Huntley v. County of Santa Clara

DRAPER, J.

Jury verdict in this wrongful death action was for defendants. Plaintiffs’ motion for new trial was granted upon the ground of insufficiency of the evidence to justify the verdict. (Code Civ. Proc., § 657, subd. 6.) Defendants appeal from this order.

Decedent, husband and father of plaintiffs, died as the result of collision of his pickup truck with a fire truck of defendant district. The accident occurred a few minutes before 6 p. m.

[300]

February 26, 1955, a rainy day. The truck, occupied only by driver Aiello, had returned from an alarm to the fire station located on the south side of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Road. Aiello stopped the truck east of the fire station and partly on the highway, the two eastbound lanes of which lie to the south of a planted divider strip. To back the truck into its stall in the station, Aiello turned his front wheels about a quarter turn to the right. He opened the left door and looked westward, seeing no vehicle between himself and the crest of the hill about 300 yards away, turned his view to the right rear-view mirror in order to maneuver the truck to its proper position, and backed up at a speed of 2 to 3 miles per hour. Some 10-15 seconds after he began to back, he felt the impact of collision of decedent’s eastbound pickup with the fire truck. There was no eyewitness. Position of the two vehicles immediately before the accident, speed of decedent’s vehicle, and most of the other facts directly bearing upon the cause of the collision were the subject of inferences. Since the fire truck was moved slightly before measurements were made, there is even dispute as to the point of impact.

An order granting new trial upon the ground of insufficiency of evidence can be reversed only where there is no evidence which would support a judgment in favor of the moving party.

(Hawk

v.

City of Newport Beach,

46 Cal.2d 213, 219 [298 P.2d 48] ;

Richardson

v.

Ham,