State v. Bosch

242 P.2d 477, 242 P.2d 977, 125 Mont. 566, 1952 Mont. LEXIS 109
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 21, 1952
Docket9114
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 242 P.2d 477 (State v. Bosch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bosch, 242 P.2d 477, 242 P.2d 977, 125 Mont. 566, 1952 Mont. LEXIS 109 (Mo. 1952).

Opinions

MR. JUSTICE BOTTOMLY:

Upon an information charging him with the crime of manslaughter W. P. Bosch was found guilty by the jury. The court entered judgment on the verdict, from which, and from an order denying him a new trial, he has appealed.

On September 26, 1949, defendant W. P. Bosch owned and operated the Cheerio Bar at Laurel, Yellowstone County, Mon[568]*568tana. He had made arrangements to meet with the bartenders union in Billings between 7:30 and 8:00 p. m. that evening, as he had had some trouble with the union and his shop card had been taken away from him. Defendant was busy waiting on customers at his bar and lounge and for that reason didn’t get started earlier. About 8:00 p. m. he talked by telephone to a man in Billings (Miller) to see if the union officials ivould wait for him to arrive there. The man in Billings told defendant that the meeting was over and then ready to leave; he told defendant they would stick around, and defendant told him, “"We’re leaving right now. We’ll be down for the meeting.” Defendant then left his daughter in charge of the bar and lounge and at approximately 8:25 p. m. he left the Cheerio in Laurel, driving his 1941 Buick automobile, accompanied by Lewis Glenn "Voeltz and Pat ELroh, all three sitting in the front seat. According to defendant’s testimony, during the afternoon of September 26th the defendant had consumed at least four mixed whisky drinks commonly known as highballs, the last such drink being taken at about 7 -.20 p. m. Leaving-Laurel, defendant drove his automobile easterly over highway No. 10 towards Billings. About eight miles west of Billings defendant observed a truck or van ahead of him. He could see the truck and the lights; he could see the van or large truck some three or four blocks ahead. He could see the left hand lane ahead and there was no car coming toward him. The van or truck was going in the same direction he was and in the same lane. As he got closer he saw that there was a car immediately behind and following the truck or van. The ear following the truck had no tail lights. It was close and defendant was going to run into that car, so defendant turned to the left to pass and, as he contended, was confronted with a car coming toward him from the opposite direction, in the left hand lane, and in order to avoid the approaching car, defendant continued with brakes applied and skidded on across the highway to his left, into the borrow pit, the sides of which were quite steep and which was some four feet deep, on the northerly [569]*569side of the highway. At that time defendant admits he was traveling between 50 and 55 miles an hour. When the automobile came to rest, Lewis Glenn Voeltz and Pat Kroh, being the men riding in the car with defendant, were found in the borrow pit some 90 feet westerly of where the automobile stopped against a cement drain culvert. Both Lewis Glenn Voeltz and Pat Kroh were found unconscious and both died before reaching the hospita] or shortly thereafter on September 26, 1949.

Defendant specifies as error the admission of the testimony of witnesses Benson and Hall as to their opinion of the speed of the defendant’s automobile.

Witness Benson, a Montana highway patrolman, was on duty the night of the wreck and was traveling westerly on the Billings-Laurel U. S. highway No. 10 at approximately 8:35 p. m., when he observed ahead the lights of an automobile come from the south lane and across to the north of the highway where the lights would disappear and then reappear at an angle and thereafter disappeared. There was no vehicle traveling ahead of his car going toward Laurel between his car and the lights of the above mentioned ear. He immediately increased his speed and within a few seconds was at the scene of the wreck. He found the defendant standing by his automobile which was headed into a drain ditch, the front end having hit the cement drain culvert-, completely wrecking the front end.

Witness Benson testified further that defendant’s actions and talk were incoherent and he walked very unsteadily; that he smelled liquor on defendant’s breath and believed defendant under the influence of liquor. Benson found Pat Kroh and Lewis Voeltz lying unconscious in the borrow pit, some 90 feet west of where the. car was wrecked. He immediately called ambulances and had them taken to a Billings hospital. Benson then took defendant to St. Vincent’s Hospital; then to the Settergren Funeral Home, and then returned to the scene of the accident and made his measurements.

Patrolman Benson, with eleven years service as such, had [570]*570investigated many automobile wrecks, had special training in traffic problems, attended traffic schools where he studied the cause and effect of skid marks, as well as his personal experiences. Upon examination and measurements of the skid marks made by the defendant’s automobile from the point it started to where it went off the oil, he found that the longest skid mark was 181 feet. From the tables furnished by the Northwestern Traffic Institute, and upon his experiences, Benson gave it as his opinion that the defendant’s automobile was traveling at the time the skid marks were made at the minimum speed of seventy-two miles an hour.

Arthur Hall, an automobile mechanic with ten years’ experience, except while a mechanic in the Air Force, had attended a braking school, had attended mechanics’ school at Lincoln, and in his regular employment, he, from day to day takes customer’s cars on the highway to adjust brakes and correct brake grab, and was familiar with skid marks from his own experience. He testified he heard the screech of defendant’s automobile at the time of the accident which took place across the highway from his. driveway; that he was at the scene of the wreck about the same time as witness Benson arrived ; that in his opinion in order to leave tracks like that, the car would have to go at an excessive rate of speed, of over 60 miles an hour.

"Whether the evidence given by witnesses Benson and Hall was worthy of belief and the weight to be given it was a matter for the jury to decide. See State v. Porter, 125 Mont. 503, 242 Pac. (2d) 984.

In a number of cases experts and others have been allowed to give opinions as to the rate of speed of a motor vehicle, not upon their observation of the moving vehicle only, but upon skid marks or other impressions made just before or at the time of the accident or wreck. See Jackson v. Vaughn, 204 Ala. 543, 86 So. 469; Luethe v. Schmidt-Gaertner Co., 170 Wis. 590, 176 N. W. 63. In McCarthy v. Souther, 83 N. H. 29, 137 A. 445, an expert was permitted to testify as to the speed of an [571]*571automobile based on the fact that tbe handle of the car door, which decedent struck, was broken by the impact. In Stamper v. Scholtz, Tex. Civ App., 29 S. W. (2d) 883, 884, the court said: “Almost any person acquainted with the movements of cars when brakes are applied suddenly would be competent to give an opinion from the marks of the skidding and other circumstances as to the speed of the automobile.” Compare Fannon v. Morton, 228 Ill. App. 415.

In Heidner v. Germschied, 41 S. D. 430, 171 N. W. 208, even a non-expert who had not seen the car in motion was permitted to given an opinion as to the speed of an automobile based on an examination of the marks left by it when it skidded. Compare Moeller v. St. Paul City Railway Co., 218 Minn. 353, 16 N. W. (2d) 289, 156 A. L. R. 371. In State v. Robinson, 109 Mont. 322, 96 Pac.

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Bluebook (online)
242 P.2d 477, 242 P.2d 977, 125 Mont. 566, 1952 Mont. LEXIS 109, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bosch-mont-1952.