Nama v. Shada

34 N.W.2d 650, 150 Neb. 362, 1948 Neb. LEXIS 142
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 12, 1948
DocketNo. 32454
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 34 N.W.2d 650 (Nama v. Shada) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nama v. Shada, 34 N.W.2d 650, 150 Neb. 362, 1948 Neb. LEXIS 142 (Neb. 1948).

Opinion

Paine, J.

This is an action at law seeking to recover for personal injuries and property damage growing out of an automobile accident which occurred in Buffalo -County. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff for $1,100. Supersedeas bond was given in the sum of $1,500.

In his appeal the defendant sets out as assignments of error that the court should have sustained defendant’s motions for an .instructed verdict in his.favor; that the court should have sustained defendant’s motion to declare a mistrial because of prejudicial matters occurring in the voir dire examination of jurors; that the court erred in giving instructions Ños. 1, 5., 7, and 13; and that the verdict is contrary to the evidence and the law.

In the brief it was claimed that the principal .ground for reversal is that the jury’s verdict is not supported by the evidence, and for that reason, we will set out the following:

The plaintiff, driving a Model A Ford automobile, started east from Kearney on Highway No. 30 about 9:15 p. m. on March 9, 1947. The pavement was . slippery and it was snowing and misting. After an eastbound bus passed him he noticed cars coming from the east. The evidence discloses that the first one approaching him was a 1932 Chevrolet driven by Manuel Salano, whose wife was riding- in the front seat with him. The second car approaching was the 1937 Buick of defendant. The third car was one driven by Eddie J. Brown, whose wife was in the front seat with him, and he had picked up two soldiers at the filling station in Gibbon.

The facts with, respect to the collision, as the plaintiff contends, are as follows: The defendant .attempted to pass the Chevrolet car driven by the. Mexican, Salano, [364]*364and crossed over to the left or wrong side of the highway. Salano pulled far over to the right, with his right wheels off the pavement, as -he did not think the defendant had room enough to get by him and back into the north side of the highway. Defendant’s left rear bumper hit plaintiff’s left front fender, the left front tire going flat, causing the plaintiff’s car to go over into the north half of the highway, resulting in a head-on collision with the Salano car. The plaintiff was immediately taken to the hospital for treatment of his injuries.

The sheriff went out after the accident, arriving about 9:40 p. m. He said the snow was falling heavily, so that he had to use windshield wipers, and there was about two and a half inches of wet snow on the ground, so that he was unable to find any indication of the position of the cars in the highway when they collided. He said the defendant’s car was 75 to 100 yards west of the cars of plaintiff and Salano, which cars were over to the north side of the road. Plaintiff’s car was headed east, with its left front wheel off the north side of the paving, and the Salano car was headed in a northwesterly direction, with its left front wheel about a foot and a half from the north edge of the paving and its left rear wheel two and a half or three feet from the north edge of the paving, these two cars having collided head-on. The left rear fender of defendant’s car was torn and the left end of the rear bumper was bent back about a foot and a half.

With this brief summary, we will examine the evidence and the claims made by defendant in reference thereto.

It is clear from reading the evidence that the plaintiff was not well versed in the English language, and also that Manuel Salano, who was a Mexican, was deficient in knowledge and use of all the words of our language.

When the plaintiff was examined by his own counsel he testified that the defendant’s car attempted to pass the car driven by Salano, both of them going west, and [365]*365that the defendant’s car struck him while he was going east on the south side of the highway.

The plaintiff’s witness, Manuel Salano, whose car the defendant endeavored to pass, testified that he figured “it was going to hit the other car,” so he ran his car out to the north so that only the left two wheels were still on the pavement, in an endeavor to give the defendant opportunity to get back into the road in front of him without striking the oncoming car of the plaintiff.

On cross-examination both the plaintiff and Salano testified that the defendant’s car was north of the center of the road; in other words, that he had passed Salano’s car and had returned to the north side of the road and was north of the center, and the defendant testified that the plaintiff’s car came across the center of the highway and struck him. However, on their redirect examination the plaintiff and Manuel Salano were most carefully examined by plaintiff’s attorney and positively reaffirmed their testimony as given on direct examination.

The defendant’s counsel argued that, with the testimony entirely in defendant’s favor on cross-examination, the court should have instructed a verdict for the defendant. On the other hand, it was argued by the plaintiff’s attorney that the plaintiff and Salano, a Mexican, answered rapidly to questions on cross-examination which they did not understand; that, while no interpreter was used for either of them, they were deficient in a knowledge of the English language; that when they were examined more deliberately on redirect examination their evidence was straightened out and agreed exactly with what they had said on direct examination; that this matter of the apparent confusion in their testimony was a question for the jury to determine; and that the trial court, having heard the evidence and seen the witnesses while they were testifying, refused to instruct a verdict for the defendant and allowed the case to be submitted to the jury.

[366]*366This court has repeatedly held that if there is testimony by which a verdict in favor of the party on whom rests the burden of proof can be upheld, the trial court is not at liberty to disregard the testimony and direct a verdict against such party.

One of the defendant’s assignments of error is the failure of the court to declare a mistrial at the time the jury was being impaneled. In the bill of exceptions there is preserved a partial record relating to this assignment of error. ■■

It appears that upon the voir dire examination of Mrs. Clarence Alcorn she was asked a question as to whether there was any reason why she should not serve as a juror in this case, and she started to make the reply that she understood that Mr. Shada, the defendant, had insurance, and the defendant’s attorney stopped her and would not let her complete her answer.

The other jurors then retired to the jury room and Mrs. Alcorn alone remained in the courtroom for further examination. This matter was gone over at some length, and she was questioned by the court: “What statement did you make? Those were not your exact words, I don’t believe. A I said I thought that he had insurance. I didn’t get to finish it. * * * The Court: Well, what would have been your answer had you been permitted to finish it. A That he had insurance with the company my husband represents. The Court: What kind of insurance do you have reference to? A That is the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.”

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Bluebook (online)
34 N.W.2d 650, 150 Neb. 362, 1948 Neb. LEXIS 142, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nama-v-shada-neb-1948.