Luckey ex rel. Luckey v. Adams

397 S.W.2d 519, 1965 Tex. App. LEXIS 2126
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 16, 1965
DocketNo. 181
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 397 S.W.2d 519 (Luckey ex rel. Luckey v. Adams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Luckey ex rel. Luckey v. Adams, 397 S.W.2d 519, 1965 Tex. App. LEXIS 2126 (Tex. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

SELLERS, Justice.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment. Leroy H. Luckey, appellant, brought this suit against Charles K. Adams, d/b/a Custom Automotive, appellee, in the 162nd District Court of Dallas County.

The suit is the result of an automobile accident which occurred September 23, 1956, at which time the appellant was 19 years of age. The petition of appellant alleges that, while said appellant was operating a “dragster” owned by appellee in a timed speed trial on a race track in San Antonio, the accelerator “hung” and would not release. Damages were sought against appellee on the basis that he was negligent in knowingly furnishing for appellant’s use a vehicle containing a defective accelerator shaft.

[520]*520By an amended pleading on June 8, 1964, another ground of recovery was alleged in that appellee was charged with negligently permitting appellant to operate the dragster without giving adequate instructions to appellant who was known to be an inexperienced driver. The appellee moved to strike the second cause of action on the ground that the same was barred by the two-year statute of limitation. This motion was overruled by the trial court.

The appellee, in his amended answer, plead as special defenses that the collision in question was proximately caused by acts and/or omissions upon the part of the appellant, that appellant assumed the risk in driving the dragster, and that the accident in question was unavoidable.

Appellee filed its motion for summary judgment based upon the pleadings and depositions on file. This motion was not controverted by affidavits or other reply by appellant. The motion of appellee for summary judgment was granted, from which ruling the appellant has duly prosecuted this appeal.

The depositions on file which are material on this appeal are those of appellant and appellee; and from a review of both depositions we gather the following undisputed facts:

The deposition testimony of appellant shows that appellant became interested in "drag racing, hot rods, dragsters, and things of that kind when he was between the ages of 14 and IS years.” Appellant actually began to race stock cars as early as 1953, racing said vehicles as high as 75 miles per hour on drag strips in many locations. Subsequently, appellant acquired a 1954 Olds which was converted so that it would operate at higher speeds, and appellant raced this automobile for two years until he acquired a 1934 Ford roadster, which also was converted to operate at higher speeds. This roadster was a specialized racing machine; it was not registered as a motor vehicle and driven on the public highways, but was towed from place to place and entered in racing events. During the latter part of 1955 and 1956 appellant raced this Ford roadster on tracks in Texas and Louisiana obtaining a speed of 99.99 miles an hour at one racing strip. In the latter part of 1956, the engine from the 1934 Ford roadster was removed and placed in a 1932 Ford roadster belonging to appellee, which roadster was again driven by appellant at high speeds ranging from 105 miles per hour up to a maximum of 116.78 miles per hour. After engaging in numerous racing events, both in and out of the State of Texas, and after winning an event at Waco, Texas, with a clocked speed of 104 miles per hour, appellant and his family took the roadster to the National Championship Races in Kansas City, Missouri. At the Kansas City Championship Races, appellant won his class and was given a trophy for attaining a speed of 113.77 miles per hour. In addition to actual racing experience, appellant admitted in his deposition that because of his career in racing, he had learned a lot about the mechanics of racing cars, and was a pretty fair mechanic himself because of the work that he had done on these type vehicles.

Appellee was also at the above described Kansas City event and took with him the dragster which was involved in the collision made the basis of appellant’s suit. It was during this time that appellant first saw the dragster operated. Appellant and appellee subsequently went together to the regional championship races in San Antonio, where appellant for the first time actually drove the dragster.

From his deposition testimony, appellant remembered nothing at all about the details of the accident in which he was injured. He remembers only that on the morning in question, he checked in as the driver of the dragster, and that the dragster was checked by the inspectors at the racing event for safety. Appellant himself, however does not even remember [521]*521getting into the dragster prior to the run which ended with the collision.

In appellee’s deposition, appellee confirmed from his knowledge the prior racing experience of appellant as above described, particularly with reference to the National Championship trials in Kansas City. Appellee testified that he had seen the appellant drive many times in racing events, and that he was confident of appellant’s ability to drive racing vehicleá. With reference to the condition of the dragster, appellee testified that the dragster had been raced a number of times prior to the date of appellant’s accident, and that at no time had there been any complaint of any defect. Appellee himself had personally checked the linkage for clearance, and stated his opinion that he knew no reason why the engine would not shut off on the occasion of the accident. The linkage in the dragster was the same as that at the time the dragster was raced in the Kansas City Championship event, and it had not been raced subsequent to that event except on the occasion in San Antonio when appellant was injured. Also, appellee testified that the vehicle had been carefully checked over or all safety features by one of appel-lees’ employees. A further check just prior to the accident had been made by the officials in charge of the racing event in San Antonio. In particular, the throttle linkages were checked and were found to be in safe condition by those racing officials.

Appellee did testify about the facts surrounding the accident in question. Appel-lee testified that appellant first drove the roadster down and through the course at a slow speed to warm up the oil. Appellee testified that later in the day appellant asked to drive the dragster so as to feel it out, and he was told to drive it on a warmup road but to take it easy. It was on this occasion that the appellant started out at a rate of speed faster than appellee had expected him to drive, but appellee still thought nothing about it and had looked away briefly when someone hollered that the car was not stopping. When appellee looked around again he saw a cloud of dust at the far end of the racing strip (about j/2 mile away) which he later discovered had been caused when the vehicle catapulted over a stone curbing and rolled over several times.

Appellant in his brief sets out the following questions which he says were for the jury under the deposition evidence of appellant:

“Did the Appellee request the Appellant’s son to drive the subject ‘dragster’ ?
“Did the Appellee know that Appellant’s son had never driven a vehicle like the subject ‘dragster’ before?
“Did the Appellee give any instruction or teaching in the method of driving the subject ‘dragster’?”

If it can be said that these issues were raised by the evidence, it would seem that they fail to show that the trial court was in error in granting the summary judgment.

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Bluebook (online)
397 S.W.2d 519, 1965 Tex. App. LEXIS 2126, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/luckey-ex-rel-luckey-v-adams-texapp-1965.