Bergman v. Bierman

ASHBURN, J.

Defendant appeals from a judgment for personal injuries awarded plaintiff after a nonjury trial. Viewing the evidence most favorable to the judgment

(Estate of Bristol,

23 Cal.2d 221, 223 [143 P.2d 689]), the facts are as follows:

Eastern Avenue in the city of Los Angeles runs north and south and is intersected at a right angle by Rogers Street. Eastern is a through street and Rogers is posted with stop signs for east and west traffic. At the south side of Rogers, which is 50-60 feet wide, is a marked pedestrian crossing some 18 feet in width. On November 20, 1953, plaintiff, a woman of 38 years, posted a letter in a mailbox at the southeast corner of the intersection shortly after 7 p. ,m. Traffic was “kind of quiet” and she saw no automobiles. She stepped from the curb and started west across Eastern Avenue and was within the crosswalk. She has no recollection of the accident and the next thing she recalled after starting across the street was being in bed in the hospital. Defendant, the owner of a half-ton Dodge truck, was driving the same southerly on Eastern Avenue; there were four lanes for traffic, two in each direction and he was in the one next to the double dividing line; he saw that there were no cars parked on either side of the street and no ears stopped and waiting at Rogers on either side of Eastern; the lighting at the intersection was good and he had a full view of that area; the lights of the truck were burning; he went through the intersection and the crosswalk without pausing or reducing his speed of 20 miles per hour and did not see the plaintiff, who was wearing dark clothes, until after his truck had hit her; not until after he had gone completely

[695]

through the crosswalk and had stopped the truck and gotten out of it. Her body came to rest some 20-30 feet south of the crosswalk and just ahead of the stopped truck. She was badly injured.

Appellant, attacking the sufficiency of the evidence, argues that plaintiff was not, in the crosswalk when she was hit, that she was negligent and that defendant had no occasion to anticipate her presence. Her evidence was that she started to cross the street when within the crosswalk; as ordinary care would dictate that she continue within that pathway (or yield the right of way) it is a fair inference that she did stay in the crosswalk. (See