Douglass v. Crabtree

GRIFFIN, J.

These are two actions for personal injuries which were consolidated for trial by jury and which, under stipulation of the parties and order of the court, were submitted on appeal on one set of briefs. A verdict was rendered in each case in favor of the plaintiffs. From judgments entered thereon, defendant appeals. The amount of the judgment in the Leslie Douglass case is $1,200. The judgment in the Earl Douglass case is $12,000.

The accident occurred October 15, 1938, between 8:30 and 10 o’clock in the morning. Driving conditions were normal. Leslie Douglass was the driver of a 1929 two-door Oakland sedan automobile in which he and his brother, Earl Douglass, the other plaintiff, was riding.' The car belonged to Earl Douglass. They were on a duck hunting trip. Accompanying the two plaintiffs were A. S. Hawks and Leslie L. Douglass,

[570]

Jr. No appeals were taken from judgments entered in favor of the last two mentioned guests.

The accident occurred at the intersection of Elm Avenue and Central Avenue, at a point about four miles south of Fresno. Elm Avenue runs north and south, and has a paved center strip 16 feet wide. A white line divides the 16-foot center strip. The whole width of the right of way is approximately 60 feet. Elm Avenue is known as part of California State Highway No. 41. Central Avenue runs east and west and has an oiled surface center road about 13 feet wide with a seven-foot graded shoulder on each edge thereof. Immediately to the south of Central Avenue, within a distance of a few feet and running east and west and parallel to Central Avenue and crossing Elm Avenue is a large irrigation canal known as Central Canal. It is approximately 9 feet deep and 18 feet wide. A bridge on Elm Avenue crosses the large canal but at the time of the accident it was only slightly wider than the paved part of the highway. On the east side of Elm Avenue at the property line is a row of large elm trees spaced approximately 20 feet apart. There is a stop sign on the northeast corner of the intersection regulating traffic traveling westerly on Central Avenue. There is no stop sign at that intersection regulating traffic traveling on Elm Avenue. On the day of the accident the Douglass car was traveling in a southerly direction on Elm Avenue at about 20 or 25 miles per hour. The appellant Crabtree, accompanied by his wife, was driving a Chevrolet coupé westerly on Central Avenue in the immediate vicinity of Elm Avenue. As Douglass approached the intersection and when he was approximately 15 or 20 feet from the intersection, the appellant Crabtree drove into the intersection and stopped. Douglass immediately started to veer to his right off the pavement to avoid striking the defendant’s car, and being unable again to return to the highway at the bridge, the car which he was driving plunged into the ditch near the west end of the bridge approximately 60 feet from the spot where he started to veer, causing severe injuries to himself and his brother. There were skid marks in the intersection, extending parallel with Central Avenue and, according to the testimony of one witness, the appellant admitted they were the skid marks of his car. These marks extended across the painted center line of Elm Avenue a distance of 8 to 10 inches and were 4 paces long. There were marks of the tires