 N. W. 2d 231; Zavoral v. Pacific Intermountain Express, 178 Neb. 161, 132 N. W. 2d 329.

The final question presented is whether or not the verdict of the jury can be justified by reason of a failure to satisfy the jury on the question of damages. As heretofore noted, the plaintiff and her doctor testified to injuries and disabilities which they claimed plaintiff [573]

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Kehm v. Dumpert
162 N.W.2d 520 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1968)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
162 N.W.2d 520, 183 Neb. 568, 1968 Neb. LEXIS 589, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kehm-v-dumpert-neb-1968.