Lund v. Holbrook

46 N.W.2d 130, 153 Neb. 706, 1951 Neb. LEXIS 20
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 2, 1951
Docket32861
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 46 N.W.2d 130 (Lund v. Holbrook) 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
Lund v. Holbrook, 46 N.W.2d 130, 153 Neb. 706, 1951 Neb. LEXIS 20 (Neb. 1951).

Opinion

Simmons, C. J.

This is an action to recover damages arising out of a collision between a truck of the plaintiff and a car owned by the defendant Harvey Holbrook, Sr., which was being driven by defendant Harvey Holbrook, Jr. Issues were made on petition and answers and cross-petitions. Trial was had to a jury resulting in a verdict for plaintiff for $1,500. Defendants appeal, alleging error in instructions, the admission of evidence, and rulings made at the trial. We reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the cause.

Plaintiff’s truck was being driven by his brother. They will be referred to herein as plaintiff. The defendants will be referred to as father and son where it is necessary to identify them separately.

The accident happened on July 5, 1947, about 2 p. m., at a point between one and two miles east of Orchard on Highway No. 20, which runs east and west. The highway at the place of the collision had been improved with “black-top” about 20 feet wide. North of the blacktop it sloped down for 15 to 20 feet to a level three or four feet below the black-top. The highway was being *708 resurfaced for several miles. There were road-under-construction and detour signs and barricades west of Orchard and east of the point of collision about five miles. The public continued to use the highway for travel. At the time of the accident gravel was being hauled from a point seven or eight miles east of Orchard and spread on the south half of the black-top to a depth fixed by the witnesses ■ at ten inches to a foot or two. That work had progressed for some distance west of the point of collision, so that there the north half of the black-top and the slope were used for travel. There were eight gravel trucks in use. These trucks, when loaded, followed the practice of going west on the blacktop and, when returning empty, the east-bound trucks, on meeting a west-bound truck, would pull off the black-top to the north and pass in that manner.

Plaintiff’s testimony is that he was going west in a loaded truck on the black-top at about 35 miles an hour when, at a distance of 100 feet, he saw the car driven by the son on the black-top coming east. It was then traveling 35 miles an hour. It slowed down to ten miles an hour. Plaintiff eased on his brakes and signaled to the car to go to the south. Plaintiff turned off the black-top to the north, and the son then turned his car to the north. The vehicles collided head-on and came to rest about ten feet north of the black-top. .

The son’s version of the accident is that he had been at Orchard and was driving east in the Ford car on the blacktop north of the gravel. His speed was 30 to 35 miles an hour. He saw the plaintiff’s truck about half a mile to the east coming west on the black-top at a speed of 50 miles an hour. It might have slowed down somewhat as it approached. The son began to slow down so that when the vehicles were 100 to 250 feet apart he was going at a speed of 10 to 15'miles an hour. The plaintiff’s truck changed its course slightly to the south indicating to him that the truck was going to stay on the black-top. The son then, at a speed of ten miles an *709 hour, turned, to the north. The truck then turned to the north and the collision followed, the son’s car being pushed to the northwest 45 to 50 feet before the two vehicles came to a stop.

Both vehicles were seriously damaged. The son received personal injuries.

Defendants’ first assignment of error is that the court erred in failing to instruct the jury on the measure of damages. The court instructed the jury that “Before Plaintiff can recover in this case he must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that defendant Holbrook, Jr., was negligent in one or more of the respects alleged in his petition; that said negligence was the proximate cause of the collision and the resulting damage to Plaintiff; and he is further required to prove by a preponderance of the evidence the extent of damages sustained by him, not exceeding the value of the truck and towing charge.” (Instruction No. 5.)

Defendants’ ninth assignment is that the court erred in stating the amount of damages should be assessed “not exceeding the value of the truck and towing charge.”

It is patent that the instruction gave the jury no guide as to the elements that it was to consider in arriving at the amount of plaintiff’s damage, if the jury found for the plaintiff, save the limit of “not exceeding the value of the truck and towing charge.”

Plaintiff’s evidence was that the truck was so damaged it could not be repaired and put in as good condition as it was before the accident; that immediately before the accident the truck was worth $3,200, and immediately thereafter $625; and that he paid $110 which was the reasonable charge for having it towed to Omaha where he sold it. Plaintiff was permitted to prove that it was not until August 16, 1947, that it was determined the truck could not be repaired, and that the rental value was $22 a day.

The rule is: “In an action for damages to an automobile, where the automobile cannot be placed in sub *710 stantially as good condition as it was before the injury, the measure of damages is the difference between its reasonable market value immediately before and immediately after the accident.” Helin v. Egger, 121 Neb. 727, 238 N. W. 364.

It is obvious that the instruction is not in accord with that rule. The evidence does not show any relationship between the towing charge and the value after the accident. .Plaintiff does not argue that the towing charge was a proper item within the rule. Plaintiff here argues that the errors are harmless inasmuch as the verdict was' substantially less than the plaintiff’s proof of the before and after value. He relies on the rule stated in Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Archer, 46 Neb. 907, 65 N. W. 1043, that “Even where the damages are unliquidated, where the trial court has, by an instruction, submitted to the consideration of the jury an element of damages not sustained by the evidence, the error will be treated as harmless where, from an examination of the evidence and the verdict, it is reasonably certain that the jury was not misled, and that it allowed nothing on account of the element improperly submitted.”

We need not discuss that rule save to point out that it has no application here. Defendants offered evidence, based on a hypothetical question, that the reasonable value of the truck immediately before the accident was $1,200 to $1,500. The jury’s verdict was for $1,500. It may be that the jury determined to allow the plaintiff that which the defendants said was its value. If so, there was no deduction whatever for its admitted value after the accident. The error of the instruction was prejudicial and requires a reversal of the judgment and remanding of the cause. That being true, we deem it advisable to point out another patent error in the instruction.

In his petition as it was at the time of the trial plaintiff alleged: “That the automobile of the defendant Harvey Holbrook, Sr., was brought to a stop as plaintiff’s *711

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
46 N.W.2d 130, 153 Neb. 706, 1951 Neb. LEXIS 20, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lund-v-holbrook-neb-1951.