Moore v. Re

PULLEN, P. J.

As plaintiff was driving his automobile in an easterly direction on the Pacheco Pass highway he collided with a truck driven in a westerly direction by defendant Michael Balcovich, who was accompanied by his employer, Sam Re, also a defendant herein. The collision occurred near Los Banos at about 10 o'clock on a rainy evening in April, 1931.

Plaintiff testified that as he saw the truck of defendant approaching he reduced the speed of his car and extended his left arm outside of the car and gave a “slow signal”. When the car of plaintiff had proceeded a little past the cab of the truck the two vehicles brushed together or “sideswiped” as the witnesses described it, crushing the arm of plaintiff so severely that it was later amputated, for which injuries a jury awarded to him damages.

[559]

Appellants appealed from the judgment and from an order denying a motion for a new trial.

The first point argued for reversal is that the act of plaintiff in extending his arm outside of the car making a “slow signal” was the proximate cause of the injury he sustained. In this appellant is in error. The proximate cause is, as so often defined, that cause which in natural and continuous sequence unbroken by any efficient intervening cause produces the injury, and without which the injury would not have occurred, and it is therefore apparent that the extending of the arm in giving the signal could not have been the proximate cause of the injury. Neither can we say that a driver of a car complying with the mandate of the law as set forth in section 130 of the California Vehicle Act, which provides for a signal upon slowing down or stopping by extending the hand or arm downward beyond the left side of the vehicle, is guilty of negligence. That the particular vehicle in question was the only one in the immediate vicinity is not material, for a driver is not required to first ascertain if some other car will be affected by it before making the signal required by law.

Another answer to the argument of counsel and sufficient for the purpose of review by this court is that the question of proximate cause is one of fact for the jury to determine, and having, under proper instruction, determined against the contentions of appellants, they, as well as this court, are bound thereby.