Wade v. Todd

WOOD, P. J.

In thisaction for damages for personal injuries resulting from a collision of automobiles, judgment in a jury trial was for defendant.

Upon plaintiff’s appeal from the judgment, her only contention is that the court erred in permitting counsel for defendant to ask her, upon cross-examination and over her objection, questions concerning her marital status.

The collision occurred about 8 o’clock in the morning at the “T” intersection of Firestone Boulevard and Beaudine Street in Los Angeles. Firestone, which extends east and west, is 90 feet wide. Beaudine, which extends south from Firestone (but not north thereof), is 35 feet wide. There are two white lines in the center of Firestone, and two traffic lanes on each side of the center—which lanes are divided by a single white line. At the east and west sides of the intersection there are pedestrian crosswalks, 12 feet wide, which extend across Firestone and are marked with white lines. There are tri-light traffic signals (red, orange, and green) at the corners of the intersection.

Defendant, called as a witness by plaintiff under section 2055 of the Code of Civil Procedure, testified as follows: He was employed by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company as a real estate negotiator. The plant of the company was on the north side of Firestone Boulevard in the area of the intersection involved here. He was driving a Pontiac automobile west on Firestone, intending to turn left at said intersection and go to a gasoline service station at the southwest corner of the intersection. As he approached the intersection the traffic signal was red, and he stopped his automobile back of the east line of the easterly crosswalk, in the traffic lane next to the center double line. At that time, two east bound vehicles were stopped on the west side of the intersection—

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one was a station wagon which was in the lane next to the center line, and the other one was a panel truck in the lane next to (south of) the station wagon. While defendant was stopped there, the left-turn blinker light of his automobile was operating, and pedestrians were crossing Firestone from south to north in the crosswalk on the west side of the intersection. When the traffic light changed to green, defendant proceeded forward, about 27 feet, to the middle of the street and stopped, waiting for the two eastbound vehicles to pull out. While he was proceeding to that place, the other vehicles did not move, and the driver of the station wagon was “waving” him (defendant) “through” the intersection. Then, while defendant was proceeding to make the left turn, the two other vehicles did not move forward. He was traveling at a rate of “not over five miles an hour.” When he was at a place in the intersection where the front part of his Pontiac was “abreast of the right side of the truck,” he could see the driver of the truck and could see for a distance of “a few feet back” of the right side of the truck. After he had “cleared the truck” he looked toward the driveway of the service station which he intended to enter. When his automobile, except approximately the rear 6 feet of it, was out of the intersection the rear right corner of his automobile was struck by a Dodge automobile which was traveling east on Firestone. He did not see the Dodge automobile before the impact. Plaintiff was the driver of that automobile.