Richlin v. Gooding Amusement Co.

170 N.E.2d 505, 113 Ohio App. 99, 85 Ohio Law. Abs. 498, 17 Ohio Op. 2d 100, 1960 Ohio App. LEXIS 577
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 1, 1960
Docket25131
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 170 N.E.2d 505 (Richlin v. Gooding Amusement Co.) 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
Richlin v. Gooding Amusement Co., 170 N.E.2d 505, 113 Ohio App. 99, 85 Ohio Law. Abs. 498, 17 Ohio Op. 2d 100, 1960 Ohio App. LEXIS 577 (Ohio Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

Skeel, J.

This appeal comes to this court on questions of law from a judgment entered for the plaintiff upon a verdict returned by a jury. The plaintiff claims to have suffered severe injury as a proximate result of the negligence of one of defendant’s servants while acting in the course of .his employment.

About 2:00 A. M. of July 31, 1955, the plaintiff was a passenger in the automobile of her fiance, William Hayden. They had attended a party at the house of a friend on Electric Drive in the City of Bay Village. They left the party at about the time indicated, driving west on Electric Drive to Bassett Road, then south on Bassett Road to Detroit Road. They drove east on Detroit Road to the place of the accident which occurred at the intersection of Detroit Road with Wagar Road in the City of Rocky River. The total distance driven was slightly *501 over seven miles. The accident occurred about 2:25 A. M. so that the seven miles was driven in not less than twenty minutes.

The defendant, in the carnival business, had in its employ a “Bide Helper,” Edgar Kitchen, age twenty-eight, of Elkins, West Virginia. The defendant owned or possessed carnival equipment which on July 30th was on what the witnesses called a “Fairground” located about three blocks east of Wagar Eoad on Detroit Boad. Kitchen started to work at the carnival on July 30th at about 11:00 A. M. At the close of carnival activities, at about eleven-thirty that night, the carnival equipment was disassembled preparatory to moving at least some part of it to some place in Indiana. Kitchen participated in this work and when the defendant’s tractor-trailer was loaded, he became the truck driver. He was not familiar with the route to be taken, and another employee indicated or marked the way to go on a piece of paper. He was told to go three (or four) blocks west on Detroit Boad, turn south (left hand turn) on Wagar Boad to U. S. Boute 20. When he approached Wagar Boad, after counting the blocks, he proceeded along and went 100 feet from the intersection of Wagar Boad with Detroit Boad, he noticed that the traffic light at the intersection of Detroit and Wagar Boads was red. He was then driving twenty miles per hour. He started to slow down and when sixty feet from the intersection, the light changed to green. He proceeded to the cross-walk and when near the traffic light, started to execute a left hand turn to go south on Wagar Boad. The manner of making such turn and the point from which the turn was commenced; the distance covered by the tractor-trailer into or toward Wagar Boad; the point where the tractor entered or was entering Wagar Boad to the south; whether Kitchen saw the automobile in which plaintiff was a passenger some distance to the west, or whether he first observed it as it proceeded in an easterly direction into the intersection and was within twenty feet of the tractor just before the collision (as appears in the police report); and the speed at which the vehicle in which plaintiff was a passenger approached the intersection and its position on Detroit Boad as it proceeded east just before and at the time of the collision are all matters that are in considerable dispute as shown by a careful reading of the bill *502 of exceptions. A collision occurred between the two vehicles and plaintiff was severely injured.

From a judgment entered for the, plaintiff, the defendant claims the following errors:

“1. That the court erred in its charge to the jury with respect to Section 4511.36, Revised Code (left-hand turn rule).

“2. That there are minor errors in the charge, the cumulative effect of which is sufficient to warrant reversal.

“3. That the court should have granted defendant’s motion for a directed verdict.

“4. That the court erred in refusing to submit to the jury the issue of contributory negligence of plaintiff.

“5. That the verdict is contrary to law and against the weight of the evidence.

“6. That the verdict is excessive and was given under the influence of passion and prejudice.

“7. That the court erred in permitting the plaintiff to introduce testimony relative to a lessening of the plaintiff’s sense of smell and taste when there were no allegations in the Petition pertaining to such claims; and permitted counsel to argue a ‘brain injury’ when there was no testimony concerning any so-called ‘brain injury.’

“8. That the court erred in refusing to admit in evidence the police report and the statements of Edgar Kitchen and Robert G-ehring after issues were raised concerning the facts found by Lt. Nordstrom when he arrived at the scene of the accident.

“9. That the court erred in permitting counsel for the plaintiff to ask hypothetical questions which were not based upon testimony which was in evidence; and permitted counsel for plaintiff to ask questions seeking opinions in answers thereto which were speculative and conjectural in nature.

“10. That the court erred in not granting a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence developed by the defendant, which affected the -substantial rights of the parties.

“11. That the court erred in emphasizing and repeating verbatim and by reference plaintiff’s allegations of negligence against the defendant as set forth in the petition.”

The charge Of the court, explaining the provisions of Section 4511.36, Revised Code (left-hand turn), appears in sev *503 eral places. Each time the- specific requirements of entering the intersection to the right of and next to the centerline of the street upon which the vehicle is traveling when proceeding into the intersection and to proceed to the right of the centerline of the street being entered in making the left-hand turn were carefully explained.

The sentence added by the amendment to this section, effective September 11, 1951, which reads: “Whenever practicable the left turn shall be made in that portion of the intersection to the left of the center of the intersection * * *” does not change the basic requirements for making a left-hand turn at a street intersection. The amendment of 1951 must have intended to make it perfectly clear that “cutting the corner” as distinguished from the earlier requirement to go beyond the center of the intersection before turning to the left, was intended. The failure of the court to include the sentence just quoted each time he read Section 4511.36, Revised Code, in his charge had no prejudicial effect on the defendant’s case. The rule was properly stated by the court in its charge on this question.

The second claim of error is that the cumulative effect of a number of minor errors in the court’s general charge to the jury (no one of which is claimed to be of sufficient moment to be prejudicially detrimental to defendant’s case) when taken together prejudiced the right of the defendant. We find no substance to this claim. An error committed by the court in its charge to the jury is either prejudicial or it is not. There is no legal way to add up the separate effects of such claims so that taken together, they may be considered as affecting prejudicially the rights of a contending party. Each claim of error must be considered as standing or falling on its own facts unassociated with others on different subjects.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
170 N.E.2d 505, 113 Ohio App. 99, 85 Ohio Law. Abs. 498, 17 Ohio Op. 2d 100, 1960 Ohio App. LEXIS 577, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richlin-v-gooding-amusement-co-ohioctapp-1960.