Drummond v. City of Redondo Beach

FOURT, J.

Lillian E. Drummond brought an action against the City of Redondo Beach (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the City) for personal injuries which she sustained when her car struck a washout at the edge of the pavement and went into a ditch. She appeals the trial court’s orders granting the City both a judgment notwithstanding the verdict and a new trial.

Appellant contends that the court erred in granting the City's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict because plaintiff presented substantial evidence to establish each element of her' ease,' and that the order for new trial is defective because the court failed..t'o adhere, to the.requifeméáts of Code of Civil Procedure, section 657, or to" exercise its discretion pursuant to that section. These contentions are without merit.

[713]

Drummond charged the City with permitting a dangerous or defective condition to exist along the north edge of Beryl Street as a proximate cause of which her right wheel broke through the roadway and caused her to go into a ditch. The City claimed that no dangerous condition existed on the roadway, that it had no notice of such condition or any time to repair or warn, and that Drummond was contributorily negligent.

Evidence adduced at the trial showed that the accident occurred at about 5 p.m. on February 11, 1963. Lillian Drummond was then traveling home from work along the same route she had taken nearly every working day for the past 10 years. She turned west down Beryl Street, a two-lane street with a double yellow center line dividing the east and west bound traffic lanes. The two traveled roadway lanes constituting Beryl were graded with a 3-inch thick macadam surface covering a 4-to-6-inch base of decomposed granite. The roadway was 14 feet from center line to edge. The main traveled portion, or traffic lane, however, was only 10 feet wide and there was a 4-foot outer strip of dark asphalt, perhaps 2 to 4 inches thick, which sloped down toward a ditch at the far outer edge of the street.

It had been raining heavily and intermittently since February 9, and when Lillian Drummond came to a familiar low spot on Beryl she could see a little water standing at the foot of the hill. Traffic, however, was moving in a normal manner and the street incline beyond the low spot appeared to be dry. She therefore did not slow her speed below 20 miles-per-hour but followed a pickup truck at a prudent distance down the hill and started up the incline. Suddenly she heard a break, as though ice were cracking, and the car dropped, then went into and across the ditch bordering the road, and finally stopped just short of a telephone pole.