Ritchie Ex Rel. Ritchie v. Burton

292 S.W.2d 599, 1956 Mo. App. LEXIS 132
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 7, 1956
Docket7396
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 292 S.W.2d 599 (Ritchie Ex Rel. Ritchie v. Burton) 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
Ritchie Ex Rel. Ritchie v. Burton, 292 S.W.2d 599, 1956 Mo. App. LEXIS 132 (Mo. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

RUARIC, Judge.

Defendant’s automobile, in which plaintiff was a guest, was confronted on a curve by an International pickup truck and attempted evasive action by going to the right. In so doing it went into the ditch, swerved a time or two and finally overturned. For resultant injuries the jury allowed plaintiff $7,500. A remittitur of $1,500 having been ordered and entered, motion for new trial was overruled and defendant has appealed.

Appellant’s first assignment is aimed at the sufficiency of the evidence, and this, having been a jury-tried case, involves an examination of the evidence and reasonable inferences most favorable to the plaintiff. Prior to the events here Concerned, defendant, Virgil Burton, had been courting Alta May Ritchie for approximately a month. His campaign terminated happily, for by trial date they were married. Some of the courtship was accomplished via Chevrolet, for Virgil had been, on various occasions, teaching Alta to drive. According to her testimony she had had some driving experience before; and she had progressed considerably under Virgil’s tutelage. He said she was a “skillful” driver; but she-was his wife when he so" testified, and’a jury, knowing that it is impolitic for any' husband to refer to his wife’s driving ability as anything less than skillful, might have accepted his appraisal with some mental reservations. It is not amiss to say, however, that defendant had, during a part of his service in the army* the task of teaching others to drive and operate military equipment, .so it could be concluded that he was not only competent to teach but qualified to judge the progress of those less experienced. ' When we say that Alta was over sixteen years old, and thus legally qualified as to age, but did not have an operator’s license, we think we have sufficiently covered the capacities of the parties.

The locale of the accident was a curve on Highway 37, which appears to have been a highway in the sense of an old “county road” which had been blacktopped. The approach to the curve from the direction the Chevrolet was traveling is down a long and gradual grade. At the foot of the grade the road curves rather abruptly to the left (northerly). On the inside of the curve the ground is higher and covered with trees and rather thick brush. On the right somewhere near but south of the apex of the curve is a highway marker bearing the legend “one-lane bridge.” This bridge, referred to in the evidence as White Oak bridge, is some 300 to 360 feet north of the marker. It is a narrow one-car span and sits considerably higher than the roadway, sufficiently so that vehicles approaching from opposite" ends are not visible to each other. A rather steep fill or approach comes down off the south end of the bridge and shortly south of this approach (we having reversed our direction) the road begins its curve to the right. ' The bridge and its approach are aligned with the center of the road and an automobile coming off the approach is of necessity required to be in the center of the road. The roadway itself is blacktop 20 feet in width. The shoulder on the east or outer edge is negligible and the slope commences almost at the edge of the *603 blacktop and goes off gradually into a fairly shallow ditch. The curve is flat, that is, un-banked, and there appears to be a slight crown in the road. The defendant, who was familiar with the place, and a disinterested witness, Watts (of him more hereafter), identify this as a dangerous curve. Defendant said he knew of other accidents which had occurred at the place. So much for the locale.

On a bright December' Sunday morning Virgil went to the home of Alta’s parents, who live on a gravel county highway leading off Highway 37, intending to take Alta to Sunday school. It was agreed that plaintiff, Dorothy, who was Alta’s little sister (age nine), might accompany them, and accordingly they set off. A half-mile down the road defendant decided to let Alta drive, and she got under the wheel. As to the positions of the others in the car there is conflict, for Dorothy says that after the change she, Dorothy, was in the middle and Virgil was on the right; while Virgil says he was in the middle and Dorothy was on the right. Alta does not say. After coming to Highway 37 Alta turned to the right and drove for more than a quarter-mile downgrade in an approach to the curve which we have described. As she got to or upon the curve or curve entrance she was'going (depending upon which estimate is accepted) somewhere around 20-40 miles per hour and had let up on the gas pedal. In rounding the curve she was confronted by the pickup truck coming squarely up the center of the road from the direction of the bridge. She pulled to the right as far as she felt she could, to the approximate edge of the blacktop, and asked Virgil to take over. This he did by crowding over on the seat to the left, taking the wheel in his hands and putting his foot on the brake. Virgil, according to his testimony, drove for about 20 feet further along the right edge of the pavement, then went into the ditch. A tire mark showed where the Chevrolet left the road and continued to where it came to rest 138 feet to the north. The Chevrolet concluded its run by turning over to its left onto the pavement and- sliding along on its top. The ■pickup apparently did not give ground, did not stop, and continued serenely on its way; and while its driver appears to have been discovered by the highway patrolman) neither plaintiff nor defendant saw fit to call him as a witness. Both Alta and Dorothy ■say that they are unable to relate the events after the approach to the curve and the appearance of the pickup. On this occasion one. Claude Evan Watts was visiting his brother-in-law,, who lived on a'hill immediately south and e^Cst of the curve. This home, like all proper- Southern Missouri homesteads, included that useful structure perhaps not familiar to the present generation of city folk but which, if they do know it, is probably described by them as a rest room, whereas we who are more familiar with such things refer to this cabinet d’aisance as “the back house.” But by whatever name it may be known, that is where Watts was headed when his preoccupations of the moment were interrupted by the squeal and scream of tires. He looked; the pickup was in the center of the road; the vehicles were “close together” as they passed and he could not tell whether the automobile or truck was going faster. A cloud of dust swirled into the ■ air. Through, it he observed the automobile' as it went up the ditch) swerving two or three times as it went. He saw it overturn and skitter along on its top; another accident had happened at White Oak bridge. And these are the facts as the jury had them.

Defendant, having dominance over the operation of the car, was approaching the curve, which he knew to be sharp, unbanked and dangerous. He knew the view was obstructed and foreshortened. He knew a vehicle coming off the bridge on the other side of the curve would for some distance necessarily be traveling in the center of the road. The highway marker was 'an additional warning. The speed of the automobile under his control is a matter of estimates' ranging from 20 miles per hour upward. A patrolman, *604 testifying from his report, without objection, gave the speed of the Chevrolet at 40 miles per hour and the speed of the pickup at 20 miles per hour, although how he got this information is not shown.

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Bluebook (online)
292 S.W.2d 599, 1956 Mo. App. LEXIS 132, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ritchie-ex-rel-ritchie-v-burton-moctapp-1956.