Rhoades v. Cleveland

100 N.E.2d 705, 60 Ohio Law. Abs. 159, 1951 Ohio App. LEXIS 887
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 30, 1951
DocketNo. 22085
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 100 N.E.2d 705 (Rhoades v. Cleveland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rhoades v. Cleveland, 100 N.E.2d 705, 60 Ohio Law. Abs. 159, 1951 Ohio App. LEXIS 887 (Ohio Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

OPINION

By HURD, J:

This is an action of tort originating in the Court off Common Pleas of Cuyahoga County to recover damages for per[161]*161sonal injuries incurred as the result of a collision between an automobile operated by plaintiff appellant and a street car operated by an employee of the transit system of defendant appellee. The parties will hereafter be referred to as plaintiff and defendant as they appeared in the trial court.

This is the third appeal of the parties to this court. The first trial resulted in a verdict and judgment thereon for the defendant. This judgment was reversed and cause remanded for error of law on the part of the trial court in refusing to charge on the doctrine of last clear chance. The defendant carried the judgment of reversal to the Supreme Court on motion to certify which was overruled.

The second trial resulted in a verdict and judgment thereon for the plaintiff in the sum of $7500.00. This judgment in favor of plaintiff was reversed for error of law on the part of the trial court in withdrawing from the consideration of the jury a special request of defendant to charge before argument, after the request had been granted and the charge properly given to the jury as requested. The third trial resulted in a verdict in favor of defendant. This appeal now comes1 to this Court on questions of law from the judgment for defendant entered upon the verdict.

The facts are in sharp dispute. The accident giving rise to this lawsuit occurred Nov. 19, 1944, at or about 5:30 P. M. at the intersection of E. 93rd and Carton Avenue. According to plaintiff’s testimony he v»'as operating an automobile in a southerly direction on East 93rd Street; upon arrival at Kinsman Road and E. 93rd St., he stopped behind a southbound street car and two or three automobiles, on account of the traffic light being against them; that upon receiving the green light he proceeded at a speed of twelve to fifteen miles per hour; that as he approached Carton Avenue he looked to see where the traffic was, and to see if there was anything to interfere with making a left turn into Carton Avenue; that he gave a signal by putting his left hand out the window; that he let his car go down to a slow speed to make the turn; that his car rolled to a stop on the northbound track; that the southbound street car at that time was several hundred feet on down E. 93rd Street; that as he started to make the turn he saw a northbound street car 300 feet or more away; that after he came to a stop his car stalled and he tried the starter; that the northbound street car was then about 200 feet away; that he heard the motorman ringing the gong right after that; that he tried the starter again; that the street car kept on coming; that he could see the [162]*162motorman then very plainly standing -facing him; that the street car struck his automobile and he was rendered unconscious.

A witness who was walking south on. E. 93rd Street corroborated plaintiff’s testimony to the extent that while he was walking south on the west side of E. 93rd Street he saw plaintiff’s car stalled on the northbound tracks; that the northbound street car was then about 200 feet from the stalled car; that when the street car was about 100 feet from the stalled car the motorman began to sound the gong and kept it up until the automobile was struck; that he did not know plaintiff before that time; that when he first saw the street car it was moving at from 20 to 25 miles per hour and continued at that speed until the collision.

Defendant presented evidence through the testimony of the motorman of the street car and another witness who had been walking south on East 93rd Street toward Carton Avenue at the time of the collision in support of its contention that plaintiff turned suddenly and without warning from behind the southbound street car directly into the path of the northbound street car which was then only 20 to 30 feet away, a distance within which it was impossible to avoid the collision.

This conflict in evidence presented issues of fact for determination of the jury under proper instructions of law by the court.

Therefore we shall confine this opinion to a discussion of the first assignment of error, namely, error of the court in its charge to the jury, as the second assignment of error, namely, that the verdict is against the manifest- weight of the evidence cannot be sustained.

The petition of the plaintiff charged that the defendant was negligent in five separate specifications which may be condensed as follows:

1. Under the doctrine of last clear chance

,2. Failure to maintain proper control of the street car

3. Failure to stop or abate the speed of the street car

4. Failure to maintain proper lookout

5. Operating a street car at a speed greater than would permit its stoppage within the assured clear distance ahead.

Issue was made upon the five specific charges of negligence contained in the petition by the answer of the defendant, which while admitting that a.collision occurred between one of its street cars and the automobile operated by» plaintiff, denied negligence on its .part in any of the respects charged in the petition.

The error complained of on the part of the trial court is [163]*163predicated upon the failure of the court separately to state and define the various issues of facts made in the pleadings and the evidence and to give proper instructions to the jury in respect thereto. The brief of plaintiff contains the following quotations from the general charge:

“The plaintiff claims that the defendant was negligent in the manner in which the collision occurred and the plaintiff has set forth certain specifications of negligence, specifications in which he claims the person operating the street car was guilty of negligence in the operation of the car at the time and place of this collision.
“The defendant has denied that it was negligent or its driver was negligent in any respect, and claims that the plaintiff was guilty of negligence and that his negligence was the cause of the collision and his subsequent injuries, or that his negligence contributed to the negligence of the defendant, if any, to bring about and to cause this collision. Therefore defendant claims that the plaintiff is not entitled to recover in this case.
“These claims of negligence and these denials make up what we call the issues in the case. In this type of a case that issue is bound up really in what the jury may find was the manner of the happening of the accident. What movements were being made by the motor vehicle; what movements were being made by the driver of the street car just before and at the time of this collision? Upon these questions the parties are at variance and their variance as I have stated, makes up the issues in this case. Without going into detail too much and stating it only in a general manner, the plaintiff claims that he was proceeding in a southerly direction along East 93rd Street, operating at a low rate of speed and that at or near the intersection of Carton Avenue and East 93rd Street he put his car into low speed and proceeded to make a left turn into Carton Avenue.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
100 N.E.2d 705, 60 Ohio Law. Abs. 159, 1951 Ohio App. LEXIS 887, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rhoades-v-cleveland-ohioctapp-1951.