Miller v. Hickman

1961 OK 16, 359 P.2d 172, 1961 Okla. LEXIS 298
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 31, 1961
Docket38900
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 1961 OK 16 (Miller v. Hickman) 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
Miller v. Hickman, 1961 OK 16, 359 P.2d 172, 1961 Okla. LEXIS 298 (Okla. 1961).

Opinion

BLACKBIRD, Vice Chief Justice.

This action arose out of a motor vehicle collision between a sedan driven by plaintiff in error and a tractor-trailer truck operated by the defendant in error, M. E. Hickman, through his employee, Ronald Huffman, driver of the truck. When plaintiff in error instituted the action, as plaintiff, to recover damages for personal injuries she allegedly received, and hospital and medical, expenses incurred, as a result of the accident, she named both Hickman and Huffman, as defendants; but, as she never obtained service on Huffman, our use of the designation “defendant” herein will refer only to Hickman.

The collision occurred during a heavy morning rain on a highway curve approximately 2½ miles northeast of Hennessey, at a point where U. S. Highway 81 forms a bifarcation, or “Y”, with State Highway-Si. The two vehicles were traveling in opposite directions as they proceeded into the curve; plaintiff’s going south toward Hen-nessey, and defendant’s going north toward Enid. In plaintiff’s petition, defendant’s negligence was alleged to consist of the driving of the truck at a speed “exceeding the speed limit for trucks” at a time when-weather and road conditions required “greater care and caution”, and its being driven to the left of the center of the highway. In his answer and cross petition for recovery of damages from plaintiff on account of his truck being disabled in the *175 collision, defendant denied that he, and/or his driver, was guilty of any negligence causing the collision, and alleged, in substance, that it was caused entirely by plaintiff’s negligence, more particularly in her •driving her car to the left of the highway’s medial line at a speed greater than would permit her to stop within the assured distance ahead, and in her failing to maintain a proper lookout.

At the trial, plaintiff’s evidence, which included the testimony of Leonard Good-pasture (a highschool senior, who testified he was traveling in a pickup truck about 20 to 30 yards behind plaintiff’s car as it entered the curve) tended to show that defendant’s truck struck plaintiff’s car at least two feet west of the highway’s center, or medial line, while the latter was driving in its proper (southbound) lane, at a speed ■estimated variously from 25 to 35 miles per hour; and that the truck was then traveling from 50 to 55 miles per hour. Huffman, defendant’s truck driver, testified that he was negotiating the curve at 25 to 35 miles per hour and was in the proper (northbound) lane of traffic, proceeding about 2 feet east of the center line when plaintiff’s ■car, then 50 feet from the truck, suddenly “pulled over” and “just turned into the side of me.”

The testimony of a State Highway Patrolman or “trooper”, W. P. Tucker, who came to the scene of the accident, after it occurred, tended to support Huffman’s testimony as to the collision’s point of impact; .and the question of where this point was, in relation to the highway’s medial line, was a crucial issue in the case.

When defendant first rested his case, plaintiff demurred to the evidence and moved for a directed verdict. After these were ■overruled, and defendant, upon being allowed to reopen after the jury was instructed, elicited further testimony from ■one of his previous witnesses, plaintiff renewed her said demurrer and motion; and they were again overruled. Upon submission of the case to the jury, it returned a verdict denying any recovery to either plaintiff or defendant. After the overruling of her motion for a new trial, plaintiff perfected this appeal.

Her “Proposition IV” for reversal is as follows:

“The Judgment and Verdict of the Court Was Not Sustained by the Evidence and the Court Should Have Instructed Jury to Render Verdict in Favor of Plaintiff in Fair Amount and Because the Verdict Is Not Supported by the Evidence, the Court Erred in Not Sustaining the Motion for New Trial and in Failing to Sustain the Demurrer of Plaintiff to Defendant’s Evidence.”

Under this Proposition, plaintiff’s counsel say, in their initial brief, that: “There really is no disputed fact”, and in their reply brief, that they “do not believe there was any conflict in testimony whatsoever other than the statements of the highway patrolman * * * ”. However, by attacking the weight and credibility of the testimony of defendant’s witness Huffman, and the competency and admissibility of parts of the highway patrolman’s testimony, they tacitly, or in effect, concede that both of these witnesses’ testimony could be interpreted, and given credence, to support the verdict. Consequently, we do not deem this fourth proposition worthy of further consideration under the rules pertaining to such assigned errors at trials resulting in judgments upon verdicts. In this connection, see the cases digested in 2A Okla. Dig., under Appeal and Error, <$=5991, 994, 996, 999(1), 1001 and 1002.

Under her Proposition I, plaintiff contends that the trial court erred in admitting certain testimony of Trooper W. P. Tucker. His arrival at the scene of the accident was at 8:30 (A.M., thirty minutes after it happened). He testified that when he arrived there, he found a GMC Diesel truck and a car had collided “as they were coming around the curve.” The witness was then asked on direct examination if he recognized “the lay of the curve” on a map, drawing, or diagram of the intersection of the two highways introduced in *176 evidence as Defendant’s Exhibit C. He was then asked to point out on this Exhibit where the two vehicles were when he arrived at the scene. A subsequent portion of this witness’ examination is as follows:

“Q. Trooper, did you investigate and examine the highway slab under and around and behind each of these vehicles at that time? A. Yes, I did.
“Q. Will you tell the jury what you found? A. The truck approached from this direction and traveled here (the witness was apparently tracing the truck’s course on defendant’s Exhibit C).
* # * ⅝ * ⅜
“Q. * * * It proceeded in which direction around the curve ? A. Northeasterly until he turned.
“Mr. Murphy:
“We object to this line of questioning. The witness testified he wasn’t there at the time of the accident and would be incompetent to testify as to anything the truck did prior to the accident.
“The Court:
“Overruled.
* * * * * *
“Q. You may proceed. A. And upon making an investigation of the tire marks and skid marks or any evidence to show us what might have caused this accident *****

Plaintiff’s counsel say that the last part of Trooper Tucker’s last-above quoted answer was “definitely prejudicial as fixing in the mind of the jury that here is a person who is going to tell them what was done and what happened notwithstanding * * * (the testimony of) every other witness who testified.” If such an implication was intended by the witness — which we doubt from the tenor of the testimony which followed the particular expression referred to — we have no reason to believe that the jury so interpreted it, or was wrongfully influenced by it.

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Bluebook (online)
1961 OK 16, 359 P.2d 172, 1961 Okla. LEXIS 298, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-hickman-okla-1961.