Chambers v. Spada

VAN DYKE, P. J.

Defendants have appealed from a judgment rendered against them in the trial court arising out of a collision between a truck-tractor with semi-trailer operated by defendant Stephens on (sued herein as Stephens) and a panel truck driven by decedent, William Chambers. Respondents, Harriet A. Chambers and Ethelyn Chambers Yore, mother and sister of decedent, brought action to recover damages for decedent’s death which they alleged had been caused by the negligence of appellants. The cause was tried to the court sitting without a jury.

The accident occurred about 5.30 a. m. on February 18, 1949, and the place of the accident was about one and a half miles south of the city of Turlock in Stanislaus County, on United States Highway 99, a main arterial highway in the

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San. Joaqnin Valley. At this point the highway was divided into two 12-£oot lanes, one northbound, one southbound, the division being marked with a broken white line. On each side of the traveled roadway was a 6-foot shoulder and on each side of the highway there were scattered farmhouses located some distance back. Traffic was light. It was dark and there was fog along the highway. Decedent was in the employ of a mortuary establishment whose vehicle he was driving. He was accompanied by a fellow employee, Rex Brunner. They had been sent out to pick up a body, their destination being a farmhouse along the road. In the dark and the fog they had several times failed to locate the farmhouse and were making a fourth try. They were driving slowly, Brunner, a witness for respondents, giving the speed as 15 to 20 miles per hour. As they drove they watched for the farm road which would lead them to the farmhouse. Both vehicles were going north. Appellants’ rig was overtaking the panel truck. The farmhouse they sought was located west of the highway and to reach it, when located, decedent would have to drive his panel truck across the southbound lane. Appellants’ rig, traveling substantially faster than the panel truck, his speed being given at about 40 miles an hour, was put into a passing maneuver by its driver. He testified that as he overtook the panel truck he determined to pass it and, as a signal of such intention, changed his headlights from low beam to high beam and back to low beam. He moved into the southbound lane and continued his passing maneuver at the speed at which he had been traveling. As he came closer to the panel truck decedent turned that vehicle across the southbound lane. While it was in that lane it was hit by appellants’ truck. Decedent was killed.