Oklahoma Railway Co. v. Ivery

1949 OK 62, 204 P.2d 978, 201 Okla. 245, 1949 Okla. LEXIS 560
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 5, 1949
DocketNo. 33342
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 1949 OK 62 (Oklahoma Railway Co. v. Ivery) 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
Oklahoma Railway Co. v. Ivery, 1949 OK 62, 204 P.2d 978, 201 Okla. 245, 1949 Okla. LEXIS 560 (Okla. 1949).

Opinion

HALLEY, J.

Plaintiff, Ida Ivery, alleged that her injuries occurred as a result of a collision between a bus owned by Oklahoma Railway Company and driven by the defendant Riggs, and an automobile owned and driven by the defendant Sharp. That she was a passenger for hire on the bus driven by the defendant Riggs, an employee of the Oklahoma Railway Company, when a collision occurred on October 10, 1946, as the bus was being driven in a westerly direction along Northwest 17th street in Oklahoma City, Okla., and collided with a car driven by- the defendant Sharp at the intersection of Northwest 17th street and Gatewood avenue, which runs north and south, the Sharp car approaching the intersection from the north.

The negligence of the Oklahoma Railway Company and its driver, Riggs, was alleged to consist in driving at an excessive rate of speed, in failing to yield the right of way, and also in failing to keep the proper lookout.

Plaintiff alleged that she suffered serious and permanent injuries to her lower spine and coccyx bone and to the bony structure of her back, resulting in severe mental and physical pain and suffering and rendering her unable to perform her customary work.

The defendants Oklahoma Railway Company and Joseph G. Riggs answered by general denial, and alleged that the injuries complained of were the result of negligence on the part of the defendant H. J. Sharp, and also pleaded contributory negligence and .unavoidable accident. The defendant Sharp answered by general denial and alleged that any injuries suffered by the plaintiff were the result of the negligence of the Oklahoma Railway Company and its employee, Riggs.

No evidence was introduced to prove contributory negligence or unavoidable accident.

The case was tried to a jury and resulted in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff against the three defendants.

The Oklahoma Railway Company has perfected an appeal, and its various assignments of error are grouped under a single proposition that there was no evidence of negligence on its part, and that the court should have sustained its demurrer to the evidence, or its motion for a directed verdict, and that the verdict and judgment are contrary to law and the evidence.

There can be no question of the correctness of plaintiff in error’s contention that negligence is never presumed, and that the burden of proving negligence is upon the party alleging it, and that the negligence proven must be shown to have been the proximate cause of the injury complained of, before damages may be recovered. Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Smith, Adm’x, 160 Okla. 287, 16 P. 2d 226.

It is contended by the Oklahoma Railway Company that there is no evidence reasonably supporting the verdict and judgment against it, except the testimony of the defendant H. J. Sharp, and that his testimony is completely belied and contradicted by the undisputed physical facts in evidence. That the judgment should not be permitted to stand because it is not supported by evidence reasonably tending to support it, and the court should have sustained its demurrer to the evidence, or its motion for a directed verdict.

The physical facts relied upon consist of photographs introduced in evidence showing the condition of the bus and car immediately after the accident, and their correctness is not questioned. No Oklahoma case directly in point is cited, but a number of decisions from other states are cited, and they appear to support this contention. They hold that where undisputed physical facts are in direct conflict with the testimony of witnesses, neither the court nor the jury is bound by the testimony thus shown to be impossible or untrue.

[247]*247In American Car & Foundry Co. v. Kindermann (C.C.A. 8) 216 Fed. 499, the court said:

“The rule is well settled that when the testimony of a witness is positively contradicted by the physical facts,' neither the court nor the jury can be permitted to credit it. This was expressly decided by this court in M., K. & T. Ry. Co. v. Collier, 157 Fed. 347, 88 C.C.A. 133. A petition for cer-tiorari in that case was denied by the Supreme Court. 209 U.S. 545, 28 Sup. Ct. 571, 52 L.Ed. 920.”

In Samulski v. Menasha Paper Co., 147 Wis. 285, 133 N. W. 142, the court expressed this rule in the fourth syllabus as follows:

“A physical fact, existent as matter of common knowledge or established by evidence beyond room for fair controversy, cannot be overcome by human testimony, opinion or theorizing.”

In Schrager v. Foster, 168 N.Y.S. 240, the court said:

“A verdict based on finding directly contrary to physical facts established by uncontradicted evidence cannot stand.”

In Hubbard Banking Co. v. Koetsch, 105 Okla. 227, 231 P. 207, this court said in the syllabus:

“While the jury are the sole judges of the credibility of the witnesses, yet they will not be allowed capriciously to disregard the positive, uncontradicted, and unimpeached testimony of witnesses; unless the physical facts or circumstances surrounding the transaction contradict the positive testimony or the positive testimony is inherently improbable.”

In Lowden et al. v. Van Meter, 181 Okla. 210, 73 P. 2d 424, it was said:

“Conjecture and speculation will not be allowed to form the basis for a judgment in such an action, and the railway company is not to be held liable for injuries alleged to have been the result of negligence of its employees when there is no positive evidence of negligence or of facts and circumstances from which such negligence can be reasonably inferred.”

The physical facts here, as shown by photographs of the bus and car shortly after the collision, are that the front end of the car was badly crushed, showing beyond doubt a tremendous impact with some object in front of it. The defendant Sharp, the driver of the car, testified concerning the collision:

“. . . The right hind wheel of the bus caught my left front fender. Q. Did the front end of the bus miss your car? A. Yes.”

A picture of the bus shows that the car struck the bus just in front of the right rear wheels of the bus, caving in the body of the bus to a considerable extent. The defendant Sharp testified further that he entered the intersection only about four feet, applied his brakes and stopped his car, and the bus swerved to the left to miss him, and that his car was standing still when the right rear wheel of the bus struck his left front fender. He first testified that he estimated its speed at 40 or 45 miles per hour. The picture of the car shows that the car was moving when it came in contact with the bus because the right front fender of the car is standing some distance to the right, or west; and the rear right fender of the bus is not smashed, and the right end of the rear bumper appears to have been pulled slightly back from the body of the bus.

The streets forming the intersection where the collision occurred are about 24 or 25 feet wide. The evidence shows that the front end of the bus was about even with the west side of the intersection at the time of the accident. The rear end of the bus was struck with such force that it was whirled to the south and finally turned over on its left side some 50 feet to the west.

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Bluebook (online)
1949 OK 62, 204 P.2d 978, 201 Okla. 245, 1949 Okla. LEXIS 560, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oklahoma-railway-co-v-ivery-okla-1949.