Pinson v. Dreymala

320 S.W.2d 152, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 1709
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 18, 1958
Docket13331
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 320 S.W.2d 152 (Pinson v. Dreymala) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pinson v. Dreymala, 320 S.W.2d 152, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 1709 (Tex. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinions

BELL, Chief Justice.

This case involves a suit for da'mages that allegedly resulted to Fred Dreymala because of damage done to an automobile belonging to him. His automobile, at the time of its being in collision with a truck driven by George Franklin Pinson,' was driven by his wife. To the petition filed by the appellees, the appellants filed an answer consisting of an exception and a general denial. The appellees, in order to meet the exception, filed an amended petition. No further answer was filed by appelr lants, thus leaving them with an answer consisting of a general denial. Trial was before the court without a jury. The court rendered judgment in favor of appellees for $252.28.

The trial court made its findings of fact and conclusions of law in response to the request of appellants. Without detailing them, it suffices to say that the court found that Mrs. Dreymala entered the intersection of Canal and 67th Streets on a green light. She was going to turn left on 67th Street, she having been driving east on Canal. Before Mrs. Dreymala completed her left turn, the control signal on Canal turned red so as to require traffic on Canal to stop. However, the driver of appellants’ truck who was driving west on Canal, did not stop but entered the intersection on a red light.

[154]*154The court concluded that since Mrs. Dreymala entered the intersection on a green light and commenced completing her turn after the signal light on Canal had changed to red, she was guilty of no act of negligence. It further found that five acts of negligence on the part of the truck driver were the proximate causes of the collision.

Appellants contend Mrs. Dreymala was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law in failing to keep a proper lookout and in failing to keep her automobile under proper control. They also contend the case should be reversed because the court erroneously concluded that since Mrs. Dreymala entered the intersection on a green light and commenced completing her left-hand turn, she was guilty of no act of negligence. They say the effect of such conclusion is to relieve her of any duty to keep a lookout whereas the law requires her even under such circumstances to keep a lookout.

Too, appellants assert erroneous action by the trial court in allowing the appellees’ witness Parker to testify from plaintiff’s Exhibit 1, which was allegedly a repair estimate for work done on the Dreymala automobile. Further, they say there was no evidence, or, alternatively, there was insufficient evidence to show the damage was $252.28. Lastly, they contend it was error to allow Mrs. Dreymala to testify as to the amount of damages.

Mrs. Dreymala testified she was driving her automobile east on Canal Street in the City of Houston. The appellants’ driver was driving his truck west on Canal. A traffic control signal is at the intersection of Canal and 67th Street. It is suspended in the center of the intersection. Canal Street is wide enough to accommodate two lanes of traffic on each side of the center line. When Mrs. Dreymala reached the intersection of Canal and 67th Streets, the traffic signal controlling the movement of traffic on' Canal was green. She entered the intersection and stopped about the center so as to allow traffic proceeding west to pass. The traffic, she said, cleared and she started to completed her turn as the light controlling traffic on Canal had turned to red. When she was waiting to make her turn she was in the traffic lane next to the center of the street. When the light turned red, the traffic having cleared, she commenced her turn and appellants’ truck struck her automobile. She saw the light as she commenced her turn because she had looked up at it. When the light turned red, she saw no vehicles coming toward her and she attempted to complete her turn. Her automobile had not gotten to rolling when the truck struck her car. The collision damaged the front fender, bumper, radiator, hood and lights on the right side of the Dreymala car. The left front side of appellants’ truck came in contact with the right front side of the Dreymala car» Bob Robertson did the repair work. The cost of the repairs was $292. The bill presented to her was $292. She paid the bill. This included painting the car. Painting was necessary because her car was faded and the new paint on the repaired parts would not match the old paint on the balance of the car.

When the collision occurred her car was. not even halfway over the center of Canal. When the light turned she saw no traffic; it had cleared. She didn’t know where the truck came from. When the light changed to red she looked and didn’t see the truck and started to complete her turn. The truck was bound to have been quite a way back when the light changed or she would have seen it. She first saw the truck when it hit her car. The truck was in the middle lane. The collision occurred about 3:00 or 3:15 in the afternoon. The collision didn’t move her vehicle but a little. The truck and car after the collision remained in approximately the same place they were in at the time of the collision.

O. C. Cook, a witness for appellees, testified he was standing on the west side of 67th Street at the southwest corner [155]*155«of the intersection. Mrs. Dreymala’s car was stopped in the intersection. She entered the intersection on a green light. The light changed to red while she was in the intersection. The signal light controlling traffic on Canal was red when she began her left turn. He saw appellants’ truck and it was 30 or 40 feet from the intersection when the light changed to red. At another point in his testimony, the witness stated the truck was back from the intersection 25 or 30 feet when the light changed to amber. He was measuring from where the street crossed. The driver of the truck was driving 30 to 35 miles_ per hour.

The driver of the truck, George Pinson, testified he entered the intersection when the light was green and as he got almost to Mrs. Dreymala she turned in front of him. He “hit” his brakes and slid into Mrs. Dreymala’s car. He was driving 25 miles per hour when he “hit” his brakes. He hit his brakes about 15 feet from the intersection. If he had pulled to his right 18 inches he might have missed the car.

George L. Cain, a witness for the appellants, testified he saw the collision. He first saw Mrs. Dreymala’s car in the intersection. The traffic light was green when she entered the intersection. The light on Canal was green when the truck entered the intersection.

This is in substance the evidence in the case apart from that of Everett L. Parker, the repair man for Bob Robertson. We will notice it at another point in this opinion.

Appellants cite us cases which undoubtedly establish that a person entering a street intersection on a green traffic control signal is not relieved of the duty of maintaining a lookout for other vehicles which might be entering the intersection even in violation of law. However, in none of the cases cited did the court hold as a matter of law under the facts of the particular case that there was a failure to keep a proper lookout that was a proximate cause of the collision in question. Each was a case where there had been a fact finding on the issue of lookout and its being a proximate cause. It was, in those cases, being contended that since the plaintiff entered the intersection legally there was no duty to keep a lookout for those who might be entering the intersection illegally. The courts, however, held there was such a duty.

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Bluebook (online)
320 S.W.2d 152, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 1709, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pinson-v-dreymala-texapp-1958.