Madden v. Tilly

1936 OK 86, 54 P.2d 161, 175 Okla. 589, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 53
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 28, 1936
DocketNo. 25740.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1936 OK 86 (Madden v. Tilly) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Madden v. Tilly, 1936 OK 86, 54 P.2d 161, 175 Okla. 589, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 53 (Okla. 1936).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This action was commenced on September 9, 1932, in the district court of Muskogee county, by the plaintiff in error, to recover from the defendants in error, J. Oliver Tilly and Nelson Furniture Company, a copartnership composed of Hardin C. Nelson, T. Lee Nelson, and Gilbert C. Pool, the sum of $22,850 for the death of one Leo Madden, who was the husband of the plaintiff in error. Madden was killed about midnight on August 16, 1932, in an automobile accident on West Okmulgee avenue in Muskogee, Okia., about 100 feet east of Twenty-Fourth street. He was riding as a guest in the rumble seat of an automobile owned by E. 0. Winsett and driven by defendant in error Tilly. The Winsett car was traveling east on Okmulgee avenue and struck a truck owned by defendant in error No son Furniture Company. The truck was parked on the south side of West Ok-mulgee avenue about one hundred feet east of the intersection of Twenty-Fourth street, facing east, and had a rolled bundle of linoleum projecting two or three feet from the northwest corner of the body of the truck, The Winsett car swerved to the north t© avoid a collision, but side-swiped the northwest corner of the truck, the end of the bundle of linoleum coming through the right door of the car and tearing out the back end of the door and the top of the car. Madden received a cut in the neck from which he died before reaching the hospital.

Plaintiff in error bases her right to recover on the conjoint and concurrent negligence of the defendants in error, alleging as negligence on the part of the defendant Tilly that he was intoxicated and drove the ear in which Madden was riding at a dangerous and reckless speed of forty-five miles per'hour without stopping at the stop sign at Twenty-Fourth street, in violation of the *590 ordinance of Muskogee and of the statutes of Oklahoma, and as negligence on the part of the Nelson Furniture Company, that it parked its truck on West Okmulgee 'avenue in an improper manner, and left it unlighted and unoccupied, with a roll of linoleum projecting from the end, in violation of the ordinances of Muskogee and of the statutes of Oklahoma.

The defendant in error Tilly answered by a general denial, and defendant in error Nelson Furniture Company, by a general denial and a plea of contributory negligence on the part of Madden.

The parties will be referred to as they appeared in the trial court; the plaintiff in error as plaintiff, and the defendants in error as defendants.

On the trial, the plaintiff used the defendant Tilly and his friends, Winsett, Kennedy, and Pitts as witnesses to prove her ease, and at the close of plaintiff’s evidence defendant Tilly demurred to the evidence, but before the court ruled thereon, defendant Nelson Furniture Company served notice on the court and plaintiff’s attorney that D. W. Cantrell and George Price were present in court and would testify that defendant Tilly overran the stop sign at the intersection of Twenty-Fourth street and West Okmulgee avenue at a speed in excess of forty-five miles per hour, without stopping at the intersection, and that Carl Niblack, R. H. Hin-son, John Hughes, Ed Corbin and others were also present and would testify that defendant Tilly had been drinking and immediately following the accident was under the influence of liquor and was not in proper condition to drive an automobile.

Plaintiff’s attorney declined to use the offered evidence and the court ruled that they could not be forced to use it. The court then sustained defendant Tilly’s demurrer to the evidence, to which plaintiff excepted. The defendant Nelson Furniture Company also demurred to the evidence, but its demurrer was overruled by the court. At the close of all the evidence, the case was submitted to the jury on the issues joined between the plaintiff and the defendant Nelson Furniture Company. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant Nelson Furniture Company,

The plaintiff brings the case here on appeal, assigning as grounds of reversal:

(1>) The overruling by the court of plaintiff’s motion for new trial.

(2) The sustaining by the court of defendant Tilly’s demurrer to the evidence.

(8) The giving by the court of instructions '2, 8, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.

The refusal of the court to give the instructions requested by plaintiff.

The case has been briefed in this court by the plaintiff and the defendant Nelson Furniture Company, but the defendant J. Oliver Tilly has not filed a brief or offered any excuse for his failure to do so.

One ground of the plaintiff’s motion for new trial was the alleged misconduct of the defendant Nelson Furniture Company’s attorney in arguing to the jury that there was collusion between the plaintiff and her attorney and the defendant J. Oliver Tilly and his attorney, for the purpose of preventing a judgment! from being rendered against the defendant J. Oliver Tilly, and to have a judgment rendered against the other defendants. The record of the proceedings on the trial do not disclose any such argument to the jury on the part of the attorney for the defendant Nelson Furniture Company, and does not disclose any objection made to any remark of such counsel in his argument, or any exception thereto. The record does not show any proof heard or offered on the hearing of the motion for new trial to sustain said ground. Under these circumstances, there is nothing before this court to show the alleged misconduct, or upon which to predicate said assignment of error. Muskogee Electric Traction Co. v. Reed, 35 Okla. 334, 130 P. 157.

The plaintiff’s evidence was sufficient to withstand defendant Tilly’s demurrer, and the trial court probably committed error ini sustaining his demurrer to the evidence. However, this error was invited by the plaintiff and she is not in 'a position to urge that error in this court. The entire record discloses that the plaintiff sought to shield the defendant Tilly in every way possible. In his opening statement, plaintiff’s counsel laid all the blame for the accident on the defendant Nelson Furniture Company, and made no statement which tended to place any responsibility on the defendant Tilly. The plaintiff used the dtfendant Tilly and his friends to prove her case against the defend-; ant Nelson Furniture Company and elicited from Tilly the statement that he was not intoxicated and was not under the slightest influence of liquor at the time of the accident. After it was developed by counsel for defendant Nelson Furniture Company that *591 Tilly, Winsett, Kennedy, Pitts, and Leo Madden liad been to a nlgbt club several miles out in the country from Muskogee and had been drinking, plaintiff's counsel sought to exonerate defendant Tilly by showing that he had been charged in the city court of Muskogee with the offense of driving while intoxicated and had been acquitted. Plaintiff’s counsel also sought to explain why defendant Tilly did not stop after the collision, by eliciting- from him and other witnesses that Madden was so badly hurt it was necessary to rush him to the hospital. Plaintiff’s counsel sought to explain several other bits of evidence that tended to place responsibility for the accident on defendant Tilly.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1936 OK 86, 54 P.2d 161, 175 Okla. 589, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 53, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/madden-v-tilly-okla-1936.