Wilson v. Virginia Electric & Power Co.

169 S.E. 64, 160 Va. 469, 1933 Va. LEXIS 228
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedMarch 30, 1933
StatusPublished

This text of 169 S.E. 64 (Wilson v. Virginia Electric & Power Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilson v. Virginia Electric & Power Co., 169 S.E. 64, 160 Va. 469, 1933 Va. LEXIS 228 (Va. 1933).

Opinion

Epes, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action brought by Mrs. Evelyn K. Wilson, whom we shall call the plaintiff, against Virginia Electric and Power Company, which we shall speak of as the defendant. The object of the action is to recover for personal injuries and property damage which the plaintiff suffered as the result of a collision between an automobile driven by her and a street car operated by the defendant, which collision she alleges was due to the negligence of defendant.

The defenses made by the pleadings were (1) that the defendant was guilty of no negligence which was the proximate cause of the accident, and (2) that the plaintiff was guilty of negligence which was either the sole proximate cause of the accident, or an effective contributing cause thereof.

At the conclusion of the introduction of the evidence for the plaintiff, the defendant moved to strike out all the plain[471]*471tiff’s evidence on the ground that it was not sufficient to support a verdict for the plaintiff. The court sustained the motion, and the jury returned a verdict for the defendant upon which the court entered judgment. The only assignment of error is that the court erred in striking out the evidence.

The collision occurred on May 5, 1931, a clear day, about noon, on Monticello avenue, in the city of Norfolk, between Nicholson street and Keen street. Monticello avenue is thirty-two feet wide between curb lines, and runs approximately north and south. Nicholson and Keen streets, which are twenty feet wide between curb lines, enter Monticello avenue from the east. These streets do not extend west of Monticello avenue; and no street enters Monticello avenue between them. About forty-three feet north of Nicholson street, Alexander street enters Monticello avenue from the west, and sixty feet south of Keen street Wilson avenue enters it from the west. These two streets do not extend east of Monticello avenue.

The distance between the center lines of Nicholson and Keen streets is approximately 190 feet. Between these two streets Monticello avenue makes a slight bend or curve, the point of which is sixty-one feet south of the intersection of the -center lines of Nicholson street and Monticello avenue. The plaintiff describes this bend as “a sharp bend”; but the plat introduced in evidence shows that it was only a slight bend—that is, the center line of the avenue runs straight from north of Nicholson street to the point of the bend, there it turns to the right through an angle of twelve and one-half degrees, and continues south in a straight line as far south as its course is shown by the evidence.

The street car line along this part of Monticello avenue is a single track line, and is so laid that except at the point of this curve, its western rail north of the point of the curve is fifteen feet three inches, and south of the point of the curve is fifteen feet five inches east of the western curb line of Monticello avenue. But just at the point of the curve [472]*472the western rail is between thirteen and fourteen feet from the western curb line.

The plaintiff was driving in her Hudson automobile south along Monticello avenue. The street car involved was going north. The collision occurred, according to the witness Roach, “just about the point of the curve.” The plaintiff’s testimony on this point is conflicting. Some of her statements seem to place the point of the collision a little north of the point of the curve, while others of them seem to place it a little south of the point of the curve. All her testimony on this point is hereafter given.

At the time of the accident two trucks were parked along the western side of Monticello avenue. The southernmost of these trucks was parked south of the point of collision, with “about ten or twelve inches” between it and the curb. The plaintiff says “I think” this truck was “half block away or one-third block away” from where she was when she saw the street car. But wherever it was, the evidence shows that this truck offered no obstruction to her seeing an approaching street car as far away as Keen street.

The northernmost of the two parked trucks is described by the plaintiff as a “very low truck.” The only witnesses who undertake to give the location of this truck are Roach and the plaintiff. Roach testifies that it was parked north of Nicholson street.

The plaintiff’s testimony as to the location of the northernmost of the two parked trucks is very conflicting. Her testimony on this point is hereafter given, but the most favorable construction for her that can be placed upon her testimony is that it was parked just at the point of the curve with its rear north of that point and its front south of that point. Her testimony is that her automobile was in “perfect condition,” and there is no evidence which tends to show that the street car was defective in any way.

Six witnesses, including the plaintiff, were introduced by her; but only the testimony of the plaintiff and of three other witnesses has any bearing on the question here at issue. [473]*473Two of these, Peay and Roach, were riding in a truck which the plaintiff was following. They were eye-witnesses to what took place immediately before and at the time of the collision. The other, Aydelett, an automobile salesman, was called to the scene of the accident by the plaintiff, and did not arrive until about thirty minutes after the collision, when her automobile had been pulled over to the curb.

Aydelett’s testimony was to the following effect: All the injury to the automobile was on the “left-hand front corner.” “It was not wrecked, but badly scratched,” and “its headlight was bent back and the fender bent.” The weather was warm and the wheels of plaintiff’s car made very plain impressions on the tarred surface of the street. You could see plainly the tracks of all four of her wheels as they came up to the point of the collision. The tracks of both the front and rear left wheels were about eighteen inches inside (east) of the western rail of the street car tracks. Up to the furthest point south to which they extended, they showed no signs of a skid. They were the tracks of rolling wheels. “When there is a four-wheel brake on soft tar, there is a difference between skid and the impression. You can always notice a heavy dark mark when the brakes are applied, and a skid will drag.” From the southernmost ends of the tracks above mentioned, there were skid marks running back, northerly, • which made an angle to the right with them. These marks were very plain and “showed that at the impact, she had been pushed back six or seven feet * * * from where she stopped going ahead.” “I could tell from where the brakes were put on and the car stopped its forward motion, and the drag in the car where it was pushed back six or seven feet.”

L. H. Peay was driving a truck south along Montieello avenue. This truck we shall refer to as the Peay truck. The plaintiff was following it at a distance variously estimated by her as being from ten to twenty-five feet, and by the witness, Roach, as from twenty to thirty-five feet. His testimony was to the following effect:

[474]*474“I didn’t see the collision. * * * I was coming down Monticello avenue and meeting a street car along about the same time. * * * I passed one car parked on the right, and there was another further up. * * * Seeing the street car coming, I kind of slowed up, and pulled in to give the street car room to pass.

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169 S.E. 64, 160 Va. 469, 1933 Va. LEXIS 228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-virginia-electric-power-co-va-1933.