Oregon Motor Stages v. Portland Traction Co.

255 P.2d 558, 198 Or. 16, 1953 Ore. LEXIS 206
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 8, 1953
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 255 P.2d 558 (Oregon Motor Stages v. Portland Traction Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oregon Motor Stages v. Portland Traction Co., 255 P.2d 558, 198 Or. 16, 1953 Ore. LEXIS 206 (Or. 1953).

Opinions

LATOURETTE, C. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment after verdict in favor of the defendant arising out of a collision of the buses of the parties at the intersection of S. W. 5th avenue and Madison street in Portland. The plaintiff assigns as error the giving by the court of the following instruction:

“The verbal testimony of witnesses which appears to you to be contrary to physical facts in[18]*18volved in the case should be received by you with caution and perhaps even with disbelief. Witnesses may be mistaken in their observations or in their recollections, or they may unintentionally or even deliberately fail to report the truth. You are the judges of the credibility of all of the witnesses. Therefore, when physical facts of the case appear in evidence and are undisputed, or where you are firmly convinced of the truth of evidence as to physical facts, these physical facts may be entitled to greater weight than the verbal testimony of the witnesses. If the testimony of any witness is clearly contrary to the undisputed physical facts of the case, you should disregard that testimony and rely upon the physical facts.”

The facts show that on June 10, 1949, around 6:30 p.m., plaintiff’s employe, Everett Ready, was driving plaintiff’s bus in a westerly direction along Madison street into the intersection of 5th avenue, at which time the defendant’s employe, Cortland Kuehnert, was operating defendant’s bus in a northerly direction along 5th avenue and into said intersection, whereupon the two buses collided.

Plaintiff called as a witness Police Officer Ellis who arrived after the collision and testified concerning the physical facts in the case, i.e., the position of the unmoved vehicles when he arrived at the scene of the accident, the debris on the pavement indicating the point of impact as 15 feet west and 15 feet south of the northeast corner of the intersection, the skid marks after impact, the condition of the light pole struck by defendant’s bus, the distance each bus traveled after the collision, and the location of the structures on the four corners of the intersection. He also identified the photographs, which were introduced in evidence, of the two vehicles showing their condition immediately after the collision.

[19]*19Plaintiff’s driver Ready testified as to where each bns was damaged, corroborated in the main the physical facts testimony of Officer Ellis, and then detailed the circumstances surrounding the collision. He related that as he entered the intersection, traveling at a speed of 20 m.p.h., he observed a car coming from the north on 5th avenue which slowed down to let him pass, and then he looked to the left and saw defendant’s bus from 50 to 75 feet south of the south curb of Madison street. He stated that since on this particular day the Rose Festival was in progress there were many pedestrians on the street, and he did not again look south at the oncoming defendant’s bus and first again noticed it when it was within ten feet of him, whereupon he applied the airbrakes but without avail. He testified that the left front corner of his bus struck the right side of defendant’s bus behind the front door. The pictures in evidence indicate that the defendant’s bus was crushed practically in the center.

As against this testimony defendant called its driver who testified that when he was within 18 to 25 feet of the intersection traveling 15 m.p.h., he looked easterly along Madison street about one-half block for from 80 to 100 feet distant and did not see plaintiff’s bus at that time, and that the area to the right was clear. He then looked to the left and saw no traffic approaching from the left and again looked to the right and found that plaintiff’s bus was almost on him. He tried to turn to the left to avoid the crash but was unable to do so. There is no testimony on the part of the defendant as to the speed of plaintiff’s bus excepting that it was traveling “pretty fast.”

At the conclusion of the taking of the testimony, plaintiff’s attorney moved to withdraw from the jury [20]*20the allegation regarding the speed of plaintiff’s vehicle contained in defendant’s answer charging contributory-negligence “since there is no competent evidence on speed as to the plaintiff.” In answer to said motion defendant’s attorney stated:

“We have in Oregon what is known as the basic rule, and so there is no particular number of miles per hour, which means a lawful or unlawful speed, and here we have the application, in my opinion, of the uncontrovertible physical facts rule, which the physical facts show. The uncontrovertible physical facts here are such that you can’t draw any other conclusion but that there was speed, and so-when you take the physical facts as evidenced by that photograph and also the skid marks and the-distances traveled afterwards there is certainly evidence to support the allegation as to speed.
‘ ‘ THE COURT: When you said ‘ speed, ’ do-you mean speed beyond 20 miles an hour, or too-much speed under 20 miles an hour?
“MR. EASLEY: No, I mean violation of the-basic rule.”

Plaintiff’s position on the appeal is made clear by the following under “Points and Authorities”:

“It is the primary duty of the court to determine-whether oral evidence is so absurd as to be opposed to established physical facts or contrary to scientific principles. If the oral testimony is of that nature it must be rejected by the court as being-without probative value. Therefore, if the oral evidence was competent and not rejected, it was error for the court to instruct the jury to give more-weight to one kind of evidence as against another. ’ ’

It is argued that the only time the physical facts rule may be invoked is where the verbal testimony is contrary to scientific principles or laws of nature, in which event the court must reject the verbal utterances and. [21]*21exclude them from the case. Cameron v. Goree, 182 Or 581, 599, 189 P2d 596, is cited as authority for plaintiff’s contention. Turning to that case we find the following language:

“Van Zandt v. Goodman, (Or.), 179 P. 2d 724, analyzed ‘the incontrovertible physical facts rule/ The decision states:
“ ‘ It is, of course, the rule that a verdict or finding cannot be based on evidence which is opposed to establish[ed] physical facts.’
When the facts to which a witness has given utterance are contrary to common experience and it is impossible that they can be true, they must be rejected. In order to reject such testimony, it is not necessary to find that the witness was of a mendacious type. If it is obvious that his testimony can not be true, it is rejected; the character and the motive of the witness are immaterial.”

It is true that the trial court may reject verbal utterances and exclude them from the case where they are contrary to common experience and where it is impossible that they can be true; however, under some circumstances, and especially where no motion is made for such exclusion, it is not improper for the court to submit the matter to the jury, and this appears to be in full harmony and consonance with subsection 2 of § 2-1001, OCLA, which states that the court shall instruct the jury that:

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357 P.2d 394 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1960)
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Hecht v. James
345 P.2d 243 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1959)
Hopfer v. Staudt
298 P.2d 186 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1956)
Oregon Motor Stages v. Portland Traction Co.
255 P.2d 558 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1953)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
255 P.2d 558, 198 Or. 16, 1953 Ore. LEXIS 206, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oregon-motor-stages-v-portland-traction-co-or-1953.