Grant v. Ryon

ROTH, J., pro tem.

This action is one for personal injuries arising from an accident which occurred at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Tenth Street in the city of Santa Monica, on October 7, 1932, at or about 6:20 P. M. At the time of the accident defendant Herndon Ryon, who was then a minor, was driving an automobile in a westerly direction on Wilshire Boulevard, north of the center line thereof, approximately 12 to 15 feet south of the northerly curb. Both headlights of the car were burning, and the automobile proceeded at a rate of 15 to 20 miles per hour. There was no fog, or rain or other unusual weather conditions; the street was dry, and the driver’s vision unobstructed and unobscured. Plaintiff, a woman sixty years of age, dressed in dark clothing and carrying some bundles, was walking from the southerly curb of Wilshire Boulevard on the west side of Tenth Street in a northerly direction in the center of a pedestrian zone. She had previously alighted from a bus, waited for the bus to move on and for other traffic to pass, and saw no traffic approaching from the east or west until she reached a point immediately north of the center line of Wilshire Boulevard, at which time she observed a car driven by defend

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ant a block and a half to the east or to her right. She continued walking northerly in the pedestrian zone, and fixes the point of impact at a distance of five or six feet south of the northerly curb. Defendant, according to the testimony, when he entered the intersection of Tenth Street on Wilshire Boulevard, was looking straight ahead at all times up to the time of impact, and by reason of his headlights and electroliers on Wilshire Boulevard, pould see ahead approximately 100 feet. The evidence shows that defendant did not see plaintiff until an instant before the accident.

On evidence supporting the foregoing

résumé

of facts, the trial court found that the impact between the automobile operated by Herndon Ryon and plaintiff and the consequent injuries suffered by plaintiff were the proximate result of the negligence of defendant Herndon Ryon, and that there was no contributory negligence on the part of plaintiff, and that the accident was not an inevitable one. The defendant William Ryon is the father of Herndon Ryon, and signed his application for an operator’s license, pursuant to the terms of section 62, subdivisions (b) and (c) of the California Vehicle Act. At the time the complaint and summons were served upon defendant Herndon Ryon he was a minor, and at the time of the trial of the. action, defendant Herndon Ryon had reached his majority.