Stephens v. Kaufmann

MARKS, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment for one thousand dollars damages awarded plaintiff for injuries to her automobile and her person suffered in a collision at the intersection of Moroa and Floradora Avenues in the city of Fresno during the noon hour of January 6, 1931.

Defendants urge two grounds for a reversal of the judgment. (1) That the evidence fails to show any negligence on the part of E. A. Fries, the driver of the car owned by Ben Kaufmann, and (2) that it conclusively shows that Willie L. Smith, the driver of plaintiff’s car, was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law.

Floradora Avenue runs in an easterly and westerly direction and is sixty feet in width with curb lines twelve feet from the property lines. Moroa Avenue runs in a northerly and southerly direction and is forty feet in width with curb lines eight feet from the property lines. Both streets are paved between the curbs.

Fries was in the employ of his co-defendant, Ben Kaufmann, and was on his employer’s business and acting within the scope of his employment at the time of the accident. He was driving a 1929 model Ford roadster southerly on Moroa Avenue. Willie L. Smith was a chauffeur employed by plaintiff and was driving her westerly on Floradora Avenue at the time of the collision. The intersection was an "obstructed one as defined in subdivision two of section 113 of the California Vehicle Act. Each driver testified he entered the intersection at a speed not exceeding fifteen miles an hour.

From a study of the record we find the following observation made in the case of

Kienlen

v.

Holt,

106 Cal. App. 135 [288 Pac. 866], to be applicable here: “The trial court might easily have found that both parties were negligent in the operation of their automobiles. ... If it had

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been held that each driver was guilty of negligence in not looking and seeing the other, there would have been ample evidence to support such a finding and this court would certainly not have disturbed it. However, the trial court found that the respondents were free from any negligence, and that appellant was guilty of the negligent operation of his automobile and solely responsible for the accident and the ensuing damage. If there is any evidence in the record, or any reasonable inference to be drawn from such evidence, to sustain the findings of the trial court they cannot be disturbed here.” We cannot reverse a judgment because of conflicts in the evidence nor because we might have rendered judgment in favor of the losing parties had we been sitting as trial judges.