Underwood ex rel. Underwood v. Usher

135 S.E.2d 201, 261 N.C. 491, 1964 N.C. LEXIS 507
CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina
DecidedMarch 25, 1964
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 135 S.E.2d 201 (Underwood ex rel. Underwood v. Usher) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Underwood ex rel. Underwood v. Usher, 135 S.E.2d 201, 261 N.C. 491, 1964 N.C. LEXIS 507 (N.C. 1964).

Opinion

Parker, J.

Both parties introduced evidence. Defendant assigns as error the court’s denial of his motion for judgment of involuntary non-suit made at the close of all the evidence.

Defendant in his brief concedes actionable negligence on his part, but contends that his motion for judgment of involuntary nonsuit should have been allowed by the trial court, for the reason that plaintiff’s evidence clearly shows that by his own negligence he proximately contributed to his injuries.

Plaintiff’s evidence shows: About 7 p.m. on 23 October 1959 plaintiff, 18 years old, Sherill Jackson, and Mack Underwood pushed a borrowed 1949 Ford automobile, which they were trying to start, from an alley into Highway 102, the main highway between Goldsboro and Fayetteville, and then proceeded to push the automobile in a westerly direction along their right side of the highway. When they entered the highway and started in a westerly direction, there was a traffic circle [492]*492about 200 or 250 feet behind them. The two taillights and the headlights of the pushed automobile were turned on and shining. According to a stipulation of the parties, the automobile was being pushed on the highway in a residential district of the town of Newton Grove. Sherill Jackson, a witness for plaintiff, testified: “The road where we were pushing the car was about as light as this room because of street lights. There were several street lights burning in the vicinity. It was raining, but visibility was good. I could see down the road about 800 feet, and I could see behind us all the way back to the circle. There were no obstructions between our car and the circle. The road was straight and level back to the circle.”

Plaintiff was on the right rear side of the automobile pushing against the metal panel to the right of the rear glass so as not to cover the taillight; Sherill Jackson was pushing at the center of the automobile; and Mack Underwood had the right front door open and was pushing and steering the automobile. Plaintiff and his two companions pushed the automobile along the highway 250 or 300 feet during a period of from three to five minutes, and deciding it was out of gas had started to push it off the highway, when an automobile driven by defendant in a westerly direction along the highway ran into its rear knocking it forward. Then defendant’s automobile hit plaintiff, who was on the shoulder of the highway pushing the automobile, and then hit their automobile a second time. The collision occurred about 500 feet west of the traffic circle. Plaintiff saw the headlights of defendant’s approaching automobile before he was struck.

While they were pushing the automobile along the highway, several automobiles traveling in a westerly direction pulled around them and passed.

Defendant, according to his testimony, drove around the traffic circle, and was traveling west on the highway when the collision occurred. His testimony is to the effect that it was raining and there was fog, that the automobile being pushed had no lights on, that he had his lights on low beam, that when he saw the pushed automobile he applied his brakes and ran into its rear.

The facts in Burton v. Oldfield, 195 Va. 544, 79 S.E. 2d 660, are quite similar to the facts in the instant case. This suit arose out of an automobile collision which occurred on 10 December 1950 between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. on a highway running approximately east and west between Norfolk and Virginia Beach. At the point of the collision the highway is straight for more than a mile and the main road is divided into two traffic lanes, each 24 feet wide, separated by a grass plot. Beyond the shoulder on either side of the main highway is a paved parallel service [493]*493road. While a disabled 1940 Ford sedan was being pushed westwardly along the main highway by Carl Heglmeier and three other young men, it was run into in the rear by a 1950 Buick sedan driven in the same direction by Lloyd H. Burton. Heglmeier was killed almost instantly in the collision and Charles B. Oldfield, his administrator, brought this action against Burton alleging that the collision was due to the latter’s negligence. The evidence on behalf of the plaintiff shows that just before the collision the Ford sedan, occupied by five sailors on leave from the U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt and proceeding westwardly along the highway, stalled because of an overheating engine. Four of the occupants, including Heglmeier, got out and began pushing the car while Michael Rectenwald, the owner, sat behind the wheel and steered with the purpose of either getting the motor started or reaching the nearest service station. They had been pushing the car some fifteen minutes and had gone about one-fourth of a mile when the collision occurred. There is evidence that a misty rain was falling and that the visibility was poor. The further evidence on behalf of the plaintiff is that the car was being pushed along the right-hand edge of the pavement of the westbound lane of the main highway and that its headlights and left taillight were burning. The right taillight had been broken. Heglmeier was pushing on the left side of the car while the three other young men were at the rear of the vehicle, but not covering or concealing the rear light. The westbound Buick car, proceeding at a rapid speed, after skidding approximately 60 feet, ran into the left rear of the Ford car, crossed the medial grass plot, and traveled 534 feet before coming to a stop in the eastbound lane on the opposite side of the road. The impact carried the Ford car 15 feet along the road and Heglmeier’s body was thrown 66 feet beyond this. Just before the impact Karl W. Reeb, who was pushing on the right rear of the Ford car, saw the lights of the approaching Buick car and with a cry of warning to his companions jumped to the right and escaped injury. He estimated the speed of the oncoming car at 90 miles per hour. The Court held it was for the jury to say whether the plaintiff’s decedent was guilty of contributory negligence and upheld the verdict and judgment for the plaintiff. On a former appeal of this case, 194 Va. 43, 72 S.E. 2d 357, a new trial was awarded by reason of error in the charge.

In Wright v. Ponitz, 44 Cal. App. 2d 215, 112 P. 2d 25, the Court held the evidence that plaintiff and another were pushing their automobile after its motor had failed on a six-lane highway at about 7 p.m. on 14 February 1936 in a slight drizzle, that they were attempting to push it about 300 feet down a grade to a service station, that they were traveling at a speed of about 7 or 8 miles an hour, that plaintiff was [494]*494pushing against a spare tire from the middle and rear of the automobile, and that plaintiff’s position did not obscure the view of the taillight, presented a question for the jury as to whether plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence, when struck by an automobile approaching from the rear. A judgment for injuries sustained by plaintiff in the collision was upheld.

In Holman v. Uglow, 137 Ore. 358, 3 P. 2d 120, the facts were these: The automobile in which deceased was riding as a guest ran out of gas. Deceased and his companions decided to push the automobile to a place about 450 feet ahead where it could be parked upon a graveled area on the side of the roadway out of reach of traffic.

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Related

Gregory v. Adkins
172 S.E.2d 289 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1970)

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Bluebook (online)
135 S.E.2d 201, 261 N.C. 491, 1964 N.C. LEXIS 507, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/underwood-ex-rel-underwood-v-usher-nc-1964.