McDowell v. Interstate Oil Co.

237 N.W. 454, 212 Iowa 1314
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJune 20, 1931
DocketNo. 40877.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 237 N.W. 454 (McDowell v. Interstate Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McDowell v. Interstate Oil Co., 237 N.W. 454, 212 Iowa 1314 (iowa 1931).

Opinion

*1315 Kindig, J.

Joe Robert McDowell, when seven years old, died in Sioux City, December 22, 1926, as the result of a collision between a motor truck, owned by the Interstate Oil Company, defendant and appellant, and a small sled on which the boy was coasting. This collision occurred in Sioux City at the intersection of Summit and Eleventh Streets.'

Summit Street extends in a northerly and southerly direction and is intersected at right angles by Eleventh Street, which runs east and west. These streets are very steep at the intersection. Eleventh Street slopes to the west, while Summit slants to the south. The accident occurred in the afternoon when Joe Robert McDowell was coasting westward on the south side of Eleventh Street across Summit. At the time, a motor truck, belonging to the appellant, was being propelled by an employee southward down Summit Street across the intersection' with Eleventh. As the motor vehicle approached the center of the intersection, the boy on his sled also arrived, and ran under the truck. Apparently the operator stopped the vehicle at the southwest corner of the intersection, and, after it was brought to a standstill, the truck swung around on the ice and the rear wheels held the child at the west Summit Street curb, south of Eleventh.

An action was started by J. I. McDowell, administrator of the estate of Joe Robert McDowell, to recover, from the appellant, damages for the wrongful death. A verdict was returned for the plaintiff, and the defendant appealed. Upon the appeal, the judgment of the' district court was reversed. See McDowell v. Interstate Oil Company, 208 Iowa 641. J. I. McDowell, the former administrator, 'died and Fanny A. McDowell was then appointed administrator de bonis non of the estate of Joe Robert McDowell, deceased. She was afterwards duly substituted as plaintiff in this suit, and is now the appellee on this appeal.

Following the reversal, the cause was again tried, and the jury once more returned a verdict for the plaintiff. Again the defendant has appealed.

Many reasons are assigned for a reversal. ■ They will now be discussed in the following order.

I. Appellee bases her action against the appellant upon the following grounds of negligence: First, that the motor vehicle was propelled at an excessive and dangerous rate of speed; *1316 second, that the motor vehicle was operated at a rate of speed in violation of a city ordinance; third, that the appellant at the time in question did not have the motor truck under proper control; fourth, that the appellant should not have operated its motor vehicle over Summit Street at the place in question because of the ice and dangerous condition resulting therefrom; fifth, that the appellant failed to give any warning signal of the motor truck’s approach; sixth, that the appellant operated the motor vehicle on the left-hand side of the street; seventh, that the driver of the vehicle did not keep a proper outlook; eighth, that the windshield was clouded and dirty so that proper observations could not be made from the vehicle; and, ninth, that the driver of the truck, after seeing the boy on the sled, had an opportunity to turn the motor vehicle to the right and thus avoid a collision.

During the trial, two motions were made by the appellant. One motion asked the district court to. withdraw from the jury’s consideration each ground of negligence above named on the theory that there was no evidence in the record to support the same. In addition to the foregoing, the appellant also moved the court for a directed verdict in its favor on the theory that appellee had not sustained the allegations of her petition by adequate evidence. After consideration, the district court overruled the motion for a directed verdict, but submitted only part of the grounds above named to the jury; thereby in effect partially sustaining appellant’s other motion.

So far as shown by the record, the following are the only grounds of negligence above named, which were submitted to the district court: First, that the appellant failed to control the motor vehicle when approaching and crossing the intersection aforesaid; second, that the appellant operated the motor truck at an excessive and dangerous rate of speed; third, that the motor vehicle was operated in violation of a city ordinance; fourth, that the operator of the motor vehicle failed to give any warning signal of the approach; fifth, that the appellant was negligent in operating the vehicle at all over the icy street; and, sixth, that the vehicle should have been turned to the right down Eleventh Street, after the operator saw the boy on the sled, and thereby avoid the injury.

Those propositions condemned in McDowell v. Interstate *1317 Oil Company (208 Iowa 641), supra, were not submitted to the jury in the second trial. Thus, by omitting part of the grounds of negligence named in the petition, the district court did not submit to the jury the propositions discussed in McDowell v. Interstate Oil Company (208 Iowa 641), supra. Nevertheless, appellant contends that no issue should have been submitted to the jury in the second trial, for the reason that the evidence is insufficient.

Manifestly appellant’s complaint is not supported by the record. There was evidence to indicate that the motor vehicle, weighing approximately 9,700 pounds, was operated down Summit Street at a speed of 18 or 20 miles per hour. Likewise, it appears that the operator of the truck did not have the same under control because the vehicle skidded across the intersection when the brakes were applied. Furthermore, an ordinance in Sioux City required that “no auto truck of more than one ton capacity equipped with solid rubber tires * * * shall be operated at any time, whether loaded or not, on any paved street, alley, or thoroughfare in Sioux City, Iowa, at a greater speed than twelve miles per hour.” Clearly, under the record, the truck belonging to appellant was a vehicle squarely covered by the ordinance, and the evidence supports the claim that the speed limit was being violated. Moreover, there is testimony to the effect that no warning signal of the truck’s approach was given at or near the intersection. There is evidence indicating that the driver of the vehicle could have turned the same to the right down Eleventh Street and thus avoided the boy on the sled, who, it is said, turned to the left in order to miss the truck. It is true there is conflicting evidence on this point. A jury question, therefore, was presented. Each of the foregoing grounds of negligence has support in the record, and it was not improper for the district court to submit the same to the jury, for due instructions were given concerning the proximate cause, in compliance with McDowell v. Interstate Oil Company (208 Iowa 641), supra. Of course, if, as said in the former McDowell opinion, lack of control was due to the ice alone, then there would not be negligence unless it was wrongful for -appellant to operate the truck down the slippery street.

Also, there is a basis in the record for the other ground of negligence, to wit, that the appellant, because of the icy con *1318 dition of Summit Street, should not have operated its motor vehicle thereon. When this cause was submitted before, as shown by McDowell v.

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Bluebook (online)
237 N.W. 454, 212 Iowa 1314, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdowell-v-interstate-oil-co-iowa-1931.