Jansen v. Sugiyama

PULLEN, P. J.

From a judgment by the court in favor of plaintiff awarding to him damages for personal injuries sustained in an automobile collision, defendants appeal.

Masayasu Sugiyama is a 20-year-old minor son of T. Sugiyama and M. Sugiyama. At the time of the accident he was driving the automobile belonging to his parents, with their consent. He also had an operator’s license issued' by the department of motor vehicles upon an application verified by the parents as provided by section 350 of the Motor Vehicle Code. The liability, therefore, of defendants Mr. and Mrs. Sugiyama was such as is imposed by the Vehicle Code. (Sec. 352.) Hereinafter when the word defendant is used it is understood we are referring to Masayasu Sugiyama.

The record discloses that shortly after midnight of January 3, 1937, Masayasu Sugiyama was driving a Ford sedan easterly along highway 40. Riding with the operator in the

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front seat were two other hoys, and in the rear seat were three girls, one a sister of defendant. These young people were returning from Penryn where they had attended a theater to their homes in Bowman. The night was clear, the highway dry, and for a considerable distance on either side from the point of collision the highway was straight and level with a white traffic line down the center. Within two hundred feet after defendant had emerged from the east portal of the Newcastle tunnel he saw the car of plaintiff some ten or fifteen feet off the highway on the south side, and almost directly in front of the Foothill Dairy plant. This building is approximately 926 feet east of the east portal of the tunnel. Defendant therefore was about 700 feet from plaintiff when he first saw his car.

Plaintiff, on this night, had left Auburn and was proceeding to his home in Lincoln. To reach Lincoln he traveled west on highway 40 to a point near the Newcastle tunnel, where the Lincoln road turns southwesterly from highway 40 about 680 feet east from the tunnel portal, and about 250 feet west of the Foothill Dairy. Plaintiff had turned his car to the left and crossed highway 40 to enter the Lincoln road, but in the darkness had missed the junction of the two highways and had retraced his course easterly a short distance until he had come in front of the Foothill Dairy. He then recognized where he was, and had stopped and lighted a cigar, and was preparing to turn his car across the highway and return to the point of divergence of the Lincoln road. He glanced in his rear view mirror and saw approaching the car of defendant, which was then some 300 or 400 feet distant. He then made a quick turn across the highway and had entered the west line of traffic, and had proceeded slowly about 10 feet westerly along the highway when defendant suddenly swerved from the south lane, crossed the white line and struck the ear of plaintiff, causing the injuries here complained of.