Vickerson v. Standard Auto Sales Co.

STURTEVANT, J.

The plaintiff was injured in an automobile collision at the intersection of Polk and Ellis Streets, in San Francisco. The jury brought in a verdict in his favor and from the judgment the defendants have appealed, bringing up the judgment-roll and a bill of exceptions.

At the time of the accident, on the twenty-fourth day of February, 1921, the plaintiff was in an automobile approaching from the left, traveling easterly on Ellis Street, and the defendant Thomas C. Robinson, as agent of his codefendant, was operating an automobile on the right, going north on

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Polk Street. The collision occurred in the intersection of the two streets mentioned. The only question involved in the record is as to the correctness of the court’s instructions relating to the right of way at the point where the accident occurred. The court gave, acting on the request of the plaintiff, four instructions, which we have numbered consecutively, and which are as follows:

I.

“The law of this state also provides that the operator of an automobile shall yield the right of way at the intersection of their paths to an automobile approaching from the right, unless such vehicle approaching from the right is further from the point of the intersection of their paths than such first named automobile.”

II.

“If, therefore, you find that plaintiff’s automobile was nearest the point of such intersection, then the plaintiff was not required in law to yield such right of way to the driver of the Chevrolet automobile, but in the law it was the duty of the driver of the Chevrolet automobile, under these conditions and circumstances, to have yielded the right of way to the automobile being driven by plaintiff.”

III.

“You are instructed that the rule of the right of way has application only to cases where automobiles reach the crossing at substantially the same time.”

IV.