Wade, Admx. v. Schneider

25 N.E.2d 290, 63 Ohio App. 24, 16 Ohio Op. 261, 1939 Ohio App. LEXIS 339
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 19, 1939
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 25 N.E.2d 290 (Wade, Admx. v. Schneider) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wade, Admx. v. Schneider, 25 N.E.2d 290, 63 Ohio App. 24, 16 Ohio Op. 261, 1939 Ohio App. LEXIS 339 (Ohio Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

Overmyer, J.

Appellee, as administratrix of the estate of her husband, Glenn Wade, deceased, brought an action in Common Pleas Court for damages against appellant because of pain and auguish suffered by decedent during seven days before his death, and funeral and hospital bills incurred, following a collision between a motorcycle on which decedent was riding with another man, and the automobile of appellant. The collision occurred at an intersection of two county roads in this county on August 6, 1937.

On trial the appellee recovered a verdict in the *25 sum of $2,500, signed by ten jurors, and judgment was later entered on tbe verdict. This appeal seeks a reversal of the judgment and the errors assigned, eleven in number, relate to the failure of the trial court to sustain motions duly made for a directed verdict in favor of appellant, and a number of errors of trial.' However, the only error urged in this court is the failure to direct a verdict for appellant.

The pertinent facts may be briefly stated as follows:

On the morning of the collision the decedent and one Steve Fortuna, both employed at the Wagner quarries near Sandusky, Ohio, proceeded from their homes at Castalia on a motorcycle to work, as had been their custom over this same route for about three years. The motorcycle belonged to Fortuna and he was driving it, decedent sitting on the regular seat behind Fortuna, and Fortuna sitting on an improvised board seat they had fastened immediately in front of the regular seat. They were proceeding east on what is known as Section Line road, approaching the intersection of that road with Bardshar road, or formerly route 99, at a time when it was daylight on a clear morning. At the same time, appellant was coming in his automobile north on the Bardshar road toward the intersection. Appellant was therefore on the right of Fortuna and Wade, and in that respect he had the right of way so long as he proceeded in a lawful manner. There was a cornfield at the corner between the approaching parties, also some brush and trees.

When appellant had entered the intersection, the motorcycle, coming from his left,, attempted to pass through the intersection by swerving to its left, one eyewitness says six feet off the center of the road, and going around in front of the appellant’s automobile. Fortuna admits turning the motorcycle to his left, and all the physical facts undisputedly show that the motorcycle had to turn to its left side of the road to get around the front of appellant’s automobile. In *26 making this movement, the motorcycle came in contact with the front bumper and the right headlight of appellant’s car, following which appellant’s car went substantially straight ahead, and stopped within 42 feet of the center of the intersection, and the motorcycle went forward in the direction in which it had been traveling, apparently out of control, for some 40 feet, plunged into a ditch, throwing both riders off, one of them 40 feet beyond where the motorcycle landed, injuring Wade so that he died'seven days later, and injuring Fortuna also.

Appellant says he looked to his left when some 1200 feet from the intersection but could see little because of the cornfield and did not see the motorcycle; that he approached the crossing at about 15 miles per hour and when about 20 or 25 feet from the center of the intersection he first saw the motorcycle about 100 to 125 feet away, and that it then swerved “the wrong way” and he saw it was going to try to cross in front-of him and that he then put on his brakes and by this time was beyond the center of the intersection and the motorcycle was attempting to and did pass around in front of him. He states that if the motorcycle had remained on its south side of the road there would have been ample room to pass to the rear of his automobile, as he had already cleared that part of the road.

There appears in the record the testimony of several eyewitnesses in addition to Fortuna and appellant. One of these is a man who was sitting by the side of the Bardshar road at the intersection waiting for another party to pick him up; another was in a house by the intersection looking out the window toward the intersection. No witness places the appellant’s automobile speed at any time in excess of 30 to 35 miles per hour, and he says it was 15 miles per hour when entering the intersection. The eyewitnesses place the speed of the motorcycle at about the same, from 30 to 40, Fortuna placing it at 30 to 35, and ap *27 pellant placing it, when he saw it coming after he was in the intersection, at 40 to 50. Fortuna testified that decedent said nothing about the speed they were traveling, or the intersection, or any approaching car as they approached the intersection. As to the probable cause of this collision, the following testimony of Fortuna is significant:

“Q. Now just as you approached the intersection of the Section Line road and Bardshar road, tell the court and jury, did you look to the lefty to your right and to your left, before entering the intersection? A. Yes, sir.

“Q. And did you see any cars coming from your right when you looked? A. No, sir.

“Q. Now, will you tell the court and jury, you proceeded through the intersection then? A. Yes, kept right on going. I didn’t see nothing.

“Q. The instant he was about to hit you, you were right in front of him [appellant] when you first saw him? A. Yes.

“Q. At that time, when you first saw him and he was about to hit you, could you tell in feet how far he was from you? A. No, it was too close, ! couldn’t tell you.

“Q. So that when you first saw him you were past the center line of the Bardshar road? A. Yes, sir.

“Q. And just where were you with reference to the Bardshar road when you first looked to the right? A. Gosh, I don’t know, twenty feet, twenty-five feet — I don’t know.

“Q. Do you mean from the center of the Bardshar road? A. From the center of the road.

“Q. And at the point that you looked, twenty or twenty-five feet back, how far down the Bardshar road could you see? A. Kind of angling, you could see down there a hundred feet, I judge.

‘ ‘ Q. And when you looked to the right, at that time, you were traveling how fast? A. Between 30 and 35 miles an hour.

“Q. And in the hundred feet you could see down *28 the Bardshar road, you. didn’t see the Schneider car? A. No, sir, I didn’t see nothing.”

See D. T. & I. Rd. Co. v. Rohrs, 114 Ohio St., 493, 151 N. E., 714.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
25 N.E.2d 290, 63 Ohio App. 24, 16 Ohio Op. 261, 1939 Ohio App. LEXIS 339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wade-admx-v-schneider-ohioctapp-1939.