Van Fleet v. Heyler

125 P.2d 586, 51 Cal. App. 2d 719, 1942 Cal. App. LEXIS 746
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 5, 1942
DocketCiv. 12771
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 125 P.2d 586 (Van Fleet v. Heyler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Van Fleet v. Heyler, 125 P.2d 586, 51 Cal. App. 2d 719, 1942 Cal. App. LEXIS 746 (Cal. Ct. App. 1942).

Opinion

SHAW, J. pro tem.

The plaintiffs were guests of defendant in his automobile, on a trip from Beverly Hills to a fishing location on the Owens River. While defendant was *723 driving the automobile, it ran off the pavement and turned over. As a result of this accident both plaintiffs received serious personal injuries, for which they sue in this action. The complaint is based on wilful misconduct of defendant. The answer denies such misconduct and alleges contributory negligence on the part of each plaintiff. After trial by a jury, a verdict for defendant was returned, upon which a judgment in defendant’s favor was entered. Both plaintiffs appeal from this judgment.

It is not contended by plaintiffs that the evidence does not support the verdict, their whole claim of error being directed at the instructions to the jury. On the other hand, defendant contends that the evidence does not show wilful misconduct on his part, and is thus insufficient to support a verdict against him, if one had been found, and that hence any error regarding instructions cannot be regarded as prejudicial and affords no grounds for reversal. If defendant’s premise be conceded, the conclusion which he draws is undoubtedly correct. (Young v. Vallejo etc. Co., (1927) 202 Cal. 638, 641 [262 Pac. 327].) Under section 403 of the Vehicle Code, either wilful misconduct or intoxication of a driver is necessary to render him liable for injuries to a guest, and intoxication is not alleged or shown here. We therefore examine the evidence to determine whether it would support a verdict in favor of plaintiffs on the issue of wilful misconduct, before considering their contentions; and in passing upon this question we must, of course, take the view of the evidence most favorable to plaintiffs, resolving all conflicts and all conflicting inferences in their favor, so far as is reasonably possible.

The plaintiff, William Clinton Van Fleet, is the 12-year-old son of the plaintiff, Dr. Harry Van Fleet, and the term “plaintiff” will be used hereinafter to designate Dr. Van Fleet only, except as otherwise indicated. The parties to the action left Beverly Hills at 4:15 p. m. on October 7, 1938, accompanied by Dr. Van Fleet’s wife and by the defendant’s wife and 13-year-old son. Their route led them through Palmdale, Mojave, Red Rock Canyon, Lone Pine and Independence to the scene of the accident, which occurred at or about 9 p. m., at a point 8 miles north of Independence. A short distance north of Palmdale defendant drove his car at ,a speed of 100 miles per hour for a short distance. The plaintiff and Mrs. Van Fleet remonstrated at this and defendant reduced his speed to between 70 and 80 miles per hour. Night *724 overtook them at Mojave. Beyond there the defendant drove so fast through some dips in the road as to make the plaintiff “concerned about it,” and at a very bad dip “we were all thrown off the seat.” Defendant then slowed down, and “the driving was conservative,” as plaintiff put it, to Lone Pine, a distance of 90 miles. They reached Lone Pine at 8 p. m. and stopped there for dinner. On leaving Lone Pine, plaintiff offered to drive for the rest of the trip, but the defendant insisted on driving. They reached Independence, 16 miles north of Lone Pine, without mishap. The road from Independence to the scene of the accident had a two-lane pavement 20 feet wide, with a wavy surface, rough in places, and soft shoulders, and along it were numerous signs bearing the words, “soft shoulders.” The defendant knew the shoulders were of dirt. After leaving Independence the defendant started to increase his speed, raising it to 80 miles per hour. As they rounded a curve at this speed, a chuck wagon without lights, going in the same direction, suddenly loomed up ahead. Plaintiff yelled, “Dave, cut it down; this is a curve,” and defendant put on his brakes, pulled his car abruptly to the left, but stayed on the pavement, and got safely past the chuck wagon. Defendant testified that at this time he felt “uncomfortable.” The accident occurred 3 or 4 minutes later. For a couple of miles after the . chuck wagon was passed, the speed was “reasonable,” according to plaintiff; then defendant increased his speed until it reached 82 miles per hour. Going at this rate he passed a “slight turn” which was 8-10ths of a mile south of the scene of the accident. He maintained a speed between 80 and 90 miles per hour until he reached the scene of the accident. He admitted after the accident that he had been going “85.” After passing the curve last mentioned he approached on a straightaway a place of habitation referred to as the “Circle Dot Pack Station.” At this time the moon was obscured by clouds, but the lights of the pack station were visible, some of them streaming out of the front door. The defendant saw the lights, and testified that they were bright enough to prevent him from seeing sooner than he did the pack train which occasioned the accident. As the automobile was about opposite the pack station, a train of pack mules crossing the road from west to east became visible, 100 to 150 feet ahead, the last one being about in the center of the pavement, leaving the left half of the pave *725 ment clear. The defendant applied his brakes, swerved his car to the left with a skid, passed the mules without hitting them, but got the wheels of his car off the pavement upon the shoulder; then the car shot across to the right, ran off the pavement on that side, hit a ditch in which a little stream crossed the road, and turned over.

From all these facts and circumstances we think the jury, under proper instructions, could reasonably have concluded that the defendant was guilty of wilful misconduct proximately causing the accident. They might easily have believed that defendant was “ ‘knowingly flirting with danger’ without necessity compelling him to take the chance”—a sort of conduct which has several times been held to be wilful misconduct. (Raw lins v. Lory, (1941) 44 Cal. App. (2d) 20, 24 [111 P. (2d) 973] ; Francesconi v. Belluomini, (1938) 28 Cal. App. (2d) 701, 705 [83 P. (2d) 298] ; Chandler v. Quinlan, (1938) 25 Cal. App. (2d) 646, 648 [78 P. (2d) 235] ; Berryman v. Quinlan, (1938) 29 Cal. App. (2d) 608, 610 [85 P. (2d) 202] ; Parsons v. Fuller, (1937) 8 Cal. (2d) 463, 468 [66 P. (2d) 430].)

Defendant contends, however, that the only circumstance to be considered in support of this conclusion is his speed, and that speed alone does not amount to wilful misconduct. Our views on this point are well expressed in an opinion by Judge Bishop of the Appellate Department of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, in People v. Nowell, (1941) 45 Cal. App. (2d) (Supp.) 811 [114 P. (2d) 81]. There the question for decision was whether the defendant was shown to be guilty of “reckless driving,” as defined in section 505 of the Vehicle Code. The court held such driving to be the same thing as the wilful misconduct mentioned in section 403 of the Vehicle Code, which we now have under consideration, “so far as they are concerned with the state of mind of the driver whose conduct is in question,” and extensively reviewed the authorities on wilful misconduct, reaching conclusions which are satisfactory to us.

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Bluebook (online)
125 P.2d 586, 51 Cal. App. 2d 719, 1942 Cal. App. LEXIS 746, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-fleet-v-heyler-calctapp-1942.