Miller v. Berman

MARKS, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment awarding plaintiffs $10,000 damages for the death of Charles B. Miller in a collision between an automobile being driven by deceased, and a truck tractor, of which defendants Berman and Cantu were the registered owners, with a semitrailer attached to it which was owned by defendant Evans. The recovery against Evans was limited to $5,000 under the provisions of section 402 of the Vehicle Code. Evans alone has appealed from the judgment.

[570]

The important question, presented here for the first time in California, is the liability of Evans as owner of the semitrailer for damages caused by the negligence of Cantu, the driver and one of the registered owners of the truck tractor to which the semitrailer was attached. He was operating the combination of the truck tractor and semitrailer with the consent, express.or implied, of Evans.

We are cited to but few authorities on the precise question presented. Before considering these cases we should observe that the provisions of the New York Statutes bearing on the subject are very similar to those of our Vehicle Code.

The first case to which our attention is directed' is

Herrick

v.

Arborio,

144 Misc. 15 [258 N.Y.S. 5], decided by the Supreme Court of Albany County, New York, in June, 1932. It was there held that a trailer was not a motor vehicle. A similar conclusion was reached in

Liberty Highway Co.

v.

Callahan,

24 Ohio App. 374 [157 N.E. 708]. A conclusion to the contrary was reached in

State

v.

Schwartzmann Service, Inc.,

225 Mo.App. 577 [40 S.W.2d 479].

The case of