Spaulding v. Howard

27 N.W.2d 832, 148 Neb. 496, 1947 Neb. LEXIS 71
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJune 6, 1947
DocketNo. 32208
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 27 N.W.2d 832 (Spaulding v. Howard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Spaulding v. Howard, 27 N.W.2d 832, 148 Neb. 496, 1947 Neb. LEXIS 71 (Neb. 1947).

Opinion

Messmore, J.

This is an action at law brought by the plaintiff to recover damages to his automobile and to his person, alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendant when plaintiff’s automobile and defendant’s truck collided.

The plaintiff’s petition sets forth several charges of negligence against the defendant which he claims constitute the direct and proximate cause of the accident and the resulting damages to his automobile and person. The defendant’s answer denies the affirmative allegations of the plaintiff’s petition, and alleges that any damage to the plaintiff’s automobile or to his person, sustained by virtue of the accident, was the direct and •proximate result of the plaintiff’s negligence. The cross-petition charges the plaintiff with negligence in certain respects, alleging that the plaintiff’s negligence, so charged, was the direct and proximate cause of the accident resulting in damage to the defendant’s truck, and the doctor bill which he paid in behalf of his wife. The reply, in effect, is a general denial to the answer. The answer to the cross-petition denies the allegations of negligence charged against the plaintiff contained therein.

The record discloses the plaintiff, a discharged war veteran, 27 years of age, on February 6, 1946, purchased a 1935 LaSalle coach in St. Joseph, Missouri for $625, and after the accident here involved it was worth $100. After purchasing the car he proceeded from St. Joseph to Dawson, Nebraska, to visit his mother. At a point about six miles north of Falls City, Nebraska, he was driving on highway U S 73, an arterial highway extending north from Falls City having a cement surface 20 feet in width. At this point the highway makes a wide curve to the west, and approximately 200 feet north of the point where the curve commences, the highway joins with a gravel-surfaced road which proceeds to the east, referred to as the Barada road. There [498]*498is a continuous down grade of highway U S 73 toward the north for a distance of about half a mile south of the curve heretofore mentioned. The highway markings in this vicinity, as testified to by an engineer, are as follows: 573 feet south of the intersection of the Barada road on highway U S 73, is a standard United States highway sign; further south, a distance of 873 feet from the Barada intersection, is a highway mile sign; 1691 feet south from the Barada road intersection is a steel post by a flume at the edge of the highway. On each side of the Barada road where it intersects with highway U S 73 are stop signs, approximately 38% feet distant from the east edge of the paved surface of highway U S 73.

The defendant, aged 52, engaged in farming for more than 30 years and living 16 miles north of Falls City, left his home about 1:15 p. m. the afternoon of February 6, 1946, which was a nice, sunshiny day. The surface of the road was dry. He was accompanied by his wife, and driving a 1940 International truck equipped with a stock rack, and loaded with livestock. The total weight was approximately 13,000 pounds, including the livestock. The defendant was familiar with the Barada road which he followed, having driven it for many years on an average of from two to six times a week. Arriving at the stop sign on the Barada road at about 2:00 or 2:30 in the afternoon, he stopped his truck adjacent to the stop sign on the south side of the road at the approximate distance of 38% feet east of the east edge of the paved surface- of highway U S 73. His version as to what occurred thereafter, and as testified to by him in substance, is as follows: After stopping he looked to the right, or to the northwest; there were no cars in sight. He then looked to the south and saw a car, which later developed to be the plaintiff’s car, which was a little south of the steel post, a distance of 1691 feet from the intersection. He estimated the plaintiff’s car was south on highway U S 73 about 1800 feet [499]*499distant from the intersection. He then proceeded into the intersection at a speed of two or three miles per hour, and when the front wheels of the truck were in the middle of the pavement, he saw the plaintiff’s car which at that time was near the highway sign 873 feet south of the intersection. He drove in an arc, or circle, for the reason the Barada road is on a curve and the paving curves at this point, traveling a little less than 38% feet to reach the pavement on the highway. He then proceeded a distance of 97% feet south on the highway, with his entire truck on his own right hand side of the highway, or on the west side thereof. His speed in negotiating his truck in such manner averaged five miles per hour. The plaintiff was on his right hand side of the highway and driving at a high rate of speed, and when approximately within 15 to 20 feet of the defendant’s truck, he angled a trifle, crossing to the left hand side of the highway and, as described by the defendant, with the speed of a “cannon ball” collided with the defendant’s truck, striking the truck on the bumper, bending the frame and the cross bar across the front of the frame of the truck; the right wheel of the plaintiff’s car striking the left corner of the bumper of the truck while the truck was in forward motion. The impact knocked the truck back across the road at least five feet, as indicated by the burned rubber mark on the road made by the left front, wheel of the truck. When the plaintiff’s car came to a stop it was up on the grass on the west side of the highway, possibly with one of its hind wheels on the pavement. It faced northwest. The right rear wheel of the truck was practically on the center of the cement highway, to the right. After the truck was hit, the front end of it was pushed toward the west; the rear of the truck was pushed to the east, and the right hind wheel was on the line which divided the 20 foot paved surface of the highway.

