Reynosa v. Pickwick Stages System

CRAIG, J.

The respondent was injured in a collision between his automobile and another machine in the county of Ventura. After trial by a jury, a verdict and judgment were rendered in his favor, and the defendants appealed from said judgment.

It was testified by the plaintiff that while riding on a curve in the public highway, in a northerly direction, he suddenly noticed the lights of a machine within a few feet before him, upon his side of the thoroughfare, there was a crash, and the next that he knew he was taken to a hospital at Fillmore, in Ventura County. His son, who was driving at the time, swore that his Ford car was traveling near the right bank of the roadway, that the wheels on the right side were off the pavement; that he first saw the approaching stage on the curve between thirty and forty feet distant, that it was traveling at the rate of about fifty miles per hour, that he quickly turned against the bank, but was unable to avoid a collision. He was unable to testify as to subsequent occurrences. A witness by the name of Williams testified that he.was driving in a sedan in a southerly direction but some distance northerly from the scene of the first

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impact, when the stage passed him at a speed of fifty or fifty-five miles an hour; that “as it rolled up the boulevard a few feet more, on the left-hand side of the road we heard a flash, and out from behind the bank came the Ford, and it rolled along next the bank and angled right on the road and ran into us”. The testimony of Mrs. Williams tended to corroborate the two former witnesses. The witness Shean averred that he was driving in a southerly direction along the same highway, at about forty miles per hour, to the rear of the Williams ear; that the stage passed him at a speed of “fifty miles, probably fifty-five, maybe sixty, because they passed us very fast”. This witness further testified, and was corroborated by various witnesses, that “as it passed Williams it swerved to the left and they were completely on the left side of the road as they hit the curve; ... we heard the bump and then we heard the smash, and then the Ford—-Mr. Eeynosa’s car—smashed into Williams in front of us. ... I asked the stage driver why he was driving so fast and he said he was late and trying to make up time.” It was stipulated that the driver was an employee of the appellant company, and that he was at the time of the accident operating the stage in the course of his employment. Evidence offered on behalf of the defendants consisted of testimony to the effect that the stage was at all times on the right-hand side of the boulevard, that its impact with the Ford was very slight, and that the stage received only a small indentation on the left rear fender.