Pettus v. Dubman

389 S.W.2d 373, 1965 Mo. App. LEXIS 681
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 16, 1965
DocketNo. 31902
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 389 S.W.2d 373 (Pettus v. Dubman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pettus v. Dubman, 389 S.W.2d 373, 1965 Mo. App. LEXIS 681 (Mo. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

DOERNER, Commissioner.

In this action to recover for personal injuries and property damage plaintiff obtained a verdict and judgment for $8300, and defendant appealed.

The collision which gave rise to the litigation occurred about 1:00 P.M. on May 18, 1960, at the intersection of U. S. Highway 67 and State Highway JJ in Jefferson County. At that point Highway 67 is a two lane road 24 feet wide, running north and south; and Highway JJ, of two somewhat narrower lanes, runs east and west. The day was sunny and bright. Plaintiff, on his way to a funeral, was driving his pick-up truck eastwardly on Highway JJ, and was crossing Highway 67 when the collision occurred. Defendant, also driving a pick-up truck, was traveling northwardly on Highway 67 on his way to St. Louis.

Plaintiff submitted his case by Instruction No. P-1 upon conjunctive specifications of humanitarian negligence as between failure to warn on the one hand and failure to stop, slow or swerve on the other. Defendant’s initial point is that the court erred in overruling his motion for a directed verdict because as a matter of law plaintiff failed to make a submissible case under any theory. Defendant does not specify whether he means the motion he filed at the close of plaintiff’s evidence or the one filed at the close of all the evidence, but since defendant waived the former by introducing evidence after the close of plaintiff’s evidence, Appelhans v. Goldman, Mo., 349 S.W.2d 204, we will assume he refers to the latter. Our review, therefore, is limited to the issue of whether there was sufficient evidence to justify a submission on either of the conjunctive submissions. For if plaintiff made a case under either theory then defendant’s motion for a directed verdict at the close of all the evidence was properly denied. Nelson v. Wabash R. Co., 300 S.W.2d 407; De Lay v. Ward, 364 Mo. 431, 262 S.W.2d 628; Holmes v. McNeil, 356 Mo. 763, 203 S.W.2d 665; Guthrie v. City of St. Charles, 347 Mo. 1175, 152 S.W.2d 91. In our determination of that question plaintiff is entitled to the benefit of all the favorable probative evidence in the case and all of the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom, including defendant’s evidence which aids plaintiff’s case and is not contrary to plaintiff’s own testimony or his [375]*375fundamental theory of recovery. Appelhans v. Goldman, supra; Price v. Nicholson, Mo., 340 S.W.2d 1.

We consider first defendant’s alleged negligence in failing to warn. Plaintiff testified that in obedience to a stop sign which controlled eastbound traffic on Highway JJ he came to a stop approximately 8 feet west of the west edge of the pavement of Highway 67. He looked to his left and saw two cars traveling southwardly, which were about 1000 feet away. He then looked to his right, or southwardly. Because of a hill located on the southwest corner of the intersection his view to the south was limited to what he estimated was about 300 feet. He saw no vehicles approaching from the south, and started to slowly cross the intersection at a speed of 3 to 5 miles an hour. His speed was about 3 miles an hour when his front wheels reached a point 6 feet into the southbound lane of Highway 67, and about 4 or S miles an hour when they reached the east side of the pavement. At that point his truck was struck on its right side by the defendant’s vehicle. Plaintiff testified that after starting up from the stop he looked straight ahead and never looked to his left or right. He stated that no horn was sounded at any time as he crossed Highway 67 and that he had both windows down. He also estimated that at a speed of 3 miles an hour he could have brought his truck to a stop in 4 feet.

Defendant testified that he saw plaintiff’s truck before it reached the west edge of the pavement of Highway 67, and saw that it was proceeding slowly across the intersection. He saw plaintiff’s head and face as plaintiff was crossing Highway 67 and admitted that plaintiff never looked towards him as plaintiff proceeded across the entire width of the intersection. Asked by his counsel whether he had sounded his horn, defendant answered, “I don’t remember, I didn’t have any time, it was a short time.”

Defendant contends that plaintiff failed to prove that defendant’s truck had a horn or that it was in working condition. As we pointed out regarding a similar argument in Hook v. St. Louis Public Service Co., Mo.App., 296 S.W.2d 123, 127: “ * * * Facts consistent with legality are presumed to exist, so we may indulge the defendants with the presumption that the bus had both brakes and horn. 31 C.J.S., Evidence, § 134, p. 771; Missouri Power & Light Co. v. Creed, Mo.App., 32 S.W.2d 783; Allen v. Kessler, Mo., 64 S.W.2d 630.”

It is next argued that since the normal reaction time is fáths of a second, in which period plaintiff’s truck at 3 miles an hour would have traveled 3.3 feet, plaintiff’s testimony that he could have stopped in 4 feet “is impossible and cannot be accepted * * *." Of course, the stopping distance given by plaintiff was only an estimate. However, while we do not have judicial knowledge as to the exact distance within which a motor vehicle can be stopped, under given circumstances we do take judicial notice of limits within which an automobile traveling at a stated rate of speed can be stopped. Perry v. Dever, Mo., 303 S.W.2d 1; Peterson v. Tiona, Mo., 292 S.W.2d 581; Spoeneman v. Uhri, 332 Mo. 821, 60 S.W.2d 9. Our appellate courts have taken judicial notice of the fact that an automobile with good brakes “ * * * could be stopped almost instantly — within a matter of a very few feet * * * ” when traveling at 2]4 miles an hour, Wegener v. St. Louis County Transit Co., Mo., 357 S.W.2d 943, 947; or even at 5 miles an hour, Hamell v. St. Louis Public Service Co., Mo.App., 268 S.W.2d 60. Defendant conceded that he saw plaintiff’s truck before it reached the west edge of the pavement of Highway 67, and that plaintiff looked straight ahead, never towards him. Plaintiff’s observed obliviousness widened the zone of peril, imposing upon defendant the duty to act in avoidance when he saw plaintiff approaching the path of defendant’s vehicle oblivious of the danger and intent upon continuing into its path. The precise point [376]*376during plaintiff’s run at which plaintiff came into a position of imminent peril is not for this court to say. Under the evidence the jury reasonably could have found that the defendant knew the plaintiff was oblivious of the danger and intent on continuing into the path of the defendant’s truck at or before plaintiff started across the southbound lane of Highway 67. Wegener v. St. Louis County Transit Co., supra.

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Bluebook (online)
389 S.W.2d 373, 1965 Mo. App. LEXIS 681, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pettus-v-dubman-moctapp-1965.