Simmons v. Shomer

395 S.W.2d 507, 1965 Mo. App. LEXIS 558
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 12, 1965
DocketNo. 8390
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 395 S.W.2d 507 (Simmons v. Shomer) 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
Simmons v. Shomer, 395 S.W.2d 507, 1965 Mo. App. LEXIS 558 (Mo. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

HOGAN, Judge.

This is an action for the wrongful death of plaintiffs husband. The plaintiff joined both defendant Jones, operator of the vehicle in which the deceased was riding, and defendant Shomer, operator of the vehicle with which the Jones car collided. Verdict and judgment were in favor of the plaintiff and against defendant Shomer in the sum of $12,000, but in favor of defendant Jones. Upon plaintiff’s motion, the trial court set the judgment aside and granted plaintiff a new trial as to both defendants, in each case upon discretionary grounds. Though we take it that in this situation both defendants were entitled to appeal, Quinn v. St. Louis Pub. Serv. Co., Mo., 318 S.W.2d 316, 321 [6], only defendant Jones has done so.

Shortly before 10:00 P. M. on July 6, 1962, defendant Jones, accompanied by the plaintiff’s husband and another companion, was driving north on the east side of Highway 39 at a point approximately seven-tenths miles south of the intersection of Highway 39 and Route FF in Lawrence County, Missouri. The road at this point is downgrade, and shortly after he “crested” or crossed the highest point on the hill, slightly south of the point of collision, defendant Jones met and passed a third, southbound, vehicle (referred to as the Buus car) behind which defendant Shomer was driving, wholly without lights. Immediately after defendant Jones passed Mr. Buus, the Jones and Shomer vehicles collided violently in the east or northbound lane. Both defendants and Mr. Simmons received injuries, and it is conceded that Mr. Simmons’ injuries caused his death.

Plaintiff’s petition was framed generally upon the theory that the two defendants, Jones and Shomer, were jointly and concurrently negligent, and the plaintiff alleged many acts of negligence on Jones’ part. The esssential basis of plaintiff’s case against Jones was, however, that Jones had caused the collision, or contributed to cause it, by blinding the oncoming (Shomer) vehicle with his lights, in violation of Section 304.370.1 The case was finally submitted against Jones on humanitarian negligence in failing to “cease” blinding Shomer, to give warning by dimming his lights, and in failing to slacken or turn aside, and upon primary negligence in driving and operating his automobile with his lights on high beam when Shomer was within 500 feet. All other assignments were of course abandoned. Brooks v. Stewart, Mo., 335 S.W.2d 104, 105, 81 A.L.R.2d 508; Guthrie v. City of St. Charles, 347 Mo. 1175, 1182, 152 S.W.2d 91, 93 [1].

The essence of appellant’s position in this court is that the trial court erred in granting plaintiff a new trial as to him in particular because there was no evidence adduced from which it could reasonably be inferred that any negligence on his part was a proximate, contributing cause of the collision. The new trial as to defendant Jones was granted on the discretionary ground that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence, and it is true, as [509]*509the respondent says, that a ruling on that ground will not be disturbed on appeal if there is substantial evidence to support a verdict for the party to whom a new trial is granted. Schmidt v. Allen, Mo., 303 S.W.2d 652, 659 [19, 20]. However, it is also true that causation is an essential element either of a humanitarian case, Moore v. Ervin, Mo., 374 S.W.2d 142, 149 [4], or a primary case, Gaffner v. Alexander, Mo., 331 S.W.2d 622, 628 [5], and even concurrent negligence must be shown to have been a proximate cause of the injury. Reed v. Shelly, Mo.App., 378 S.W.2d 291, 301 [22]; 38 Am.Jur. Negligence, Section 64, pp. 718-719. And if, upon the whole record, considering the evidence in a light most favorable to the plaintiff and giving her the benefit of all reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom, the plaintiff made no submissible case upon the issue of causation, the order granting her a new trial as to defendant Jones is erroneous and must be set aside. Rose v. Thompson, 346 Mo. 395, 401-402, 141 S.W.2d 824, 828-829 [3] [4, 5]. A careful consideration of the record convinces us that the decisive issue in this case is whether in fact the evidence justifies the inference that there was a causal relation between the defendant’s acts, charged and submitted as negligence, and the injury sustained, or whether the casualty would have occurred, regardless of defendant’s conduct.

This tragic casualty, as we have said, occurred on Highway 39 in Lawrence County. The date was July 6, 1962, and the time was shortly before 10:00 P.M. The road is a blacktop highway approximately 20 feet wide, runs north and south, and is marked in the center by a black and white line. The shoulder on the east side of the pavement is approximately six feet wide, and there is a “drop-off” from the shoulder, which is not literally vertical but is rather steep, some two or three feet deep.

To establish the location of the collision and the general lay of the land, the plaintiff introduced several photographic exhibits, the testimony of a photographer, and the testimony of two members of the State Highway Patrol who were present shortly after the collision. Generally, it was shown through the exhibits and the testimony of these witnesses that the two defendants’ vehicles collided head on on the east side of the highway between the crest, or high point, of a hill south of the place of collision and a gentler rise, or “knoll,” to the north.

Trooper Harold Stephens, called by the plaintiff, testified: That in response to a radio report he arrived at the scene of the casualty at about 10:00 P. M. Trooper Stephens located the point of collision as being on Highway 39 (which runs north and south) seven-tenths miles south of county road “FF,” which runs east and west. The two damaged vehicles were located in the northbound lane on the east side of the highway at a place “in a westerly direction” from a utility pole on the east side of the right-of-way, which the witness had located as a reference point. Measurements had been made by this witness in connection with a criminal action against Mr. Shomer, and these measurements generally established the distance from the “approximate top of the crest” of the hill (south of the place of collision) to the utility pole as being 279 feet and the distance from the same point to the crest of the knoll to the north as being 531 feet. The witness also testified that from the point of collision, looking back to the south, one could not see the crest of the hill, but he also testified that there was no obstruction to a motorist’s view from the crest of the hill (to the south) to the crest of the knoll. By referring to the photographic exhibits. Trooper Stephens located the point of impact as being approximately in the center of the east lane, 279 feet north of the crest of the hill.

On cross examination, and again by reference to photographs, Trooper Stephens testified that from south to north the grade is uneven and that there is a “bump or hump” in the grade, creating a “blind spot” for a northbound driver in which oncom[510]*510ing traffic would be momentarily obscured.

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Bluebook (online)
395 S.W.2d 507, 1965 Mo. App. LEXIS 558, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simmons-v-shomer-moctapp-1965.