McKaig v. Paramore

401 F.2d 719
Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided October 3, 1968·No. No. 9948·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

ORIE L. PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge.

Jimmy R. Paramore, a minor, by Hardy A. Paramore as his next friend, brought this action against Emmett E. McKaig, Jr., the Junction City Bottling Co., Inc., and James M. Tapley to recover damages for personal injuries. Shortly before the trial began, the case was dismissed without prejudice as to Tapley. From a judgment on a jury verdict in favor of Jimmy, McKaig and the Bottling Company have appealed.

While Jimmy was riding his bicycle across the intersection of Sixth Street and Garfield Street in Junction City, Kansas, at about 3:15 p. m. on May 29, 1964, the rear end of his bicycle was struck by a Pontiac station wagon being driven by Tapley, and almost immediately thereafter Jimmy and his bicycle were struck by a truck owned by the Bottling Company, being driven by Mc-Kaig, its employee.

At the time of the accident, Jimmy was eight years of age.

From the intersection, Sixth Street extends east and west, and Garfield Street extends north and south. At the time of the accident, Sixth Street, west from the intersection, was a four-lane street, marked for two lanes of traffic in each direction. East from the intersection, it narrowed and was a two-lane street, marked for one lane of traffic in each direction.

East of the intersection, parking was allowed on both sides of Sixth Street. Sixth Street was a through street and there were stop signs on both sides of Garfield Street, adjacent to the intersection, which required Garfield Street vehicular traffic to stop before entering the intersection.

A grade school and a high school were located near the intersection. Pupils at such schools crossed the intersection when going to and from school.

At the time of the accident, there was a school crossing caution sign located on the south side of Sixth Street, about 150 feet west of the intersection.

Except on Saturdays and Sundays and days of school vacation periods, a school stop sign on a standard was placed in the intersection during certain hours. In other words, it was placed in the intersection, during certain hours, on days pupils in either or both of the two schools were required to go to their respective schools for school purposes. What those hours were, the record does not show. It had been placed in the intersection on the day of the accident, but had been removed before the accident occurred. The sign read, “School Lane, Stop.” When such sign was not in place, on Saturdays and Sundays and holidays and during school vacation periods, Sixth Street was not a stop street for vehicles approaching the intersection.

There were two painted crosswalks on the pavement, extending across Sixth Street, one on the east side and one on the west side of the intersection, for the use of Garfield Street pedestrians crossing Sixth Street. The crosswalks were hatched with painted diagonal lines. Three feet to the west of the west crosswalk, there was a painted bumper line, the purpose of which was to provide three feet of clearance between stopped vehicles and pedestrians using the crosswalk. There was a like bumper line in the east crosswalk.

Students at the grade school and high school used these crosswalks in going to and from school. While the school term had ended the day before the accident, students had to return to their schools on the day of the accident to receive their grade report cards, and the stop sign on the standard was in place in the intersection during part of the day of the accident.

Shortly before the accident, Patricia Lathrop, a student at the high school, had approached the intersection and was standing in the west side crosswalk, waiting to cross Sixth Street from north to south. She was in plain view of drivers of vehicles approaching the intersection on Sixth Street from the west.

[721] Tapley saw her standing in the crosswalk when he approached the intersection. The westbound traffic on Sixth Street had stopped to permit Lathrop to cross Sixth Street. When the accident happened, she had proceeded about halfway across the westbound traffic lanes, and the vehicles in the westbound lanes were still stopped, waiting for her to cross. Shortly before the accident, the Tapley vehicle was in the left lane of the eastbound traffic. The Bottling Company truck, driven by McKaig, and also traveling easterly was following closely behind the Tapley vehicle and in the same traffic lane.

Tapley first saw Jimmy on his bicycle as he emerged from between two vehicles in the westbound traffic lanes. Tap-ley “jammed on” his “brakes,” but was unable to stop in time to avoid hitting Jimmy’s bicycle, and the right front fender of the Tapley vehicle struck the rear end of Jimmy’s bicycle. Tapley testified that “when I hit the back of his bicycle it spun him around, and he • throwed his [left] foot1 down and tried to push himself back up, and by that time the truck came around my right-hand side and the boy disappeared.”

A traffic officer testified that the Tapley vehicle laid down skid marks for 27% feet, which ended at the point of impact between such vehicle and the bicycle; that the truck traveled 47 feet from its point of impact with Jimmy until it stopped.

Lathrop testified that she did not actually see the Tapley vehicle strike Jimmy’s bicycle, but when she heard the noise made by the skidding tires she stopped and looked and saw the truck “go around the” Tapley vehicle “on the right side” and run over Jimmy; that after the truck passed over him she went over to where Jimmy was lying, and that Jimmy’s arms and legs were doubled up in his bicycle and that he was unconscious.

The evidence of Lathrop and Tapley established that the truck passed the Tapley vehicle on its right side in the intersection and that the interval between the two impacts was very short.

Tapley testified that after stopping his vehicle, he moved the transmission lever into the parking position and went to where Jimmy was lying; that Jimmy was lying next to the curb “still astraddle of his bicycle” and that his legs were “down through the side of the bicycle, and his arms around the handle bars” and that he did not appear to be conscious.

Notwithstanding the fact that Tapley had jammed on his brakes and skidded his tires, McKaig, instead of slowing down, turned into the other lane to go around Tapley’s vehicle. He testified that he thought Tapley was going to make a left turn. It should be noted that there were two or three cars stopped in the westbound lanes, which would block Tapley from making a left turn until they had moved westwardly. He had not signalled for a left turn, either by hand or mechanically, and there was no evidence he intended to make a left turn.

McKaig testified he was familiar with the intersection and passed over it an average of eight times a week, and that he knew that the crosswalks were used by children going to and from the grade school and high school.

Jimmy was not on his way to or from school when the accident happened. He was going to see his father at the latter’s place of work. He was rendered unconscious by the impact of the truck and the only thing he remembered was that he was riding his bicycle and going to see his father. His mind was a blank as to what occurred in the intersection.

There was no evidence, whatever, that Jimmy did not stop at Sixth Street before entering the intersection.

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McKaig v. Paramore, 401 F.2d 719 (10th Cir. 1968).

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Mckaig v. Paramore
401 F.2d 719 (Tenth Circuit, 1968)