Ohlson v. Frazier

KNIGHT, J.

The defendant Jack Frazier, accompanied by the plaintiffs Benedict Ohlson, James B. Mayers and Mrs. Belle Mayers, while driving over the Bolinas Road toward Stinson Beach in Marin County in a sedan automobile owned and driven by Frazier, overtook and attempted to pass a school bus on the approach to a hairpin turn in the road; and about the center of the turn the two vehicles came in contact with each other, following which the sedan ran wild for a short distance and then plunged over the bank, injuring Ohlson and Mrs. Mayers. Claiming that the accident was proximately caused by the concurrent negligence of the drivers of the vehicles, Ohlson and Mrs. Mayers brought separate actions for damages against said drivers, and joined as parties defendant the school district which operated the bus, and the members of the school board. Frazier was charged with gross negligence, and Mott, the driver of the bus, with ordinary negligence. The two actions were consolidated for trial, and a jury awarded Ohlson $750 damages, and Mrs. Mayers and her husband, who joined as party plaintiff, damages in the sum of $3,250. Judgments were entered accordingly. Subsequently Frazier moved for a new trial in each action, and his motions were granted, the ground specified in the orders being insufficiency of. the evidence. From such orders plaintiffs have appealed, urging as ground for reversal that the evidence establishes as a matter of law that Frazier was guilty of gross negligence. The remaining defendants also made a motion in each case for a new trial, which was denied; and

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they have appealed from the judgments, urging as main ground for reversal that the evidence not only fails to show any negligent act on the part of the bus driver, but on the contrary establishes as a matter of law that the sole proximate cause of the accident was gross negligence on the part of Frazier in attempting to pass the bus under the conditions there present. The four appeals are presented in one record. In our opinion the state of the evidence is such as to preclude interference on appeal with either the rulings of the trial court or the judgments.

The accident happened about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. All parties were thoroughly familiar with the road. Frazier and the other occupants of his automobile lived at Stinson Beach and traveled over the road frequently; and Mott had been driving the school bus over it for upwards of four years. It was a mountainous, dirt road with many grades and sharp curves. The hairpin turn was at the top of a grade and curved around the end of a ravine. At the approach to the turn, going toward Stinson Beach, the road followed a straightaway course for about 115 feet along one side of the ravine, then curved to the left around the end of the ravine and followed along the other side in the opposite direction. The distance across the ravine at the ends of the hairpin turn was 73 feet, and the radius of the are was 27 feet. The distance around the curve was about 100 feet. The roadbed of the straightaways leading up to the curve on either side was 19 feet wide, but the curve had been recently reconstructed and widened so that the roadway at the center of the curve was 70 feet wide, the traveled portion of the newly constructed road being about a foot higher in elevation than the traveled portion of the old road. The bus was 27 feet long, 7 feet 3 inches wide, inclosed almost entirely with glass, with a seating capacity of 28 passengers; and at the time of the accident it was carrying 20 high school students. The sedan was about 6 feet wide.