Moore ex rel. Moore v. Ervin

374 S.W.2d 142, 1964 Mo. LEXIS 851
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJanuary 13, 1964
DocketNo. 49247
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 374 S.W.2d 142 (Moore ex rel. Moore v. Ervin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moore ex rel. Moore v. Ervin, 374 S.W.2d 142, 1964 Mo. LEXIS 851 (Mo. 1964).

Opinion

EAGER, Chief Justice.

Plaintiff, through her father as next friend, sought $300,000 in damages for serious personal injuries; she was nineteen years of age at the time of trial. The injuries were sustained in a head-on collision between the automobile in which she was a rear-seat passenger and an oncoming car. Several other persons were killed. At the close of plaintiff’s evidence the trial court directed a verdict for defendant Ervin and the jury returned a verdict for defendant Steger. Plaintiff has appealed, contending that she made a submissible case against [143]*143defendant Ervin, and, as to Steger, that the Court committed errors in instructing the jury and in its rulings during argument. Steger’s counsel, while denying all specific errors claimed, asserts in the first instance that plaintiff failed to make a submissible case against him. Ervin, through his counsel, supports the ruling directing a verdict for him.

The case was argued and submitted in Division One of this Court, and an opinion was filed on April 8, 1963. In that opinion the Court held that the trial court correctly directed a verdict for Ervin; it further held that plaintiff had made a submissible humanitarian case against Steger, and that it had erred in giving an instruction on Steger’s behalf. Consequently, the judgment as to Ervin was affirmed, but the judgment in favor of Steger was reversed and the cause remanded. Judge Hyde dissented from that part of the opinion reversing and remanding the case as to Steger. We shall refer to that brief dissent later. The cause was transferred to the Court in Banc where it was again argued and supplemental briefs were filed. Where any references to the pleadings are necessary, they will be made in the body of this opinion. All negligence submitted was properly pleaded and, in fact, much more was alleged than was submitted.

This most unfortunate casualty occurred on Cape Girardeau County Road V; the road was blacktop, 22 feet wide, with no center line or warning signs and rather hilly. At the location in question the shoulder was only 2-3 feet wide on the west side, beyond that “about a foot of ditch,” and beyond the ditch a steep bank 8 or 9 feet high. The date was July 5, 1959, Sunday, and the time was about 3:30 to 4:00 p. m.; the day was bright and hot and the road dry. About 1:00 o’clock on that day Paul Hahn, driving a 1953 Chevrolet and having Bill Hand as a passenger, picked up plaintiff and her sister June at their home. The ages of these young men are not shown. A stop was then made at the ■“Spot Cafe” in Cape Girardeau where Hahn had at least two beers. Plaintiff left and went on two errands during that time. When the trip was resumed, they went by Plahn’s home where apparently all but plaintiff put on swimming suits and all then left for a projected swimming place. This car was followed by one driven by Ross Dyer. On the way Hahn and Dyer stopped again and remained in some roadside place (undescribed) for ten or fifteen minutes. When the final leg of the journey started, Hahn was driving with June Moore and Diane Dyer in the front seat, and the plaintiff and Bill Hand in the rear, with plaintiff on the left side. Hahn proceeded thence north until the collision occurred.

The impact occurred near a crest in the road,- — -by measurement 18 feet to the south of it and 6-7 feet south of the edge of the farm driveway of a Mr. Hanebrink, who lived on the east side of the road. There was another crest in the road 705 feet to the south of the one just referred to; from the top of the south crest the view is unobstructed to the next one and the road inclines slightly as it proceeds north, but there is a dip or “swag” which creates a “blind spot” shortly before one reaches the crucial northerly crest. North of the latter (northerly) crest the road dips rather sharply for a considerable distance, then rises to another crest, all as shown by plaintiff’s photographic exhibits and by the testimony.

Prior to this collision Hahn and his passengers were proceeding north behind a 1955 Ford Ranchwagon driven by defendant Ervin, who had one passenger. After passing the south crest described, Ervin was driving 35^40 (possibly 45) miles per hour, Hahn around 60; at a point described as from 225-250 feet south of the point of impact and while traveling about “60” (as related by plaintiff’s witness Daugherty) Hahn started to pass Ervin’s car; he increased his speed in order to pass and the cars traveled more or less together for about 150 feet; apparently Hahn’s car never got quite even with Ervin’s, though “fairly close.” During this period both cars [144]*144were approaching the crest near the point of impact with Hahn entirely in the southbound lane; defendant Steger, driving a 1956 Chevrolet with five passengers, was approaching from the other (north) side of the crest. The witness Daugherty, who had been sitting in the Hanebrink front yard watching Hahn and Ervin, testified: that he “noticed another car coming up the hill” (Steger), so he jumped up, knowing that a collision was “inevitable,” and ran into the house to call an ambulance; that there is a “blind spot” in the road that would hide the cars from each other; that Steger’s car was roughly 100-150 feet north of the point of impact when he first saw it and its speed was about 35-40 miles an hour; that when he jumped up the Steger and Hahn cars were from 50 to 100 feet apart; that immediately before Steger got to the crest the Ervin car was “somewhere” slightly in front of or alongside the Hahn car, and that if Steger had swerved to the left he would have met the Ervin car head on; that only a “split second” elapsed from the time he (Daugherty) turned and started toward the house until he heard the impact.

' The plaintiff herself was able to add little to the facts thus related. She was (apparently) facing partially to her right, toward Bill Hand. She testified: that Hahn had speeded up and slowed down; she first indicated that this occurred “several times” while he was trying to pass, but she later testified specifically on cross-examination that he did so “when we were behind that car,” and that on one such occasion he threw her off the back seat. She was somewhat vague as to whether she had seen the Ervin car as they were attempting to pass it, but finally stated that she saw it when “The front fender of our car was even with the rear fender of his car,” just a “few seconds” before the collision, later stated as two or three seconds. She never saw the Steger car. She further testified that at some point Hahn said aloud, “Get out of the way up there you (omitting a 'dirty word’) and let me pass”; it was first indicated that this statement was made “just before we hit,” and later, just a “little bit” before the wreck, and also while Hahn was trying to pass. She did not note any application of brakes by Hahn; she testified that Hahn was driving “around sixty,” but that it could have been between “sixty and sixty-five,” that it was “too fast,” and that his speed was faster than on any prior occasion when she had ridden with him.

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Bluebook (online)
374 S.W.2d 142, 1964 Mo. LEXIS 851, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-ex-rel-moore-v-ervin-mo-1964.