O'DEA v. Leland

[552]

ROTH, J.,

pro tem.

On November 26, 1931, plaintiff and appellant was struck by an automobile operated by defendant Arthur B. Leland, the minor son of defendant Lillie B. Leland, also known as Lillie B. Thompson; the latter defendant having signed her son’s application for a license, she was joined as a party to the action. Judgment went for defendants. The court found from conflicting evidence: “That on or about the 26th day of November, 1931, Ocean Avenue and Broadway were, and have been at all times since, and now are, public streets in the city of Santa Monica, State of California, and intersect each other at right angles; . . . that on or about (said date) ... at ... 11 o’clock p. m., . . . Arthur B. Leland did have under his custody, management and was operating a certain automobile along said highway at and near the intersection of Broadway and Ocean Avenue, along the westerly side of Ocean Avenue, and in a southerly direction thereof.

“That at the time when defendant, Arthur B. Leland was driving said automobile along said Ocean Avenue as herein-before found, the plaintiff, a pedestrian, was in the said Ocean Avenue near its said intersection with Broadway; that said plaintiff had entered Ocean Avenue just previously, having stepped off the sidewalk on the easterly side of said avenue for the purpose of crossing to the westerly side thereof; that while in said Ocean Avenue the plaintiff conducted himself in a careless and negligent manner; that he carelessly and negligently failed to observe, and did not observe, the approach of the automobile driven by the defendant, although the headlights of said automobile were lighted and the approach of the automobile could have been observed for several hundred feet before it arrived at the aforesaid intersection had the plaintiff made any observations in a northerly direction after entering Ocean Avenue; that while in said Ocean Avenue and in the path of defendant’s approaching automobile, and without making any observation in the direction of that approach, plaintiff suddenly stopped and turned for the purpose of returning to the easterly side of said avenue, making the turn in such a way that his line of vision was directed to the south, or southwest, away from the direction from which the approach of motor vehicles from the north might then have been reasonably expected; that although there was a clearly delineated pedestrians’ crosswalk running easterly and westerly