Wood v. Moore

[146]

YORK, P. J.

The above entitled actions, which were consolidated for trial, arose out of a collision between the tractor truck and semitrailer, owned by plaintiffs Sharp which were being driven by their employee, Ed Moore, and the Ford automobile, owned by defendant Ammons which was being operated by her agent, defendant Hyman.

In the first action, Civil No. 14248, the jury returned a verdict for plaintiff Wood and against defendants Ammons and Hyman for $2,271.01, representing damage done to a sandwich stand, a cafe building and to certain equipment contained therein. The other action, Civil No. 14249, resulted in a verdict for plaintiffs Sharp against defendant Ammons for $3,050.86, as compensation for damages inflicted upon their tractor and semitrailer and for loss of use of such equipment. Defendant Ammons prosecutes a separate appeal from each of the judgments entered in said actions, defendant Hyman joining in the appeal from the judgment in the first action. Since the two appeals present for determination practically identical questions, this court will endeavor to dispose of both in one opinion.

The collision occurred about six o’clock on the morning of March 8, 1942, on Highway 101, where it passes through the town of Saugus, when the driver of appellant Ammons’ Ford car in an attempt to make a left-hand turn swung out into the highway from a vacant lot, across the path of respondents’ truck which was traveling south transporting a cargo of condensed milk weighing 68,000 pounds.

At the point in question the highway described a long, gradual or “slow” curve to the right to one approaching Saugus from the north. Wood’s garage was located on the west side of the highway, immediately to the south of which was the vacant lot from which appellant Hyman started his left-hand turn. Adjoining said lot to the south was a sandwich stand built against the north wall of a brick building housing the Saugus Cafe. The east side of the highway through Saugus is bounded by a railway right of way and tracks, and although there is no intersection at this point, the old Lancaster Road joins the highway a short distance to the north.

Before daybreak on the morning when the accident occurred, appellant Laura Ammons was returning from Wyoming to her home at Ventura, accompanied by her two small children and two young men, one of whom, appellant William O. Hyman, was driving her Ford automobile. They had entered Highway 101 from the old Lancaster Road and had