Thurston v. Keathley

105 S.E.2d 181, 143 W. Va. 795, 1958 W. Va. LEXIS 54
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 14, 1958
Docket10956
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 105 S.E.2d 181 (Thurston v. Keathley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thurston v. Keathley, 105 S.E.2d 181, 143 W. Va. 795, 1958 W. Va. LEXIS 54 (W. Va. 1958).

Opinion

Ducker, Judge:

Alfonso Thurston, plaintiff below, obtained a jury verdict for $258.77 and recovered a judgment thereon in the Circuit Court of Logan County against Joe Keath-ley, defendant below and plaintiff in error here, in an action of trespass on the case for damages to plaintiff’s *796 automobile sustained in a collision between the two automobiles of the respective parties on State Route No. 10, in the community of Low Ash in Triadelphia District of Logan County, to which judgment the defendant as plaintiff in error prosecutes this writ of error.

For convenience, the parties will be referred to herein by their original designation below as plaintiff and defendant respectively.

The facts as shown by the evidence are that the plaintiff was driving his automobile on the road and in the community hereinbefore described, between noon and one o’clock in the afternoon of January 5, 1957, and the defendant was likewise driving his automobile, at said time and place, about fifty feet behind the plaintiff’s car; and that when plaintiff turned his car-to pass over a bridge across Buffalo Creek, plaintiff’s car was struck on the right hand side by defendant’s car. Plaintiff’s witnesses testified that plaintiff gave approximately a fifty foot warning by signal lights on his car of his intention to turn to go over the bridge, and that the front part of plaintiff’s car was partly on the bridge at the time of the collision, but defendant’s witnesses testified that plaintiff gave no warning of his intention to go on the bridge, that plaintiff’s car crossed over to the left hand side of the road with the left side wheels on the left side berm of the road and plaintiff then turned Ms car to the right to enter the approach to- the bridge.

Upon the conclusion of the evidence of the plaintiff, defendant moved to strike the evidence for the plaintiff and to direct a verdict for the defendant, which motion the court overruled, and which ruling by the court the defendant now assigns as error. The defendant also makes three other assignments of error, namely, that the court erred in giving to the jury Plaintiff’s Instruction No. 2, and in refusing to give to the jury Defendant’s Instructions Numbers 5 and 6.

As to defendant’s assignment of error in overruling defendant’s motion to strike plaintiff’s evidence and *797 direct a verdict in defendant’s favor, defendant’s counsel, in their brief, made no assignment therein, hut regardless of such fact, we see no merit therein. The issue was one of fact, the determination of which was solely the province of the jury, and the jury in finding for the plaintiff must have necessarily found the facts to he as testified to by the plaintiff’s witnesses; This principle of law is so well established, we see no need to cite authority on this question, and Rule VI (2) of the Rules of this Court, which provides that, “No alleged error or point, not set forth in the brief, shall be raised afterwards, either by reply brief, or in oral or printed argument, * * *” eliminates any necessity for further consideration of this point.

Counsel for defendant do rely, however, on their assignments of error as to the three instructions specified.

Plaintiff’s Instruction No. 2 is in the following language:

“The court instructs the jury: That it was the duty of the defendant on the occasion involved here to anticipate that he might overtake vehicles at any point on the highway and he must, in order to avoid a charge of negligence, keep a proper lookout for them, and keep his machine under such control as will enable him to avoid a collision with another vehicle, and if the situation requires it, he must slow up and stop. A failure, if any, on his part to use this care was negligence, and if this negligence, if 'any, was the sole, proximate cause of the damage done to the plaintiff’s automobile then you will find damages in favor the plaintiff and against the defendant.”

Defendant objected to the giving of Plaintiff’s Instruction No. 2 in the following language:

“If the Court please, the defendant by counsel, objects to the giving of Plaintiff’s Instruction No. 2, on the grounds that the same is not applicable and proper law in this case according to the facts.”

*798 Defendant advances the argument, which is effective, that Plaintiff’s Instruction No. 2 is a binding instruction and that it fails to negative contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff. Nichols v. Mining Co., 113 W. Va. 631, 169 S. E. 451; Bragg v. Transfer Company, 125 W. Va. 722, 26 S. E. 2d 217. However, it is not necessary to rest our decision as to defendant’s assignment of error as to this instruction on such invalidity, because the objection made and exception taken by the defendant to this instruction is too general and not sufficiently specific to subject the instruction to judicial scrutiny.

Rule VI (e) of the Rules of Practice and Procedure for Trial Courts in West Virginia, 116 W. Va. lxiii, which rules were given effect by Chapter 37, Acts of the Legislature of West Virginia, 1935, Code 51-1-4, is in part as follows:

“All instructions to juries shall be reduced to writing and a copy presented to opposing counsel at the conclusion of the evidence. * * * Objections, if any, to each instruction shall be made when the same is offered; specific grounds of objection only will be considered. Exceptions to the refusal to grant or to granting the same or to modified instructions shall be made at the time, or the same shall be deemed to be waived.”

The provisions of this Rule are clearly applicable to the objection by counsel for defendant to this instruction, and we, therefore, hold that alleged error therein is not now a basis for a valid assignment of error, and, therefore, is not subject to review. Hale v. McGinley, 119 W. Va. 565, 195 S. E. 201; Saunders v. McCown, 120 W. Va. 294, 198 S. E. 520.

Defendant’s Instruction No. 5, which was not given, and to the refusal of which by the court defendant excepted and now assigns as error, is as follows:

“The court instructs the jury that it was the duty of the plaintiff to give a signal either by hand and arm or by signal device upon his automobile *799 of said plaintiff’s intentions to turn right or left, which signal should have been given continuously during not less than the last two hundred feet traveled by plaintiff’s vehicle before turning. And, the jury is further instructed that if they believe from a preponderance of the evidence in this case that the plaintiff failed to give such signal continuously for one hundred feet before turning his automobile and that such failure contributed to and was a part of the proximate cause of the accident between plaintiff’s automobile and defendant’s automobile, then you are instructed to find for the defendant.”

Plaintiff says that the defendant’s failure to specify reasons why the trial court should have given this as well as Instruction No.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
105 S.E.2d 181, 143 W. Va. 795, 1958 W. Va. LEXIS 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thurston-v-keathley-wva-1958.