Younkin v. Yetter

192 Iowa 279
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedMarch 15, 1921
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 192 Iowa 279 (Younkin v. Yetter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Younkin v. Yetter, 192 Iowa 279 (iowa 1921).

Opinion

Faville, J.

l. Highways: law of road: failure to pass beyond intersection. I. Burlington Street in Iowa City is a street running east and west, with a street car track located at about the center of said street. This street is intersected by Dodge Street, which runs north and south, and has no street car track. Both of said streets are paved with bitulithic paving. Both streets are lined with trees. Burlington Street is 36 feet wide between the curb lines, and Dodge Street is 30 feet [280]*280wide between the curb lines. The accident out of which this action arose, occurred on the night of May 10, 1919, at about midnight. The appellee lives about 2% miles southeast of Iowa City, and is a truck gardener. On the night in question, he had been to Iowa City, and was going home, accompanied by his wife. lie was driving one horse, hitched to a single buggy. He was driving east on Burlington Street, south of the center of the street, approaching the intersection with Dodge Street. At this time, the appellant Olive Yetter was driving an automobile westward, on the north side of Burlington Street, approaching Dodge Street. She was an experienced driver, and was going about 12 to 15 miles an hour. When the automobile reached the intersection of Burlington Street and Dodge Street, the car was turned to the south, for the purpose of passing southward on Dodge Street. At that time, the horse and buggy of the appellee were in the intersection of the two streets. A collision occurred between the two vehicles. The appellee claims that the horse and buggy were damaged by said collision, and that his wife suffered physical injuries as the result thereof. The claim of the wife was assigned to the appellee, and this action was brought for the damages claimed by appellee as the result of said injuries. The car in question was owned by the appellant Ida Belle Yetter, who is the mother of the appellant Olive Yetter, who was driving the car. A counterclaim was filed for damages resulting to appellant’s car as the result of the collision. At the close of appellee’s evidence, the appellants moved for a directed verdict, which motion was overruled. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the appellee for $550, and judgment was rendered thereon. The appellant Ida Belle Yetter admitted that, if plaintiff was entitled to any damages, the said Ida Belle Yetter was liable therefor. For convenience, we will refer to the said Olive Yetter as though she were the sole appellant.

The main contention of the appellant in this court is to the effect that the trial court should have sustained the appellant’s motion for a directed verdict, on the ground that the evidence fails to show that the appellant was guilty of negligence which was the proximate cause of the injury. It is the appellant’s contention that the appellee was guilty of negligence in the man[281]*281agement of his horse at the time of the collision; that the appellee, at or about the instant of the collision, dropped the lines; and that the horse driven by the appellee reared into the air, and came down upon the hood of the automobile; and that the condition of the automobile conclusively demonstrates that the accident happened in said manner. The appellee contends that he was driving on the south side of Burlington Street, and that he saw the lights of the car coming west on the opposite side of the street. It is his contention 'that he had passed the center of the intersection of the two streets to the eastward, and was about five feet from the southeast corner of the intersection, and that the car was almost opposite him to the north, when it suddenly turned south and ran into him; that, after the accident, the car was faced southwest, with the left hind wheel upon the curb. He says that, when he saw the ear turn, he tried to pull up the horse, and shouted "Whoa," just an instant before the collision; that the horse was knqcked down by the momentum of the car, and carried a few feet into Dodge Street; and that the horse was lying with his head to the south, back toward the west, and that his feet seemed to be under the automobile, so that he could not get up. The testimony of appellee’s wife was substantially to the same effect.

The appellant was driving the car, at the time of the accident, and three other young people were with her in the car, which was a two-seated car, with a left-hand drive. She testifies that, as she came "west on Burlington Street to Dodge Street, she turned south, in order to go down Dodge Street, and that she was at about the center of the intersection, and not east of it; that she had lights on the car; that she first saw the appellee’s horse and buggy when she turned south on Dodge Street; that, as soon as she saw the horse and buggy, she turned sharply to the left, and applied the brakes, and the left front wheel went over the curb at the southeast corner of the intersection; that the horse was not under the car; but that, when the car stopped, the horse was on top of the car, with his right front leg fastened near the headlight. Other occupants of the car testify to substantially the same effect, and say that the horse came down on top of the car with his front feet, and that one foot was caught between the fender and the headlight. The [282]*282evidence shows that one headlight was broken, the rear end of the right fender smashed in, and the hood dented on the right side, near the center.

Appellant strongly urges that the testimony of appellant’s witnesses and the physical condition of the car demonstrate to a certainty that the accident could not have occurred as claimed by the appellee. Appellant argues that the injury was caused by appellee, dropping the lines, and that he negligently permitted the horse to rear into the air and come down upon the hood of appellant’s car.

Even if it be true that the physical condition of the automobile demonstrates that, during the accident, the horse struck the hood of the automobile, or that the horse was caught on the car between the fender and the headlight, as claimed by the appellant, and that the horse was not under the car, as claimed by the appellee, these facts, if so found by the jury, would not necessarily “conclusively establish” that the appellant was free from negligence, as claimed by counsel, or that the appellee was guilty of negligence which caused the injury. Under the evidence, the jury may well have found that the appellant, in turning to the left from Burlington Street into Dodge Street, did not pass to the right of and beyond the center of Dodge Street before turning, as required by Section 1571-ml8, Paragraph 4, of the Supplement to the Code, 1913, then in force. The appellant testified that, when she turned south, she was in the center of the intersection of the two streets. The appellee testified that he was about five feet from the southeast corner of the intersection when the appellant’s car turned south.

If the jury believed the testimony of the appellee in this respect, and if the appellant, in" driving the car, had observed the statute, and had driven to the right of and beyond the center of Dodge Street before turning south, the street being 30 feet in width, the car would evidently have passed close to the rear of the buggy, instead of in front of the horse. The fact that the appellant’s car was turned to the left, and ran on the curb at the southeast corner of the intersection, might have been regarded by the jury as corroborative of the appellee’s claim that he was east of the center of Dodge Street at the time the appellant’s car turned south. The jury might well have [283]

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Bluebook (online)
192 Iowa 279, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/younkin-v-yetter-iowa-1921.