Petroff v. Commercial Motor Freight, Inc.

165 N.E.2d 840, 82 Ohio Law. Abs. 433, 12 Ohio Op. 2d 484, 1960 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 290
CourtCourt of Common Pleas of Ohio, Franklin County, Civil Division
DecidedJanuary 13, 1960
DocketNo. 195986
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 165 N.E.2d 840 (Petroff v. Commercial Motor Freight, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Common Pleas of Ohio, Franklin County, Civil Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Petroff v. Commercial Motor Freight, Inc., 165 N.E.2d 840, 82 Ohio Law. Abs. 433, 12 Ohio Op. 2d 484, 1960 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 290 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1960).

Opinion

OPINION

By SATER, J.

This case is presented for consideration and determination of defendant’s motion based on §2311.041 R. C., for a summary judgment on the pleadings, affidavits and four depositions, all of which presently constitute the file in this case. There was full compliance with the statute by defendant in the matter of serving copies of its motion on all counsel for plaintiffs along with copies of all accompanying briefs and affidavits. Such counsel further filed of record receipt and notice of such papers from defendant. Answer briefs were duly filed; and as added precaution, an entry approved by all counsel has been filed, waiving the hearing provided for early in paragraph B of §2311.041 R. C., and submitting the motion on the file as described and constituted above.

There are two plaintiffs and one defendant in this case. For the sake of brevity, and possible clarity, plaintiff Nick Petroff will be referred to herein as Petroff, plaintiff Employees Mutual Life Insurance Company as employees, and defendant Commercial Motor Freight, Inc., as Commercial.

At the time in question, February 28, 1956, Petroff was a road-haul truck driver, acting as such in the employ of Michigan Motor Freight Lines, Inc., a Michigan corporation which, under the laws of the State of Michigan, carried workmen’s compensation on its employees not through the Michigan Industrial Commission but through Employers which paid sums as directed and found by that Commission. By reason of such payments Employers were automatically by Michigan statute subrogated pro tanto to the claim of any such employee so paid by it.

■ Hence, in this case Petroff and Employers joined as co-plaintiffs as their respective interests may appear; and the propriety of such joinder has already been approved by this Court.

Late on the afternoon or early evening of February 27, 1956, Petroff picked up his rig consisting of a tractor, semi-trailer and trailer at [435]*435Ashland, Kentucky, and drove across the Ohio River to Ironton, Ohio, for his rig to be loaded with spools of rolled steel to be transported by him to Detroit, Michigan. While the loading was taking place, Petroff slept for three hours at Morentz, a truck drivers’ stop-in. Somewhere around 11:00 P. M. he started his trip to Detroit; no definite time was set by Michigan Motor Freight Lines for his arrival in Detroit. One Harris, a companion driver, followed him with another load on a tractor-trailer unit. Both tractors had speed governors on them. On the trip via Portsmouth, Chillicothe, Circleville, Columbus and Marysville, Petroff was in the lead.

Between Portsmouth and Chillicothe, the two drivers ran into snow and ice (either pure ice or snow hard packed by vehicles). They stopped briefly at Chillicothe to clear ice from their windshields. Again they took off with Petroff in the lead, using S. R. 104 to Columbus because of its slighter volume of traffic; thence to Marysville and onward. The trip so far was uneventful. Petroff, age 30, and the father of a family, had had eleven years experience as a truck driver; in those eleven years he had had no serious accident and, as far as he can remember, had never received a traffic violation ticket.

In the lead, Petroff had no recollection of passing through Columbus or Marysville. In fact he has no recollection how on S. R. No. 31 some 13-14 miles north of Marysville, his rig collided with that of Commercial which was going in the opposite direction, south into Columbus with a cargo of miscellaneous freight. It seems to be essential to Commercial’s defense to establish that Petroff’s mind went blank, belike due to a serious head injury on Okinawa in 1946, somewhere north of Chillicothe where ice was removed from windshield, and remained so through Columbus, Marysville and the accident until he woke up in University Hospital in this city. It is, however, equally plausible to infer that the force of the collision drove all memory from his mind. His mind was certainly not a blank. He knew there was snow and ice from all the way south of Chillicothe; he knew his rig did not skid at any time, and he knew that there was nothing unusual about the trip at any time - - i. e., it was just another uneventful haul for him. He was obviously a skilled driver and had been over this run statedly many times. After all, vehicle operators do not usually drive in the expectation that they may or soon will be involved in a terrific collision. Nor since his discharge from the Marine Corps late in 1946 or early 1947 had he had any sickness, been hospitalized or seen a doctor except for common colds. On such a motion as is now before us for consideration, it is not the function or duty of the Court to reconcile ambiguities or conflicts in a witness’ testimony. Tinker v. N. W. Airlines (Ohio), 10 F. R. D., 372, Furton v. City of Menasha, (Wisc.), 149 Fed. 2d, 945, Coe v. Riley (Fla.), 160 Fed. 2d, 538, 540.

