Sparkman v. Maxwell

511 S.W.2d 566, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2415
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 7, 1974
DocketNo. 17481
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 511 S.W.2d 566 (Sparkman v. Maxwell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sparkman v. Maxwell, 511 S.W.2d 566, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2415 (Tex. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

OPINION

BREWSTER, Justice.

Mary Louise Maxwell and husband, plaintiffs, sued Mrs. J. T. Sparkman and the City of Wichita Falls, defendants, for damages for personal injuries and property damage resulting from an automobile collision that occurred at a street intersection in the City of Wichita Falls, Texas. Mrs. Sparkman filed a third party complaint over against the City of Wichita Falls wherein she sought indemnity and in the alternative, contribution from the City of Wichita Falls for any damages found to be due and owing to plaintiff. Following a trial by jury, judgment was rendered that the plaintiffs recover from Mrs. Sparkman and the City of Wichita Falls $5,217.00, and that an intervenor recover from Mrs. Sparkman $1,042.42. The two defendants have appealed from that decree.

The judgment against Mrs. Sparkman is affirmed. The judgment against the City of Wichita Falls is reversed and here rendered that the plaintiffs and the defendant, Mrs. Sparkman, take nothing as against the City.

The jury found that Mrs. Sparkman (1) did not fail to keep a proper lookout; (2) that her act in entering the intersection while a red arrow was facing her was a proximate cause of the collision; (3) and that her act in entering the intersection on a red arrow was not negligence.

We will refer to the City of Wichita Falls throughout this opinion as City.

Judgment on the verdict could only have been rendered against Mrs. Sparkman on the theory that her act of entering the intersection while a red arrow was facing her was negligence per se and that when the verdict established that such act on her part was a proximate cause of the collision, that liability was thus fixed against her for the damages resulting from the wreck.

Mrs. Sparkman’s Appeal

Mrs. Sparkman’s first point of error is that the court erred in entering judgment against her because the red arrow signal facing her was illegal and cannot form the basis for a statutory violation.

[568]*568Her fourth point of error is that the trial court erred in overruling her motion for judgment. In that motion she simply-moved the court to enter an attached judgment. The form of that proposed judgment was such that it would deny plaintiffs a recovery from Mrs. Sparkman, but would award them a recovery from the City.

We overrule Mrs. Sparkman’s points of error Nos. 1 and 4.

On the occasion in question, on April 14, 1972, Mrs. Maxwell was traveling south on Fairway Street. Mrs. Sparkman was going east on Southwest Parkway and planned to turn left at the intersection into Fairway and go north. The traffic was controlled at the intersection of these two streets by electric traffic-control lights. Traffic in the left turn lane on Southwest Parkway was controlled by a signal light located on a median in the center of such street facing that lane of traffic. This signal light had three round signal lights in it, located in a vertical line. The top one was red, the center one was yellow and the bottom light was green. Inside the lens of each of these three signals had been placed a metal template, the effect of which was to make the signal be in the form of an arrow instead of in the form of a round signal light. So, regardless of the color of the signal light that faced the traffic in the left turn lane on Southwest Parkway at this intersection, it would be in the form of an arrow pointing to the left or to the north on Fairway. The signal light functioned by changing from a red arrow, to a yellow arrow, and then to a green arrow at designated intervals of time.

When Mrs. Sparkman came up to this street intersection going east and traveling in the left turn lane, there was then facing her a red traffic light in the form of an arrow pointing to the left or north on Fairway. She did not stop at the intersection but slowly pulled out into it and there collided with Mrs. Maxwell’s car which was coming from the north on Fairway. Mrs. Maxwell had entered the intersection on the green light that faced traffic coming from the direction she came from.

Mr. Whitnell, director of traffic and traffic engineer for the City of Wichita Falls had ordered the installation of these traffic control signals, and qt such time he was acting as agent for the City and within the scope of his authority. He had ordered these lights in the form of arrows installed as a test. He was making the test for two reasons, namely: (1) he expected the 1971 Federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways, which expressly provided for red arrow signals, to be adopted later in Texas, and (2) he desired to determine which of two options, red arrow signals or information by signs on signal poles, should be used in the future.

The facts recited above are undisputed.

We are convinced and hold that the signal lights or arrows controlling traffic in the left turn lane in which Mrs. Spark-man had been traveling were not illegal under the laws and manuals that were in effect at the time of the car wreck on April 14, 1972.

Article 6701d — 3, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St, provides: “In any civil case proof by either party ... of the existence of any traffic control device, including . . . control lights on or alongside any public thoroughfare shall constitute prima facie proof of all facts (including proof of competent authority and a duly enacted ordinance by municipalities . . .) necessary to prove the proper, lawful installation of such sign or device at that place. . . . The prima facie proof . . . may be rebutted

The undisputed evidence showed the existence of the signal light at the intersection in question at the time of the wreck. No evidence was offered by anyone tending to show that the traffic signal was not placed there by competent authority and as [569]*569a result of a duly enacted ordinance of the City. The existence of these facts were therefore established by the presumption created by the statute.

Article 6701d, Art. Ill, Sec. 29, provides: “The State Highway Commission shall adopt a manual and specifications for a uniform system of traffic-control devices consistent with . . . this Act for use upon highways within this state.”

The undisputed evidence in the case and the briefs of the parties show that the 1967 Texas Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways is the manual that had been adopted by the State Highway Commission by authority of Art. 6701d, Sec. 29, V.A.C.S., that was in full force and effect at the time of the wreck in question.

Evidence was offered in the trial as to the provisions of the 1971 manual, but since the undisputed evidence showed that the effective date of its adoption (June 1, 1972) was not until after the date of the wreck, its provisions could have no bearing on the legality of the traffic signals involved.

Section 31, Art. 6701d, V.A.C.S., authorizes local authorities to install traffic control devices as they deem necessary to carry out the provisions of this statute, which devices shall conform to the manual and specifications that Sec. 29 of the statute directed the State Highway Commission to adopt.

Whether the traffic control signal was illegal hinges on whether that signal conformed to Art. 6701d and to the 1967 Texas Manual above referred to.

Article 6701d, Sec. 33, V.A.C.S., provides : “Whenever traffic is controlled by traffic-control signals exhibiting . different colored lights successively one at a time,

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Related

Sparkman v. Maxwell
519 S.W.2d 852 (Texas Supreme Court, 1975)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
511 S.W.2d 566, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2415, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sparkman-v-maxwell-texapp-1974.