Menser v. Danner

240 S.W.2d 652, 219 Ark. 130, 1951 Ark. LEXIS 477
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJune 11, 1951
Docket4-9515
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 240 S.W.2d 652 (Menser v. Danner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Menser v. Danner, 240 S.W.2d 652, 219 Ark. 130, 1951 Ark. LEXIS 477 (Ark. 1951).

Opinion

Robinson, J.

On the 7th day of December, 1949, the appellee, Elsie Danner, was driving an automobile on West Second Street in Prescott. Paul Harris was driving a truck, belonging to Earl Menser, on Elm Street. The two automobiles collided in the intersection of the two streets. As a result of this collision, Mrs. Danner sued Earl Menser and recovered a judgment in the sum of $20,000, for personal injuries.

The evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the appellee, is to the effect that on the day of the collision, the weather was very cold and ice covered everything. Mrs. Danner’s husband had scraped the ice from the windshield of the car she was driving and there was no ice on the windshield at the time of the collision. There was ice on the windshield of the Menser truck, Harris, the driver, having scraped away a small area in front of the driver. There was a stop sign at the intersection, whereby the users of Second Street were warned to stop before entering Elm Street. Mrs. Danner brought her car to a full stop and looked in both directions but did not see the Menser truck. Mrs. Danner testified that: “The truck must have been coming at an awful rate of speed or I would have seen it.” She then proceeded to cross Elm Street and had reached a point more than half way across when her automobile was struck by the Menser truck. Mrs. Danner was knocked unconscious and her car proceeded some 50 to 100 feet on Second Street before coming to a stop. The Menser truck stopped against a post at one of the corners of the intersection. Mrs. Danner was seriously ■ and permanently injured.

Most of the facts, as above stated, were sharply contradicted, but such are the facts when viewed in the light most favorable to the appellee, which we must do. East Texas Motor Freight Lines v. Buck, 213 Ark. 640, 212 S. W. 2d 13; Schubach v. Traicoff, 214 Ark. 375, 216 S. W. 2d 395.

Appellant contends that Mrs. Danner was, as a matter of law, guilty of contributory negligence in failing to see the approaching Menser truck and was, therefore, guilty of contributory negligence in driving out into the intersection when the truck was so close as to constitute a hazard. In support of this contention, appellant cites several cases dealing with collisions at railroad crossings, but the caution required, by the law of' this State, of one about to cross over a railroad track has not been made to apply also to street crossings. Appellant also cites Waters, Pierce Oil Co. v. Knisel, 79 Ark. 608, 96 S. W. 342, but that case turned on the question of “physical impossibility.” The court said:

“All the other facts and circumstances point to the same conclusion. Defendant’s words cannot be believed, when contradicted, as they are, by the physical facts. Neither courts nor juries should be required to base their actions or beliefs on physical impossibilities.” We cannot say, as a matter of law, it was physically impossible for Mrs. Danner to fail to see the Menser truck at the time, the place, and under the conditions that existed unless she was negligent.

In the case of Bauman v. Black & White Town Taxis Co., 263 Fed. 554, the court said: “Before attempting to cross, and as he left the curb, plaintiff in error looked both to the east and west and saw no motor car approaching. * * * The law does not say how often he must look, but he must exercise that care which an ordinarily prudent person would exercise in making a similar attempt in crossing the street. Even though the taxicab may have been within the 200 feet he said he had a view of and in the middle of the street, we cannot say as a matter of law that he should have seen the taxicab.”

In the case of Van Bibber v. Strong, 203 Ark. 1090, 160 S. W. 2d 861, a car’s headlights threw a beam of light 300 feet, but the driver, Strong, did not see a parked truck until within 30 or 40 or 50 feet of it. This court said: “Strong’s actions are dangerously near the border line where contributory negligence as a matter of law should come to appellant’s aid. Doubt, however, is resolved in favor of the verdict, and the questions of fact as found by the jury will not be disturbed.”

“The rule is that where fair minded men might honestly differ as to the conclusion to be drawn from facts, whether controverted or uncontroverted, the question at issue should go to the jury.” St. L. I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Fuqua, 114 Ark. 112, 169 S. W. 786.

At the plaintiff’s request the court gave the following instruction: “If you find from a preponderance of the evidence in this case that the plaintiff, Mrs. Danner, while in the exercise of reasonable care, had driven her car into the intersection in question before the truck of the defendant had entered said intersection, you are instructed that Mrs. Danner had the right-of-way.” Of course, the court did not mean, and the jury could not have understood, by this instruction that Mrs. Danner could bring her automobile to a stop before entering the intersection, then negligently drive out into the intersection, and still have the right-of-way, regardless of the fact that she might have been negligent in driving into the intersection when the Menser truck was so close as to constitute a hazard, for, in addition to the instruction which has been referred to, the court told the jury: “If you find from the evidence that Mrs. Danner was guilty of any negligence, however slight, which caused or contributed to bring about the collision, then you are told that she is not entitled to recover herein and your verdict should be for the defendant.”

Also, the court instructed the jury: “If you find from the evidence that Mrs. Danner did not stop at the stop sign and you further find and believe from the evidence that her failure to stop caused, or proximately contributed to bring about the collision, she is not entitled to recover herein, and this is true regardless of whether the Harris truck was on its right" or left side of Elm Street, and regardless of whether Paul Harris was negligent. ’ ’

And the jury was further told: “If, after hearing all the testimony in this case, you find and believe from the testimony that Mrs. Danner and Paul Harris were both guilty of negligence in bringing about the collision, then you are told Mrs. Danner cannot recover herein, and your verdict should be for the defendant.”

Moreover, the court also instructed the jury: “If you find from the evidence that, as Mrs. Danner approached the intersection, she stopped at the stop sign, and you further find that at the time Paul Harris was nearing the intersection and was in such close proximity thereto as to constitute an immediate hazard, and you further find that Harris was in plain view of any person making a reasonable use of his eyesight and situated as was Mrs. Danner at the time, then she had no right to continue into the intersection in front of the approaching truck, and if she did so, and her car was struck by the truck and she was injured, she is not entitled to recover damages herein, and yonr verdict will he for the defendant.”

The sum and substance of the court’s instructions to the jury in regard to the right-of-way at the intersection was that, if Mrs. Danner was in the intersection first, and there was no negligence on her part in getting there first, then she had the right-of-way, which is the law of this State. Brown v. Parker, 217 Ark. 700, 233 S. W. 2d 66.

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396 S.W.2d 288 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1965)
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Bluebook (online)
240 S.W.2d 652, 219 Ark. 130, 1951 Ark. LEXIS 477, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/menser-v-danner-ark-1951.