Zehnder v. Spaulding

YORK, P. J.

This appeal, which is prosecuted from a judgment awarding the sum of $2,000 damages to plaintiffs for injuries sustained by them in a collision between their automobile and one driven by defendant Raymond R. Spaulding, a minor, is presented to this court upon an engrossed bill of exceptions. From said bill of exceptions and the statements of fact contained in the briefs, it appears that said collision occurred under the following circumstances:

On May 25, 1941, the respondent John E. Zehnder,-accompanied by his wife, respondent Alice Zehnder, was driving a De Soto automobile in a southerly direction along Haskell Avenue, an unpaved highway twenty feet in width running north and south through a sparsely-settled section of San Fernando Valley in the city and county of Los Angeles. As the De Soto approached the intersection of Haskell Avenue with Lassen Avenue, a paved highway running in an easterly and westerly direction, the paved portion thereof being twenty feet in width, the view to respondents’ right was completely obscured by a row of trees growing along the westerly side of Haskell Avenue until they reached a point twenty to twenty-five feet north of the northerly curb line of said Lassen Avenue. Traveling at the rate of fifteen miles per hour, respondents at this point looked to their right and were able to see westerly along Lassen Avenue a distance of 200 feet. They saw no automobile on the highway within said distance of 200 feet, but they did observe a pedestrian walking in a westerly direction on Lassen Avenue about 100 or 150 feet west of its intersection with Haskell Avenue. Respondents then looked to their left in an easterly direction

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toward Lassen Avenue. However, because there was a high growth of weeds along said easterly side of Haskell, they were unable to see what traffic, if any, was approaching the intersection from the east until the front wheels of their automobile were approximately on the north edge of the paved portion of Lassen Avenue. When it appeared that no traffic was approaching the intersection from the left or east, respondent John E. Zehnder shifted into low gear and proceeded into the intersection at a speed of fifteen miles per hour. It is admitted that respondents did not again look to their right until just an instant before the moment of impact between their De Soto and a Willys automobile which was being driven in an easterly direction on Lassen Avenue by the appellant Raymond R. Spaulding. The impact of the two cars occurred in the south half of Lassen Avenue, the Willys striking the De Soto at about the location of the front seat resulting in the breaking off of the front left wheel which caused the De Soto to skid on its axle or frame in an easterly direction along the southerly edge of the paved portion of Lassen Avenue a distance of approximately forty-nine feet.