Christopher v. City of Los Angeles

HAAS, J., pro tem.

The plaintiff, a widow, brought suit for damages alleged by her to have been sustained by reason of the loss of her husband, who died following injuries received as the result of an accident which occurred while he

[119]

was standing, or walking, at the south end of a pedestrian zone at the northwest corner of Twelfth Street and South Broadway in Los Angeles, on the 26th day of July, 1933. No negligence is attached to the deceased. Two motor vehicles are involved in this accident: a truck belonging to the defendant city, used to pick up cans, which was traveling west on Twelfth Street, driven by Christopher C. Arnelian, an employee of said city, and a certain Plymouth sedan automobile in the possession of and owned by the defendant James Ferguson that was traveling north on South Broadway.

The trial court gave judgment in the sum of $6,500, in favor of plaintiff.

The evidence discloses that the truck, while moving westward, struck the right rear" end of the Plymouth sedan going northerly, hurtling it across to the end of the safety zone, and that the Plymouth then struck the deceased, injuring him and causing his death.

The only question before us is: whether the “conflict in the evidence was real and substantial and not fanciful or fictitious”. (See

Thoreau

v.

Industrial Acc. Com.,

120 Cal. App. 67, 73 [7 Pac. (2d) 767].)

That there was conflict the evidence fully discloses. An eyewitness, Rifenberick, testified both vehicles entered the intersection about the same time. Arnelian, the driver of the truck, testified he was just entering the intersection when he saw the Plymouth “about fifty or sixty feet away from Twelfth Street . . . south of the curb line”. The witness Edwards, who was on the truck, testified: “As he” (the truck driver) “entered the intersection I saw the Plymouth coming about sixty or seventy-five feet from the intersection.” The disinterested witness, Mason, testified that he was positive that at the time the truck arrived at the intersection the Plymouth was not in it. The witness Hughes, who was in the Plymouth at the time of the accident, testified that as the Plymouth entered the intersection the truck “was about 10 or 15 feet away from the curb, the line that runs across”, meaning 10 or 15 feet out of the intersection. The witness Ferguson, driver of the Plymouth, testified that as he looked to the right as he entered the intersection he saw a truck “about one hundred feet down on Twelfth street and I glanced at him, thinking he was going to slow up