Hagenah v. Bidwell

NOURSE, J.

The defendants appeal from a judgment for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff while riding on a motorcycle which, while being driven by one Reed, came into collision with an automobile driven by the defendant, Maude A. Bidwell.

The plaintiff alleged that at the time of the accident he was riding along a" public highway “in a westerly direction and was on the extreme northerly side of said road within a foot from the northerly edge of said highway; that while riding as aforesaid plaintiff was on his right-hand side of the road” and that “the defendants were riding in their aforesaid automobile along said public highway in an easterly direction . . . and were going in the opposite direction to that in which the plaintiff was proceeding . . . ; that said defendants were driving said automobile on the northern side of said public highway, being their left-hand side of said highway and being the side on which the plaintiff was riding.” The defendants, in addition to denying these allegations, affirmatively pleaded that, as they were proceeding easterly on the highway in question and on the right-hand or southern side thereof, the motorcycle driven by Reed was proceeding westerly toward them on the same side of the highway, being on Reed’s left-hand side thereof; that Reed in driving the motorcycle approached so close to the automobile that a head-on collision appeared to be-imminent; that confronted by this danger produced by Reed’s negligence, the defendant, Maude A. Bidwell, turned the automobile to the left in a direction which caused it to move diagonally across the road to the north side; that at approximately the same instant Reed turned his motorcycle so that it headed diagonally across the road to his right, and that the collision occurred at the extreme north edge of the road. The evidence, without conflict in these essential particulars, shows that the accident occurred exactly as described in the answer. Notwithstanding these facts, judgment was rendered for the plaintiff, the only findings on these matters

[559]

being that the allegations set forth in the complaint were true and were facts established by the evidence, except in an immaterial particular, and that the denials and allegations in the answer and cross-complaints of the respective defendants were not true and not facts, except in immaterial particulars.