Cordi v. Garcia

HAWKINS, J. pro tem.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the court, sitting without a jury, awarding damages for personal injuries received by respondent, in the sum of $9,000 as general damages, and $342.50 as special damages.

The evidence conclusively shows, and on the oral argument of this cause in this court it was conceded by appellants, that appellants were negligent and that their negligence was a proximate cause of certain injuries suffered by respondent. The sole grounds for reversal urged by appellants are:

First: That respondent was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law;

Second: That the trial court committed reversible error in admitting evidence of a second accident to respondent which they claim had no causal connection with the original accident; and

Third: That the damages awarded were so excessive as to justify a reversal of the judgment.

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to respondent, these are the essential facts:

[586]

Plaintiff, at the time of the accident, was a mail carrier in the city of Redding, California. He was about fifty years of age and had been carrying the mails for approximately thirteen years.

The accident occurred about three o’clock in the afternoon of June 24, 1937, on Gold Street, approximately in the middle of the block between California and Market Streets, which are three hundred and twenty-four feet apart from curb to curb. Gold Street runs east and west, California and Market Streets, north and south. California is west of Market Street. Gold Street measures fifty-six feet from curb to curb.

Shortly before the accident public authorities had been working on Gold Street and had left" a loose mound of gravel down the center line of said street for the full length of the block, which was from four to six feet wide and about a foot high in the center.

Just before the accident respondent was walking along Gold Street. He made a mail delivery at about the middle of the block and then started to cross Gold Street to make a delivery on the other side. Before crossing he looked in both directions to see if any vehicles were coming. ' When he reached the mound in the center of the street he hesitated, saw nothing coming, and then proceeded to cross the north half of Gold Street, diagonally in a northeasterly direction, with his back partially turned toward California Street.