Clark v. Pamplin

ASHBURN, J.

Plaintiffs lone Clark and Reed W. Clark appeal from the judgment entered upon a verdict in favor of defendants in an action for damages for personal injuries to the wife and property damage to the husband. Immediately preceding the accident they were traveling north on Guadalupe Avenue in the city of Redondo Beach, and were nearing its intersection with Pearl Street, upon which defendant Pamplin was driving his employer’s one and one-half ton Ford truck in a westerly direction. The vehicles collided within the intersection.

Appellants complain of error in the court’s instructions to the jury. The controversy revolves around an instruction upon section 511, Vehicle Code, reading as follows: “You are instructed that Section 511 of the Vehicle Code of the State of California in effect at the time of the accident herein involved provided in part as follows:

“ ‘The speed of any vehicle upon a highway not in excess of the limits specified in this section or established as authorized in this code is lawful unless clearly proved to be in violation of the basic rule declared in Section 510 hereof.

“ ‘The speed of any vehicle upon a highway in excess of any of the limits specified in this section or established as authorized in this code is prima facie unlawful unless the defendant establishes by competent evidence that any said speed in excess of said limits did not constitute a violation of the basic rule declared in Section 510 hereof at the time, place and under the conditions then existing.

“ ‘The prima facie limits referred to above are as follows and the same shall be applicable unless changed as authorized in this code and, if so changed, then only when signs have been

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erected giving notice thereof, in which event the speed designated on the sign shall be the prima facie limit:

"'(a) Fifteen miles per hour:

“ ‘(4) When traversing any intersection of highways if during the last 100 feet of his approach to such intersection the driver does not have a clear and unobstructed view of such intersection and of any traffic upon all of the highways, entering such intersection for a distance of 100 feet along all such highways, except on a through highway or at a traffic-controlled intersection.