Klaus v. Soloman Valley Stage Lines Co.

264 N.W. 747, 130 Neb. 325, 1936 Neb. LEXIS 50
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 31, 1936
DocketNo. 29434
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 264 N.W. 747 (Klaus v. Soloman Valley Stage Lines Co.) 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
Klaus v. Soloman Valley Stage Lines Co., 264 N.W. 747, 130 Neb. 325, 1936 Neb. LEXIS 50 (Neb. 1936).

Opinion

Redicic, District Judge.

The plaintiff, Lydia Klaus, brings this action to recover damages for injuries which she sustained as the result of [326]*326a collision between the Chevrolet roadster in which she was riding, driven by defendant Chester Wrightsman, and a bus of the Soloman Valley Stage Lines Company, upon Federal Highway No, 6, opposite a private driveway leading from a roadhouse or tavern known as Fred Hays’ Place about a mile west of the city limits of Lincoln. The petition alleges that, as the Chevrolet was being driven across the highway, defendant’s bus, driven by its servant, negligently collided with it, causing plaintiff serious injuries. The negligence charged is that the bus was being driven at a high and unlawful rate of speed, to wit, more than 20 miles an hour, that defendant negligently failed to keep a proper lookout, negligently failed to exercise proper care to avoid a collision after he knew that a continuation of his course would so result, and that he negligently drove the bus, while proceeding east, on the north half of the highway at the point of the accident. The answer of defendant denies that its servant was guilty of any negligence causing the accident, and alleges that the proximate cause of the same was the negligence of Lydia Klaus, the plaintiff, in conjunction with that of defendant Wrightsman, that the plaintiff and other occupants of the Chevrolet were pursuing a common purpose and had j oint control of said automobile with the driver thereof, that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence in a number of particulars not necessary to enumerate, and that said Chevrolet was being-driven in violation of the official state highway rules and regulations of the department of public works formulated and published by legislative authority. Plaintiff filed a general denial in reply. The case was tried to a jury, and when plaintiff rested defendant moved for a directed verdict, but withdrew his motion with leave to renew it at the end of all the testimony, which was done. The motion was overruled, the case submitted to the jury, which returned a verdict for the plaintiff for $12,148, from which $2,148 was remitted by order of the district judge, and judgment rendered for $10,000 against both defendants. Motion of defendant company for a new trial was overruled and appeal [327]*327taken to this court. Defendant Wrightsman has not appealed. As the case now stands, Lydia Klaus will be referred to. as the plaintiff, and Soloman Valley Stage Lines Company as defendant or the company, the vehicles as the car or the bus.

The following facts are not.in dispute: The highway in question runs from west to east to the city of Lincoln and is paved with concrete slabs, and is 22 feet in width; the barbecue tavern is located about a mile west of the city limits of Lincoln, upon the highway, and 32 feet south of the south edge of the pavement; a graveled driveway extends from the pavement south into a parking space connected with the tavern on the east. Defendant Wrights-man was the owner and driver' of the Chevrolet at the time of the accident, at which time the car was occupied by five other persons, guests of Wrightsman, two of whom, Combs and Oden, together with Wrightsman, were residents of Beatrice, Nebraska, the three others being young ladies living in Lincoln. The places occupied by these six persons in the Chevrolet were: Wrightsman at the wheel, Helen

Vavra in the center and Harold Combs on the right with Olga Munsterman sitting on his lap, the four being in the front seat; plaintiff, Lydia Klaus, sat on the left and Oden on the right in the rumble seat. The Chevrolet was 13 feet 5 inches in length from bumper to bumper, the bus 25 feet; the collision occurred about 8:30 or 8:45 p. m., on October 1, 1933; the night was dark and the headlights on both cars were lighted. The tavern was 40 feet wide east and.west and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad tracks crossed the highway diagonally in a northeasterly direction at a point 153 feet west of the west line of the tavern or 193 feet west of the east line of the tavern. The parties in the Chevrolet were on their way to a dance hall some distance farther out, and stopped at the tavern where all, except plaintiff, were served with beer, and about 8:45 p. m., with Wrightsman driving and the others seated as above stated, started for the dance hall, emerging from the driveway at a speed of about five miles an hour until the front wheels [328]*328were upon the pavement, when the driver speeded up attempting to cross in front of the bus, when the collision occurred at a point on the pavement, the location of which is somewhat in dispute, and as a result plaintiff was thrown out of the car and received very serious injuries, and Oden was also thrown out and injured; in fact, all the occupants of the car were injured more or less except Miss Munster-man. The driver of the bus, Harold Hodges, was the servant of the defendant company, and the bus contained but one passenger, Robert V. Vaupel, who was seated on the front cross-seat with the driver by an open window. That by the rules of the road as adopted and published by the department of public works of the state of Nebraska under legislative authority it is provided: “3. Right of way. * * * A vehicle entering a public highway from a private road or drive must yield the right of way to vehicles on the highway.”

The only witnesses to the accident were the six occupants of the Chevrolet and the two occupants of the bus, all of whom were called as witnesses, Wrightsman, Oden and Combs testifying by deposition.

The principal error assigned for reversal is that the verdict is not supported by sufficient evidence, and that the court erred in overruling defendant’s motion for a directed verdict, and it will be necessary to set forth in some detail the testimony of the witnesses as to the manner in which the accident happened, particularly those matters as to which there is some dispute.

Wrightsman, called for the plaintiff, testified that, after he got to the street and just before he reached the pavement, he looked in both directions and saw no car coming either way, and drove out onto the street intending to go west, when he saw the bus was close, so just drove on straight across, saying: “I just stepped on the gas and went across, and the bus driver turned and pulled out to his left and struck us over at the north edge of the pavement.” He could not give the number of feet the bus was from him when he first saw it, but says it was one and a half or two [329]*329car lengths away and he was on the pavement near the center ; that his car was nearly off the pavement at the time of the collision; that his back wheel was on; that the bus struck the rear center of his car but did not tip it over; that the bus stopped right against his car with its left front wheel and about half the bumper off the pavement; that he was not very clear as to the location of the cars, that his idea on the point was just a “flash;” that plaintiff was thrown 15 to 20 feet off the pavement onto the ground; that he looked up the road when his car was 10 feet from the pavement and could see 75 feet, but did not know why he did not see the bus; that at the time there were one or two cars parked in front of the tavern, their rear ends being 12 to 15 feet from the pavement.

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Bluebook (online)
264 N.W. 747, 130 Neb. 325, 1936 Neb. LEXIS 50, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/klaus-v-soloman-valley-stage-lines-co-neb-1936.