Webb Transfer Lines, Inc. v. Taylor

439 S.W.2d 88
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976)
DecidedMarch 7, 1969
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 439 S.W.2d 88 (Webb Transfer Lines, Inc. v. Taylor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976) primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Webb Transfer Lines, Inc. v. Taylor, 439 S.W.2d 88 (Ky. 1969).

Opinions

STEINFELD, Judge.

On a clear afternoon of December 19, 1963, a collision occurred on U.S. Highway 25W south of Williamsburg, Kentucky. The black top portion of the road was 27.9 feet in width. Floyd Taylor, Jr., who was killed, was the driver of an automobile which collided with a truck owned by the Webb Transfer Lines, Inc., and operated by James H. Allen. Taylor’s administrator sued the Transfer Lines and Allen and recovered judgment for $75,000.00 against both. They have appealed. We affirm.

Appellants claim that the trial court erred in not directing a verdict in their favor. To consider this argument a statement of facts developed on the jury trial is necessary.

Near the point where the collision occurred U.S. Highway 25W made a long sweeping curve to the left from north to south. Located approximately 50 feet off of the [90]*90pavement and on the west side of the road was Don’s Drive-In Restaurant. Parking areas and driveways existed all around the restaurant building. To the north of Don’s property Old Highway 25 entered U.S. Highway 25W on the west side. Adkins Motel was across U.S. Highway 25W from the restaurant. Savoy Road entered U.S. Highway 25W from the east approximately 400 feet south of the restaurant.

A car facing southwardly was parked south of the restaurant. The occupants, all sitting in the front seat, were Lee Edward Brown on the left side, Henrietta Teague in the middle and Cobey Hoskins on the right side.

Taylor who was alone in his automobile entered the restaurant property somewhere north of the building and circled it. After passing the rear he then drove between the parked car and the south side of the building. Greetings were exchanged with the occupants of the parked car by waving and then he proceeded toward the highway. Testimony is conflicting as to whether his car stopped before reentering the highway. He headed back in a northerly direction. The Webb tractor-trailer which was equipped with dual wheels was hauling 22,000 pounds of tobacco in cloth bags and was traveling southwardly. The car and the truck hit head-on.

Shortly after .the collision the sheriff arrived and found Taylor pinned in the automobile. After assisting others in removing him and sending him to the hospital the sheriff made an investigation including measurements. He testified (Sellers v. Cayce Mill Supply Co., Ky., 349 S.W.2d 677 (1961) ) that there were approximately 40 feet of dual wheel skid marks which led to a point near the debris on the highway and that there were grooves in the highway approximately one or one and one-half inches deep near the end of the skid marks. The sheriff said that all of the skid marks, grooves and debris were in the northbound (Taylor’s) lane. He also said there was a double yellow line on either side of the center of the road and that the debris, and the cut marks in the black top “* * * were approximately 8 feet in the northbound lane from the double yellow line.” The point where the sheriff found the debris was approximately 202 feet from the south side of Don’s Restaurant and approximately 275 feet south of the intersection of Old Highway 25 and U.S. Highway 25W. The distance from the intersection of those two highways to the south side of Don’s Drive-In Restaurant was approximately 477 feet. The truck, with Taylor’s car at its right side, came to rest approximately 80 feet south of the skid marks. The automobile was then facing southwardly.

Robert L. Loudin testified by deposition that he and his wife were traveling north-wardly on their way to Williamsburg, Kentucky; that when they passed the Savoy Road he “ * * * saw a car stopped in front of Don’s Drive-In pull out onto Highway 25 headed north”, and at that time he did not see any other vehicle on the highway. He stated: “Well, he had just got out in the road, when I saw a truck approaching, and then he got on his side of the road and traveled about 100 feet when the truck came over in the southbound lane.” The deposition continued:

“Q. 34 The truck was in the southbound lane, when you first saw it?
A. Yes, but it crossed over into the northbound lane and hit the car.
Q. 35 How far had that car traveled when the truck came over there and the collision occurred?
A. I will say around 100 feet or 125 feet..
Q. 36 Where was that car at the time the truck collided with him?
A. In the northbound lane on Highway 25.
[91]*91Q. 37 How far from the center line in the northbound lane?
A. I couldn’t say that, but he was in the northbound lane.
Q. 38 Did you see any other vehicle going north, or south, there at that time?
A. No.”

He then identified the two vehicles as those driven by Taylor and Allen. A statement taken by an investigator and signed by Loudin was introduced in evidence. It contradicted his testimony and in some respects discredited part of what he said.

Other witnesses for the appellee testified that Taylor was 17 years of age, a good student, in excellent health, that in his spare time he sometimes worked for $3.00 a day and that he performed the usual and customary chores around his residence. They also said that he attended church, had never been in any trouble and that he died as a result of the collision. Appellee rested, whereupon counsel for Webb and Allen moved for a directed verdict which motion was overruled.

James H. Allen testified that he had had years of experience driving the type of vehicle which he was operating on the day of the accident. He said that as he approached the scene where the accident happened he had a view of .4 of a mile; that there was a sweeping curve downgrade until the intersection of Old U.S. Highway 25 and U.S. Highway 25W is reached and then the road had a gradual upgrade in the direction in which he was traveling. He said that he had been going about 35 to 40 miles an hour and that as he was near the intersection of Old U.S. Highway 25 he “ * * * mashed down a little on my accelerator to start up this upgrade”, and that as he approached Don’s Drive-In he was traveling at “Not over forty-five, if that much.” He said he was driving on the right hand side of the highway when he saw a green Plymouth car at the south corner of the drive-in. He said: “He was coming out at a slow speed. It looked like he was waiting for me to come by. When I got within seventy-five or one hundred feet, all at once he came out of there just a flying, and the first glimpse I got of him he was looking back over his right shoulder. * * * Well, the next instant the front of his car went down as if he put on his brakes. When he done that, I cut to the left — the only way I had to miss him, * * *. His car was completely blocking the southbound lane.” He said that somewhere about the center of the truck hit the left front wheel of the car, and that the left front wheel of the car was on the center line of the road; that the car was caught with the truck which carried it right along by the right hand side of the truck until both vehicles went to the truck’s left-hand side of the road and came to a stop. Allen claimed that after the impact he had no control over the steering and no control over the braking power of the truck. The vehicles came to rest straddling the islands in the Adkins Motel driveway about eight feet east of the eastern edge of the paving.

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Bluebook (online)
439 S.W.2d 88, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/webb-transfer-lines-inc-v-taylor-kyctapphigh-1969.