Dover v. Archambeault

CONREY, P. J.

Action to recover damages incurred by reason of negligence of the defendant in the operation of an automobile, whereby the defendant’s automobile collided with another automobile in which the plaintiff Margaret Dover was riding, and whereby personal injuries were received by her. The accident occurred May 9, 1920. Judgment was entered in favor of the plaintiffs, and the defendant appeals therefrom.

At the time of the accident Mrs. Dover was riding in .. a Ford automobile owned and driven by one H. A. Palmaymesa. She was riding, with three other persons, as a guest of Palmaymesa, and they were driving in an easterly direction on the state highway between Goleta and Santa Barbara. The plaintiff John Dover was not there. Immediately before the accident a stage which was driving

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westerly, ahead of the defendant, stopped to allow a passenger to get off. Another automobile, in front of the defendant, stopped behind the stage. Thereupon, the defendant turned his automobile to the left side of the road and attempted to pass the next automobile and the stage. At the same time the Ford car of Palmaymesa was passing the stage on the south side of the road. According to the testimony, which is amply sufficient to establish the facts, defendant continued to move westerly until the collision occurred. The defendant attempted to prove that he stopped his car and that the Ford car continued to move forward and ran into the automobile of the defendant. As the evidence is conflicting on this point, we must assume, as the verdict implies, that this testimony on behalf of the defendant is not in accordance with the facts. There is evidence from which the jury was justified in determining that Palmaymesa, as soon as he saw the defendant’s car, slowed down to a low rate of speed and turned his car south so that part of it was off the paved highway and left between his car and the stage a space sufficient to have permitted the defendant to pass. Nevertheless, defendant’s automobile struck the front of the Ford car.

There appears to be no doubt that the defendant was guilty of negligence. Section 20(a) of the Vehicle Act provides that “On all occasions the driver or operator of any vehicle in or upon any public highway shall travel upon the right half of such highway unless the road ahead on the left-hand side is clear and unobstructed for at least one hundred yards ahead. ...” (Stats. 1919, p. 215.) “There was no error in the instruction of the court informing the jury that one who operated his vehicle in violation of an express provision of the law was guilty of negligence in so doing. The proposition is thoroughly settled.”