Zinn ex rel. Zinn v. Updegraff

213 P. 816, 113 Kan. 25, 1923 Kan. LEXIS 326
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedMarch 10, 1923
DocketNo. 23,885
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 213 P. 816 (Zinn ex rel. Zinn v. Updegraff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zinn ex rel. Zinn v. Updegraff, 213 P. 816, 113 Kan. 25, 1923 Kan. LEXIS 326 (kan 1923).

Opinion

[26]*26The opinion of the court was delivered by

Harvey, J.:

There is but little controversy concerning the material facts in the case. What is known as the West Sixth street road is an improved highway extending from the city of Topeka, west to Gage park, about two miles distant. It is graded and paved through the center with an asphalt pavement twenty feet wide. On each side of the strip of pavement there is a nine-foot strip practically on a level with the pavement, having gravel near the pavement and grass and weeds growing at the outer part of the strip and a ditch at the outer edge for drainage purposes. At the place where the collision occurred the strip of gravel on the north side of the pavement was about three feet wide from the pavement to the grass and the distance from the edge of the grass on the north of the pavement to the edge of the strip of grass on the south of the pavement was about twenty-seven feet. It was forty-one feet from the center of the ditch on one side of the road to the center of the ditch on the other, and the ditch along there for some little distance on the north side of the road varied from a foot to two feet deep.

About eleven o’clock on a Sunday morning in May, plaintiff and Howard Parr, each having a motorcycle, went to the home of Paul Parr and took him and his wife for a ride. Mrs. Parr got on the motorcycle with Howard Parr, and Paul Parr got on the motorcycle with plaintiff, and they started west on the Sixth street road toward Gage park. The plaintiff, with Paul Parr riding on the frame of the motorcycle in front of him, was behind the other motorcycle á block and a half or two blocks. Plaintiff was riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which had no extra seat for one to ride in front of the driver. As the two couples on the motorcycles went west on Sixth street they met defendant, who was driving a sedan automobile and who was coming east. The defendant was on the north side of the road, which would be his left-hand side, and was north far enough to be off the asphalt pavement, designed-and ordinarily used for travel, the north two wheels of his automobile being on the grass near the ditch and the south two wheels being on the gravel north of the pavement. The first motorcycle passed the de[27]*27fendant going to the south of him and on the asphalt pavement. The second motorcycle, driven by plaintiff with Paul Parr sitting in front of him, as they approached the defendant, was driving on the north side of the road, either on the north portion of the asphalt pavement or on the gravel on the north side of the road. As plaintiff and defendant approached each other, the plaintiff turned to his left, or to the south, to attempt to go around defendant, and in some manner the right side of his motorcycle near the front collided with the right side of the automobile at the back fender, or just where the back fender connects with the running board. The motorcycle had the foot rest on the right side broken and was thrown to the pavement and took a diagonal course across the street southwest, some part of the motorcycle dragging so as to mark or cut a distinct line in the asphalt. The plaintiff was seriously injured. Among other injuries his right leg was broken.

The witnesses testifying to the immediate situation of the cars and what took place at the time of the collision gave testimony in substance as follows:

The plaintiff, William Zinn, testified in substance: “I drove along on the north side of the street straight up the road west, driving about 22 to 25 miles an hour. Paul Parr was sitting on my motorcycle in front of me, sideways, both feet hanging on the south side. With'him sitting in such a position he did not obscure my view. I had a clear vision ahead of me and could see past his body in front of me on the south side. My head was up about even with his body. -As we got near the car I had to see around him to see the car. I did not see what part of the car struck my motorcycle. As I drove west I noticed the automobile coming over the hill on the north side of the road. It was near the ditch on the north side coming east. There wasn’t room to pass it on the north side. The north wheel of the automobile was in the grass and the south wheel in the gravel north of the asphalt pavement. I stayed on the right side on the gravel north of the pavement until I saw something had to be done and when about 50 or 60 feet away from the car I turned to the left and tried to get out of .his way by going to the south side of the road. I noticed just the instant as I turned he turned to the south or to his right, then it seemed as though he swerved his car to the north and the back end swung out and some part of the south side of the car struck the motorcycle. I was still on the north side of the center of the road. I don’t know [28]*28what part of the car hit us. I passed south of the automobile. I hit the south side of the automobile. The automobile was going ahead. The motorcycle was knocked over and I was knocked off of it. I do not remember what occurred after that. When I first saw the automobile it was coming down the hill from the west on the north side of the road about a block ahead of me. There was no other vehicle on the road and nothing to prevent me from turning to the south side. If I had turned south on the pavement and the car had come on straight down I would have missed him. The automobile was not on the traveled way. When about 50 or 60 feet in front of the automobile I was riding on the gravel. I turned to the south; I don’t know just how far.”

Paul Parr testified in substance: “I was riding on the motorcycle with the plaintiff, sitting sideways in front of the plaintiff, between the handlebars. In this position the plaintiff could see to the left and in front. In going out the West Sixth street road the other motorcycle was a block and a half or two blocks ahead. I saw defendant’s automobile coming east; defendant was on the north side of the road. I saw the other motorcycle pass the defendant upon the south side of the defendant’s automobile. When the front motorcycle passed the defendant I heard my brother honk his horn and looked and noticed him go past the car on the south side and motion back to the plaintiff. The plaintiff and myself were on the north side of the road going upgrade and kept getting closer to the automobile. We drew our motorcycle a little farther north' all the time and kept on so until we saw something would have to be done immediately, so we swerved to the left-hand side but we did not get over far enough and the defendant struck the right-hand side of our motorcycle and ditched us. The automobile did not change its course whatever so far as I noticed. We were still on the north side of the road when the automobile struck us. Wd tried to turn over far enough so as-not to hit him and failed to do it. It was a glancing blow; could not see what, part of the car struck. It was the right-hand side of the car, that would be the south side of the car. The motorcycle was struck on the right-hand side, knocking the motorcycle over, pinning my feet beneath the machine and we slid several yards up the road, the machine being still in gear. There was a mark on the road, slanting across the road from the north side, from the northeast to southwest. The other motorcycle was about two blocks ahead of us. There was [29]

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Bluebook (online)
213 P. 816, 113 Kan. 25, 1923 Kan. LEXIS 326, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zinn-ex-rel-zinn-v-updegraff-kan-1923.