Vargas v. Tió

87 P.R. 248
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedFebruary 11, 1963
DocketNos. 393, 394
StatusPublished

This text of 87 P.R. 248 (Vargas v. Tió) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vargas v. Tió, 87 P.R. 248 (prsupreme 1963).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Blanco Lugo

delivered the opinion of the Court.

One killed and three injured, one of them seriously, was the tragic balance of an accident which occurred on March 7, 1959, about 8 p.m., on the road from Lajas to the ward of La Parguera when a station wagon operated by Flavio Iri-zarry collided against the rear of a truck-trailer owned by [250]*250defendant Juan Angel Tió which was parked on the shoulder of that public highway. The relatives of the deceased and the persons injured filed separate claims for damages against the truck owner and his insurance company, and after holding the corresponding trial, for which purposes the actions were consolidated, the trial court determined that there had been negligence both on the part of the operator of the wagon— which it attributed to plaintiff’s predecessor and to the other claimants—and on the part of the driver of the truck-trailer and in its judgment it reduced the compensation awarded in the corresponding proportion.

For the purposes of the petitions for review, the parties did not include the transcript of the evidence filed in the record on review—see Rules 54.1, 54.2 and 54.3 of the Rules of Civil Procedure of 1958, 32 L.P.R.A. (Supp. 1962, at 163-164)—for which reason we must presume that they accept without reservation the factual situation determined by the trial judge. In its pertinent part it reads as follows:

“1. On March 7, 1959, plaintiff Flavio Irizarry, who at the time was a bachelor 25 years of age, while operating his 1953 Chevrolet station wagon collided against the rear of a truck-trailer owned by defendant Juan Angel Tió which was parked on the Lajas-La Parguera road.
“2. The accident occurred about 8 p.m. and at that moment plaintiff was accompanied in the wagon by Hermenegildo Acosta, who was seated next to the driver in the front seat and was killed, and in the rear seat were Segundo Cruz, Nelson Irizarry, and Stanislao Rodríguez. The persons riding in that wagon had been together since 4 or 5 p.m. drinking beer in different cafetines, including specifically the driver of the vehicle, plaintiff Flavio Irizarry, who had had several beers with his friends.
“3. The truck-trailer rammed by Flavio Irizarry is shown in the photographs which constitute plaintiffs’ exhibits 2 and 3. As may be seen in those photographs, the body was made of steel with the rear part completely closed upward, and when the accident occurred the trailer was loaded with 22 tons of sugar cane. The parked truck was looking south, in the same direction in which plaintiff’s wagon was traveling, with the right wheels [251]*251away off the pavement and the left wheels on the pavement, so that the body occupied most of the right half of the pavement, the width of which at that place is about 19 or 20 feet.
“4. The trailer in question had been parked at that place at 5 p.m. by the driver, who was an employee of defendant Juan Angel Tió, and was at that moment acting as defendant’s employee transporting sugar cane owned by defendant, upon instructions of the mechanic of Juan Angel Tió, since on the way to Central Guánica the motor of the truck failed. The truck was parked on the right-hand side of the road looking south, so that the trailer occupied most of the right lane of the pavement despite the fact that only a few meters ahead there was a hoist and a loading place belonging to defendant where the truck could have been parked for repairs and kept away from the road.
“5. When the accident occurred the truck was standing at that place without any lights on, although a light on the outside of a small house which may be seen in the photograph presented by plaintiffs as their exhibit 10 shed some light on the rear of the trailer. The accident which gave rise to these claims was due to the fact that plaintiff Flavio Irizarry did not discover the presence of this truck at that place in time enough to apply the brakes, and that the vehicle occupied almost the entire right-hand side in the direction in which plaintiff Flavio Irizarry was driving his wagon that night, and also to the fact that Flavio Irizarry’s visibility of the truck on the road was impaired by the fact that as he drew near the truck he was momentarily dazzled by the bright lights of another vehicle which was coming in the opposite direction by the side of the trailer.
“6. Judging by the force of the impact, the inescapable conclusion is that at the time of the accident plaintiff Flavio Iri-zarry must have been driving the wagon at excessive speed, otherwise if it was traveling at moderate speed plaintiff must have been completely inattentive or with his eyes and senses quite dulled by the effects of the liquor. (We believe that it is most probable that these three circumstances must have been present, since there was no evidence that plaintiff Flavio Iri-zarry would have applied the brakes and stopped the vehicle before running into the truck.) As a result of the impact the entire hood of the wagon driven by plaintiff Flavio Irizarry was embedded under the rear of the body of the truck with the en[252]*252tire front completely smashed, as may be seen in exhibit D, the force of the impact having bent inward the steel bar which is used in those trucks to carry the spare tire, as may be seen in the photograph which constitutes plaintiffs’ exhibits 3 and 4. The impact also pushed the truck loaded with 22 tons of sugar cane about one foot and a half forward.
“7. Plaintiff Flavio Irizarry testified that when the accident occurred he was driving about 30 miles an hour and that his wagon had good lights, and that although he slackened the speed when he saw the oncoming car with bright lights he never saw the truck before the impact, the implication being that he did not try to stop to avoid the collision. However, another witness who was sitting in the rear seat of the wagon and whose testimony deserved credit testified that he noticed the presence of the truck on the road when they were about 50 meters away. In the inspection made by the undersigned judge more or less at the time of the accident we were able to verify, driving our own car at a speed of about 30 miles an hour (our car is a five-year old Ford the lights of which are not very strong), that as we approached the truck at the place of the accident, while a vehicle with bright lights is traveling in the opposite direction, the rear of the truck which has no lights on, becomes visible from a distance of 25 meters, and the judge was able to stop his car to avoid colliding with the truck.”

Considering the findings of fact copied, the trial court made the following conclusions of law:

“1. In view of the foregoing facts, we are of the opinion that the accident in this case was due to the negligence of the driver of the truck owned by defendant Juan Angel Tió, who left it standing on this road without any lights, as well as to the negligence of plaintiff Flavio Irizarry himself in operating his wagon under the influence of liquor at excessive speed or without being on the alert for discernible objects which might appear on the road, without reducing the speed sufficiently upon approaching the oncoming vehicle with bright lights, so that he could have had time to stop upon noticing the presence of the truck on the road and avoid the accident.

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Bluebook (online)
87 P.R. 248, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vargas-v-tio-prsupreme-1963.