The defendant’s wife testified that when the truck [500]*500stopped she looked to the south and saw the plaintiff’s car south of the highway sign which is a distance of 873 feet. The plaintiff was proceeding at a high rate of speed, and when within 15 to 20 feet of the truck his front wheels turned directly and came across in front of the truck. The truck, at the time, was on the west side of the center line of the highway, or on its proper portion of the highway. The defendant was driving at a speed of seven or eight miles per hour.

The plaintiff’s version of the collision, according to his testimony, is in substance as follows: When he was 200 feet distant from the intersection he saw defendant, and the front wheels of the truck were on the highway. He blew his horn, believing the defendant would stop, and swerved to the left endeavoring to miss him, and if the defendant had stopped, he would have missed him. However, the defendant proceeded on, and hit the plaintiff’s car on the front fender with the bumper of the truck, pushing the plaintiff’s car over the paved slab to the west. There was no forward movement of either the car or truck thereafter. The truck was going about five to ten miles per hour. Immediately after the accident the truck was headed almost exactly straight west into the bank, across the paved surface of the highway. The front end of the truck, the bumper and the grille were pushed against the right front fender of the plaintiff’s car, and the right front wheel of plaintiff’s car was lying almost flat under the truck. The endgate, or rear, of the truck was not over a foot off the pavement on the east side.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Ripp v. Riesland
141 N.W.2d 840 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1966)
Harris v. Pullen
99 N.W.2d 238 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1959)
Bell v. Crook
97 N.W.2d 352 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1959)
Peacock v. JL Brandeis & Sons
60 N.W.2d 643 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1953)
Segebart Ex Rel. Segebart v. Gregory
55 N.W.2d 678 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1952)
Mundy v. Davis
48 N.W.2d 394 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1951)
Hamilton v. Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Co.
41 N.W.2d 139 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1950)
Anthony v. City of Lincoln
41 N.W.2d 147 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1950)
Krepcik v. Interstate Transit Lines
40 N.W.2d 252 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1949)
Myers v. Willmeroth
39 N.W.2d 423 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1949)
Umberger v. Sankey
38 N.W.2d 21 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1949)
Roberts v. Brown
36 N.W.2d 665 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1949)
Smith v. Platte Valley Public Power & Irrigation District
36 N.W.2d 478 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1949)
Fimple v. Archer Ballroom Co.
35 N.W.2d 680 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1949)
Mayer v. Homestead Fire Insurance
35 N.W.2d 413 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1948)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
27 N.W.2d 832, 148 Neb. 496, 1947 Neb. LEXIS 71, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spaulding-v-howard-neb-1947.