Cohan v. Brodie

WOOD (W. J.), J.

The litigation in which the present appeal is being prosecuted resulted from an automobile accident which occurred in the evening of August 15, 1941, on Lakewood Boulevard near Long Beach. At that time R E. Lawrence was driving a Dodge automobile south on Lakewood Boulevard and Jean Brodie was driving a De Soto ear a short distance behind the Dodge and in the same direction. Mrs. Byrtle Burrow was driving a Pontiac car on Lakewood Boulevard in a northerly direction and a short distance behind her and travelling in the same direction lone Elizabeth Cohan was driving a Packard car owned by her husband, Albert Cohan. At the point of the accident Lakewood Boulevard is a paved highway 30 feet in width, divided into three 10-foot lanes. On the east side of the boulevard there is a 10-foot shoulder and on the west side of the boulevard there is a 20-foot shoulder. The Brodie ear collided with the Cohan car but the witnesses are not in agreement as to the point on the highway at which the collision occurred. Mr. and Mrs. Cohan filed an action for damages, naming Mrs. Brodie and Mr. Lawrence as defendants. Mrs. Brodie filed a separate action in the Long Beach Department of the superior court, naming Mr. and Mrs. Cohan and Mr. Lawrence as defendants. The two actions were consolidated for trial, resulting in verdicts in favor of the defendants in both cases. Mr. and Mrs. Cohan are prosecuting the present appeal from the judgment entered against them in the ease which they instituted as plaintiffs.

[309]

Appellants contend that the verdict is without substantial évidentiary support and that the evidence shows conclusively that the negligence of respondent Brodie was the sole proximate cause of their injuries. Among the witnesses upon whose testimony appellants rely is Mrs. Burrow, the driver of the car preceding their own car. Mrs. Burrow testified that the Brodie car suddenly turned into the middle lane, struck the left fender of her own car and went on and struck the Packard car which was behind her. At that time her own car was in the right hand lane. Mr. and Mrs. Cohan, who were returning from their honeymoon trip, testified that they were travelling at about 25 or 30 miles per hour in the right hand lane; that when the Brodie car was about 150 feet away, travelling at about 60 miles per hour, it “swung in toward the center lane” and struck the Cohan car broadside. But the occupants of the Cohan and Burrow cars were not the only witnesses to testify and a very different version of the circumstances of the accident is presented by the testimony of the occupants of the other two cars. Mrs. Brodie testified that it was raining and the highway was slippery; that she was driving south on the highway at a speed of approximately 25 miles per hour; that the ear ahead of her driven by Mr. Lawrence came to a sudden stop; that in order to avoid striking the Lawrence car she applied her brakes and turned into the center lane; that at that time she saw the Cohan car travelling toward her in the center lane at a speed of approximately 40 to 45 miles per hour; that the driver of the Cohan car was not looking at the road but was looking at, or kissing, her companion. Mr. Lawrence, although he denied that he stopped his car, testified that he observed the Cohan car about 200 feet in front of him, that it “pulled into the center lane” to pass the car ahead and that it was travelling at a speed of from 40 to 45 miles per hour.