Commercial’s rig, driven by Cecil Gordon, who had been over that road “maybe a dozen times,” was coming south over S. R. No. 21, headed for Columbus. He knew that there were patches of ice and snow on S. R. No. 3 all the way from Kenton at least 30 miles to the north. About 1000 feet north of the spot where the collision occurred, the road swung to the east in a long, smooth curve. Thus Gordon was on the [436]*436outside of that curve and his headlights would be directed substantially to the left of Petroff; on the other hand, Petr off’s lights on the inside of the curve would be almost directly in Gordon’s eyes. Where the vehicles collided, the road was straight, level, macadam, 20 feet wide, with a substantial berm on each side. One wonders how wide is the over-the-road rig of a regulated motor carrier; certainly not over ten feet.

Gordon saw Petroff approaching, hugging the center of the road with his left wheels, but nowhere in his deposition would he say that any part of Petroff’s rig was to the left of the center of the highway; indeed, he expressly refused therein to say so. He slowed down from 30-35 miles per hour as the vehicles approached, to 15 miles per hour, and pulled as far as he could onto the berm of the road on his right without going into the ditch on the right (west). Again, one wonders why this maneuver was necessary in view of the width of the highway and of the certain fact of him who was there that Petroff had left him at least 10 feet of macadam to drive past on.

As the vehicles approached each other, the semi-trailer on Gordon’s Commercial rig started to slide or “jack-knife” - - a phrase which in motor carrier jargon means that the semi-trailer slides at an angle from the direction being taken by the power tractor unit; the jackknifing may leave the rig in the shape of a capital L, or even V. Conceivably this can be caused by slippery road, by too sudden application of the brakes, or both; or, conceivably from pulling over part way onto the berm so that motive power was greater on the inside than on the outside wheels. Gordon does not know whether the rear end of Commercial’s rig so jack-knifed over until part of it was on the east or Petroff’s side of the highway (but in view of his refusal to say that any part of Petroff’s rig crossed the center of the highway as it approached, the inference is obvious).

In any event, at about 3:15 A. M. on February 28, 1956, the two rigs collided while Commercial’s rig was still jack-knifing. Petroff’s tractor hit the left rear of the Commercial rig. Each driver, Petroff and Gordon, was alone. So far no eye-witness has been found.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Royce v. Yardmaster, Inc., 2007-L-080 (3-7-2008)
2008 Ohio 1030 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2008)
Mraz v. Taft
619 N.E.2d 483 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1993)
Stellar Satellite Systems, Inc. v. City of Warrensville Heights
602 N.E.2d 1268 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1991)
Vest v. LaJoe
8 Ohio App. Unrep. 426 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1990)
Albritton v. Kiddie, Inc.
591 N.E.2d 781 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1990)
Norris v. Ohio Standard Oil Co.
433 N.E.2d 615 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1982)
Vetovitz Bros. v. Kenny Construction Co.
397 N.E.2d 412 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1978)
Revesz v. D. Jarvis
237 N.E.2d 413 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1968)
Witherell v. Parker
202 N.E.2d 210 (Court of Common Pleas of Ohio, Franklin County, Civil Division, 1964)
Jewett v. Johnson
194 N.E.2d 915 (Paulding County Court of Common Pleas, 1963)
Landers v. Mays
193 N.E.2d 182 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1963)
Ohio Casualty Insurance v. Fidelity & Deposit Co.
177 N.E.2d 814 (Court of Common Pleas of Ohio, Franklin County, Civil Division, 1961)
Bowlds v. Smith
180 N.E.2d 184 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1961)
Slick Airways, Inc. v. Reinert
175 N.E.2d 844 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
165 N.E.2d 840, 82 Ohio Law. Abs. 433, 12 Ohio Op. 2d 484, 1960 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 290, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/petroff-v-commercial-motor-freight-inc-ohctcomplfrankl-1960.