Volentine v. Wyatt

261 S.W. 308, 164 Ark. 172, 1924 Ark. LEXIS 370
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 5, 1924
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 261 S.W. 308 (Volentine v. Wyatt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Volentine v. Wyatt, 261 S.W. 308, 164 Ark. 172, 1924 Ark. LEXIS 370 (Ark. 1924).

Opinion

Wood, J.

Allie Wyatt, the appellee, a minor, by her next friend, J. L. Wyatt, instituted this action against the appellant to recover damages for a personal injury. It is .alleged in the complaint that, while J. L. Wyatt, with his daughter, Allie, who was ten years of age, was traveling in an automobile on the public highway, in the direction of Newport, the said automobile was struck by an automobile belonging to appellant; that appellant’s car, at the time it struck the ear in which the appellee was riding, was operated and' controlled by Myatt Yolentine, the minor son of appellant; that, at the time of the injury, appellant’s son was returning from Tuekerman, to which place he had gone, under the direction of appellant, to take the car for repairs; that appellant’s son, while acting as the agent and servant of appellant, negligently ran the car in which he was riding against the car in which the appellee was riding, with such great force as to hurl the car in which appellee was riding from the highway and to overturn the same, injuring the appellee severely. Appellee described her injuries, and alleged that she was damaged, as the result of the negligence of appellant’s agent and servant, in the manner indicated, in the sum of $5,000, for which she prayed judgment.

The appellant answered, and denied specifically the allegations of the complaint, and set up that, if the car in which the appellee was riding was struck by the car driven by the soil of appellant and overturned, appellee’s car was struck through the neglig’ence and recklessness of the driver of the car in which appellee was riding, and through no negligence of appellant’s son.

It could serve no useful purpose to set out and discuss the testimony bearing upon the issues of the alleged negligence of the driver of appellant’s car and the alleged contributory negligence of the driver of the car in which appellee was riding at the time of her injury, and the nature of the injuries sustained by the appellee. It suffices to say that these were all issues for the jury, under the evidence.

Inasmuch as the appellant’s car was being driven by appellant’s minor son at the time of the alleged injury to the appellee, the latter predicates her right to recover on the alleged fact that, at the time of the injury, appellant’s son was acting as his father’s servant and agent. To sustain this allegation, appellee relies upon substantially the following facts:

The appellant testified that his children, during the year the injury occurred, went to school at Tuckerman. A part of the time he took them there himself in his car, and would leave them and bring the car home. Part of the time the children had the car, and would take it and leave it over there. . His son, Myatt, drove it to and fro. He would just take, it when they went to school, and would use it. On Friday evenings he would bring his two little- sisters home from school..- Appellant lived at Estisco. “When they would go from Estisco back to Tuckerman, sometimes Myatt would take them in the car. He did this with appellant’s direction and for appellant’s benefit. Myatt used the car a few other times for appellant’s benefit, whenever appellant had some errand for him to do. He sometimes brought people to the farm for appellant. It was his custom to come home on Friday evenings with the girls, and during that time he would have full control of the operation of the car. Myatt had been driving the car about three years. He used it when he asked permission, or when appellant directed him or told him to use it. On the day the accident happened he had given Myatt directions in regard to the car. Appellant had made arrangements with one Homer Skinner about fixing the brakes on the car, and told Mjyatt to take the car to Skinner, and to stay and help him fix it, in' order to learn something about how to do it himself. He told Myatt that, when they were through, to have Skinner test the brakes and see if they were all right, and then to put the car up. Myatt had no authority to test the car himself, and he did not direct him to do so — did not direct him to drive the car down the road from Tuckerman towards Campbell that afternoon, and did not know that he was going to do so, or had done so, until after the accident happened. It was not done either by appellant’s authority or consent. Appellant told Myatt to take the care to the garage, and, when it was fixed, to take it back where appellant kept it, as Swan’s place in Tuckerman. If the appellant’s son had started the car to Estisco that day, he would have been going the way he was going at the time of the accident.

Myatt Volentine testified concerning his use of the car as follows: One morning about eight o ’clock his father sent him down to Homer Skinner to have the car fixed — overhauled. Homer and the witness ground the valves and put in new rings and new brake linings, and got the car done about two o’clock. Then witness and the mechanic drove the car down the rock road north of Tuckerman, and tried it out. It ran good — the brakes were good. Then they came back to Tuckerman. The mechanic turned it over to witness as finished, and witness went by the restaurant at Tuckerman, and there was a young man standing there by the name of Sam Campbell. Witness ashed Campbell if he wanted to go riding a little piece. Witness told Campbell that he was going-out to try the car. Witness stated that his father told him to take the car up there to the garage and fix it. Witness guessed that his father wanted him to try it out and then bring it home. When they were living at Estisco, and the children were going to school at Tucker-man, witness had occasion to go from Tuckerman to Estisco when his father told him to. He went in the car and drove it himself. Any time his mother wanted to come over to Tuckerman, she would write a letter and tell him to come, and he would go over and get her. In the meantime his father had the car part of the time, and witness had it part of the time, back of the house at Swan’s barn. Witness would go over there and get it — most of the time every Friday. Witness had driven the car ever since they had it, every time his father told him to. Witness was present when the work was done by Skinner, and helped supervise the work. Witness knew what was necessary to be done, and could make the ordinary repairs himself, if it was not out of witness’ line.

After defining the issues, the court, among- other instructions, gave the following: “No. 1-A. You are instructed that, under the evidence, the law makes the defendant, Yolentine, in this case liable for the negligence, if any, of his son Myatt, in operating his car at the time of the alleged injury.”

“No. 3. If you find from a preponderance of the evidence in this case that defendant’s son, whiie operating defendant’s car which caused the injury complained of, approached from the rear of the car in which plaintiff was riding, and undertook to pass said car, without giving- sufficient notice of his approach to the person operating plaintiff’s car that would enable him do appreciate the threatening danger from defendant’s car, and to turn aside from the course in which he was traveling before the collision occurred, then you would be authorized to find for the plaintiff.”

“No. 4.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
261 S.W. 308, 164 Ark. 172, 1924 Ark. LEXIS 370, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/volentine-v-wyatt-ark-1924.