Jones v. Key

CONREY, P. J.

Pursuant to the verdict of a jury, the plaintiff has recovered damages in the sum of five thousand dollars for personal injuries resulting from a collision between the plaintiff and an automobile owned by the defendant Key, and driven by the defendant Satterfield. The defendants appeal from the judgment. The points relied upon by appellants are: First, that the respondent, as shown by all of the testimony, was guilty of negligence in

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failing to maintain a proper lookopt or to exercise ordinary care while he was crossing the street where the accident occurred, and that this negligence contributed directly and proximately to his injury. Second, that the court erred in admitting in evidence testimony of the respondent to the effect that he did not believe that he would ever recover the full use of his arm and hand. In overruling the objection to this testimony, the court limited the testimony to the single purpose of showing the mental suffering which resulted to him from the injuries received.

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Respondent was hit by the automobile while he was passing from the south side to the north side of Third Street, in the city of Los Angeles, at a point between Spring Street and Broadway. The automobile was moving in an easterly direction, a part, if not all, of the automobile being on the north side of the street, which was the wrong side of the street for an automobile traveling in an easterly direction. Respondent was north of the center of the street, when the collision occurred. Before leaving the curb of the sidewalk, respondent saw the automobile of the defendants, and saw that it turned in behind a line of automobiles which were moving slowly toward him on the south side of the street. Seeing that he was safe with respect to that line of automobiles, he approached the center of the street and turned his attention toward the east, that being the direction from which danger might be apprehended on the north side of the street. At that instant the driver, Satterfield, left the line in which he was moving and drove rapidly toward Spring Street. According to his own statement, “When I swung out around these cars in front of me, my idea was to get in front of them and beat them to the Spring Street crossing.” It is not necessary to state further particulars of the evidence. The facts are very similar to those existing in the case of