Webster v. Krembs

282 N.W. 564, 230 Wis. 252, 1939 Wisc. LEXIS 65
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 7, 1939
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 282 N.W. 564 (Webster v. Krembs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Webster v. Krembs, 282 N.W. 564, 230 Wis. 252, 1939 Wisc. LEXIS 65 (Wis. 1939).

Opinion

The following opinion was filed December 6, 1938 :

Fritz, J.

The defendants, Agnes Cooper and her automobile liability insurance carrier, appeal from a judgment against them for the recovery by the plaintiffs, Zilphia A. Webster, a minor, and her father James C. Webster, of damages sustained by them as the result of injury to Zilphia A. Webster by the negligence of the defendant Agnes Cooper in operating an automobile which collided with a car driven by Gerhardt Krembs, in which Zilphia A. Webster was a guest. The plaintiffs’ complaint against Krembs and his insurer and also a cross complaint filed against them by Cooper and her insurer for contribution were dismissed by the judgment.

Before considering matters involving the merits, we may dispose of a question of practice raised by the appellants’ contention that because the motions after verdict were not decided within sixty days after the verdict was rendered, and that period was not duly extended by an order, the court was without jurisdiction after the expiration of that period, in view of sec. 270.49 (1), Stats., to substitute its finding for [255]*255an answer in the special verdict, or to do any more than enter judgment on the verdict as returned by the jury. The contention is based on language in the opinions in Lingelbach v. Carriveau, 211 Wis. 653, 248 N. W. 117, 248 N. W. 922, and Beck v. Wallmow, 226 Wis. 652, 657, 277 N. W. 705, construing and applying sec. 270.49, Stats. However, it must be noted that the orders under consideration in those cases granted new trials after the expiration of the sixty-day period, and also that by the terms therein the scope and effect of sec. 270.49, Stats., is limited to motions “to set aside a verdict and grant a new trial.” By reason of that limitation the restriction that “such motion must be made and heard within sixty days after the verdict is rendered” is applicable only to motions for orders granting a new trial in conjunction with setting aside a verdict. It is not applicable to motions after verdict for other purposes, or to orders granted otherwise than for a new trial.

The collision in question occurred at or near the west line of the right-angle intersection of Highway No. 10, running east and west, and a graveled town road running north and south. The latter was about twenty feet wide. Highway No. 10 had a twenty-feet-wide concrete roadway, with four-feet-wide level shoulders on each side extending to guardrails paralleling the roadway. The defendant Cooper approached and entered the intersection from the south and turned westward on Highway No. 10. Krembs approached from the cast and continued westward beyond the intersection.

The jury found (1) that Cooper was not negligent by failure to stop before entering Highway No. 10; (2) but that there was causal negligence on her part by (a) not keeping a proper lookout, (b) not yielding the right of way, and (c) not making a turn as near as practicable to the left of the center of the intersection; and (3) that Krembs (a) was not [256]*256negligent by not keeping a proper lookout, but (b) there was causal negligence on his part by not keeping the car under proper control in approaching the intersection. On motions after verdict the court changed the finding that Krembs was negligent in respect to control to a finding that he was not negligent; and entered judgment for the recovery of the plaintiffs’ damages from only Cooper and her insurer.

The latter contend that the court erred in substituting its finding that Krembs was not negligent for the jury’s finding that he was negligent in not keeping his car under proper control. In passing upon that contention, it must be noted that the fact that the court considered the jury’s finding against the preponderance of the evidence would not warrant discarding that finding. If there was any credible evidence which reasonably admitted of inferences sufficient to sustain the jury’s finding then what were the proper inferences to be drawn was for the jury, and its findings could not be discarded by the court, although a new trial could have been granted on that ground in the exercise of the court’s discretion in the interests of justice. Trautmann v. Charles Schefft & Sons Co. 201 Wis. 113, 228 N. W. 741.

It is undisputed that Krembs in coming toward the intersection from the east drove at a speed of forty-five to' fifty miles per hour, and that while he was approaching the place of the collision and until after it happened, there was no other traffic on the highway in that vicinity which prevented the use of all parts thereof by either of the cars. There was testimony that the Cooper car had stopped before entering Highway No. 10, and that when it entered upon the concrete Krembs was more than two' hundred feet east of the intersection; and he admitted that when that car started onto the concrete he was about two hundred feet east of the intersection and that he was about at the east line of the intersection when he first applied his brakes. There was also testimony to the following effect: That the Cooper car had completed [257]*257the turn westward in the intersection, and was headed and proceeding westward clear over on the north half of the concrete when the rear thereof was struck by the right front part of Krembs’ car; that a tire skid mark made by the latter car started at a point two feet north of the center line of the concrete and twenty-seven feet west of the west line of the intersection, and then continued in a diagonal southwesterly direction twenty-seven feet until it crossed the center line; that ten feet further west there was splintered fed glass on the concrete, and thirty feet beyond there were hubcap marks and fender marks on the north guardrail where the Cooper car had come to a stop; and that the Krembs’, car came to a stop facing southwest on the south half of the concrete. In view of that testimony the jury was warranted in believing that although Krembs saw the Cooper car enter upon the concrete roadway when he was two hundred feet east of the intersection, and that it turned westward in the intersection and proceeded in that direction on the north half of the concrete, he, in approaching and overtaking that car, did not steer his car sufficiently to the south to pass in safety, as he could have done, on that half of the concrete, and did not apply his brakes effectively in so far as is indicated by any skid mark, until his car was twenty-seven feet west of the intersection, where the mark commenced which continued southwesterly twenty-seven feet before crossing the center line. Consequently, it was within the province of the jury to find that there was causal negligence on his part in the control of his car in view of his failure to so steer it and apply the brakes as to avoid a collision, although to do so the south half of the concrete was available, and ample time elapsed while he was driving the distance of two hundred forty-seven feet between where he was when he first saw the Cooper car start onto the concrete and the place where the impact occurred. Therefore the court erred in substituting its finding to the contrary for the jury’s findings that there was causal [258]*258negligence in that respect.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
282 N.W. 564, 230 Wis. 252, 1939 Wisc. LEXIS 65, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/webster-v-krembs-wis-1939.