Pratt v. Kistler

233 P. 600, 72 Mont. 356, 1925 Mont. LEXIS 15
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 13, 1925
DocketNo. 5,597.
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 233 P. 600 (Pratt v. Kistler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pratt v. Kistler, 233 P. 600, 72 Mont. 356, 1925 Mont. LEXIS 15 (Mo. 1925).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE STARK

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiff recovered judgment against the defendant for injuries sustained by him when a bicycle upon which he was riding was run into by an automobile driven by defendant. The defendant has appealed, and his only complaint is that the court erred in denying his motion for a directed verdict, made at the close of all the evidence.

The complaint charged the defendant with negligence in several respects, among them that he did not give warning of his approach, and that he failed to keep a lookout ahead. The defendant admitted the collision, but denied liability on the ground that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence.

It appears from the testimony that Park Street in the city of Butte, extends east and west, and at the point involved in this suit is fifty-nine feet wide between the north and south curbs. A street-car track extends along the center of the street. The distance from the north rail of the car track to the curb on the north side of the street is 27.35 feet. Alabama Street runs north and south and crosses Park Street at right angles. This street is forty feet wide between the sidewalk curbs.

The defendant’s account of the incident is that he was driving west on Park Street in an open type Pierce-Arrow car, without curtains, along a course midway between the street-ear track and the curb on the north side of the street *359 at about 10 o’clock P. M., with his headlights on. The car had a right-hand drive. Lloyd Gage was at defendant’s left on the front seat; in the rear seat defendant’s wife sat at the left; next to her was Mrs. Gage; and on the right side was the defendant’s son Donald Kistler, with Richard Evans on his lap. When he reached a point ninety feet east of the intersection of Alabama Street he looked into that street and continued to do so until he reached its east line, but did not see the plaintiff approaching; and, continuing in the same course, just as he was about to cross the west line of Alabama Street, the plaintiff, riding his bicycle, headed directly south, dashed in front of the car and received the injuries complained of. As soon as defendant saw the plaintiff he applied the brakes to his car and stopped as quickly as possible. All of the witnesses who were asked about it at the trial testified that as the defendant’s car approached the scene of the accident it was traveling at from twelve to fifteen miles per hour, and likewise that, at least until it reached the east line of Alabama Street, it was midway between the car tracks and the curb.

There is some testimony in the record tending to corroborate defendant’s account. Lloyd Gage said that the collision occurred immediately after plaintiff appeared in front of the ear. A duly qualified witness said that under the circumstances shown to exist at the time, a car like defendant’s, going at fifteen miles per hour, would be brought to a stop in a distance of seventy to seventy-three feet from the time the driver started to apply the brakes.

Clem Vogel, who saw the bicycle and the car just at the time of the collision, from a point not more than sixty feet away, and immediately walked over to the car, said that when he reached it “it was just a little bit past the entrance to the Mueller home and it was midway between the sidewalk and the street-ear track.” The entrance to the Mueller home is between fifty and sixty feet west of where defendant placed the point of collision.

*360 Plaintiff’s account is that lie rode his bicycle down the west side of Alabama Street, traveling about five miles per hour, and, at a point about three feet from the north line of Park Street, looked east on that street to see if any car was approaching and saw none. He then made the turn west on Park Street, riding along about three feet from the curb, and had proceeded about five.to ten feet when the defendant’s car ran into him from behind and inflicted the injuries. Other witnesses testified that before the accident plaintiff had made the turn on to Park Street and was riding west as close as possible to the curb, “hugging the curb,” one of the witnesses said. The witness Barker, who observed the collision from a point some 200 or 300 feet east on Park Street, testified that just before the car came in contact with the bicycle, it (the car) swerved to the left and then stopped quickly. The witnesses Evans and Donald Kistler, who were riding in the car and got out immediately after the collision, testified that the car was then parallel with the curb on the north side of Park Street at a point twenty to thirty feet west of the Alabama Street crossing, and these two witnesses, as well as the witness Barker, said it was then about» three feet away from the curb.

If defendant’s statement that when he approached the east line of Alabama Street he was midway between the street-car track and the curb on the north side of Park Street, headed due west, be taken as true — and there was no evidence to the contrary — and the testimony of the plaintiff and the witnesses Barker, Evans and Donald Kistler as to the location of the ear immediately after the accident, be also accepted, it follows that defendant was in error as to the point and cause of the collision, and that at some point beyond the east line of Alabama Street he turned the course of his car to the northwest toward the Park Street curb, and immediately before the accident again changed its course by “swerving to the left” so as to bring it parallel with the curb and about three feet therefrom, and that the collision in fact occurred just at the *361 time the defendant turned his ear so that it was headed due west. This would accord with plaintiff’s statement, and the jury might reasonably have concluded that the accident happened in the manner testified to by him. They might likewise have reasonably concluded that the plaintiff was in plain view while the defendant was approaching him from across the street; for Mrs. Kistler, who was on the back seat of the ear, testified that before they reached the east line of Alabama Street, she saw the plaintiff on his bicycle riding down the side of that street toward Park Street, but that it gave her no concern because she supposed, of course, he would make the turn.

Clem Vogel from across the street saw the plaintiff come down Alabama Street and turn west. Edlo Champion and ' Lester Hartsell saw him make the turn and proceed west along the curb while they were at a point on Park Street 200 feet east.

There were no other vehicles of any kind on the street at the time; it was entirely open, free from traffic and lighted; its whole width for the time being was for the use of plaintiff and defendant, subject only to the rights of the other; both plaintiff and defendant had good eyesight.

Automobiles and bicycles have equal rights in the use of streets, the drivers of each owing a duty to the other to exercise reasonable care. (Berry on Automobiles, p. 876, sec. 963.)

On approaching the street intersection it was the duty of plaintiff and defendant each to keep a lookout ahead. He was not only required to look, but look in such an intelligent and careful manner as to enable him to see the things which a person in the exercise of ordinary care and caution for his own safety and the safety of others would have seen under like circumstances. (Bramley

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Bluebook (online)
233 P. 600, 72 Mont. 356, 1925 Mont. LEXIS 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pratt-v-kistler-mont-1925.