Morehead v. Roehm

MARKS, J.

Respondents are husband and wife, as are appellants. At about 6 o’clock on the afternoon of May 21, 1930, Freda Morehead was injured in a collision between an automobile which she was driving and one being driven by Sadie A. Roehm, at the intersection of Newport Road and East First Street, public roads in Orange County. Newport Road runs in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction and is intersected from the west by First Street at an angle of about forty-five degrees. First Street terminates in Newport Road. At the time of the accident there was a boulevard stop sign on East First Street just west of Newport Road.

Freda Morehead, driving easterly on First Street, brought her car to a full stop at the boulevard stop sign and entered Newport Road, making a left turn. When she had proceeded between seventy-five and a hundred feet beyond the stop sign, the right front wheel of her automobile was struck by the right front wheel of the ear driven by Mrs. Roehm. The collision occurred on the easterly half of Newport Road which was the left half of the road from the southwesterly direction in which Mrs. Roehm was traveling.

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The evidence in this case is not conflicting. Appellants were satisfied with the account of the accident as given by respondents and their witnesses and rested their case without introducing evidence. The trial court made findings of 'fact and conclusions of law from which it appears that the negligence of Mrs. Roehm was the proximate cause of the accident without any contributory negligence on the part of respondents.

From the judgment rendered in favor of respondents, appellants prosecute this appeal. They contend that the evidence shows that Mrs. Morehead was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law, for the following reasons: First, that she did not make any arm signal signifying her intention to make a left turn before proceeding into the intersection and turning to her left; and, second, that she did not look to her left for approaching vehicles before entering and while proceeding into and across the intersection, or that if she did look, it was with unseeing eyes which was equivalent to not looking at all.

Mrs. Morehead made no arm signal before entering the intersection as required by the provisions of the California Vehicle Act (Stats. 1923, p. 558, sec. 130; Stats. 1925, p. 412, sec. 15a). Whether or not her failure so to do contributed in any way to the subsequent accident and her injury was a question of fact to be determined by the trial court. It having resolved this question against the appellants, its finding is binding upon us and cannot be disturbed.