Carbaugh v. White Bus Line

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs in actions brought by them to recover damages for injuries which they each received in a collision between the automobile of which they were occupants and a motor-bus operated by one of the defendant's employees. Each of said plaintiffs commenced a separate action against the defendant, but by agreement and order of the court the two actions were consolidated and tried together.

The complaint in each case charged that "the defendant, through its agents and servants in charge thereof, so negligently operated one of defendant's auto-buses or passenger stages that the same collided with the plaintiff's automobile, and he was injured as hereinafter set out." The defendant in its answer in each case specifically denied this allegation, and in addition thereto pleaded by way *Page 3 of separate defense that the plaintiff was guilty of negligence in a number of specially pleaded particulars in connection with and at the time of said collision.

The consolidated cases were tried before a jury, which rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff D.C. Carbaugh for $1,775, and in favor of the plaintiff Alice Carbaugh for the sum of $6,000. The amount of these combined verdicts was, upon motion for a new trial, reduced by plaintiffs' consent to the extent of $2,500, and thereupon said motion was denied, and judgment for the reduced amount entered in plaintiffs' favor, from which judgment the defendant prosecutes this appeal.

The facts of this case may be summarized as follows: The collision in question occurred on June 22, 1919, at the intersection of San Gabriel Mission Drive with Pomona Boulevard in the county of Los Angeles, state of California. Pomona Boulevard runs east and west; the San Gabriel Mission Drive runs in a general northwesterly and southeasterly direction, and intersects, but does not cross, Pomona Boulevard at an angle of approximately forty-five degrees. The plaintiffs' car was a five-passenger "Saxon," and just prior to said collision was being driven by the plaintiff D.C. Carbaugh on the Mission Drive approaching Pomona Boulevard, into which he intended driving and thence turning to the east. As said plaintiff, driving his car, approached the intersection of these two streets, he was driving on the right side of the road and sitting on the left side of his car, in which there were five persons besides himself, one of whom was the plaintiff Alice Carbaugh. The car was being driven at the rate of about fifteen miles an hour, and when within about fifty feet of the point of intersection its driver looked to the east and saw the defendant's motor-stage approaching from that direction along the boulevard. When he first observed the stage it was approximately 250 feet from the intersection, and appeared to be traveling at the rate of from thirty to thirty-five miles an hour. The plaintiff Carbaugh, as he approached the intersection, reduced the speed of his car to from ten to twelve miles an hour, keeping the stage continually in view. When he arrived at the point of intersection the stage was approximately 150 feet away, and appeared to be coming *Page 4 along or near the center of the boulevard and traveling at the rate of about thirty-five miles an hour. Plaintiff Carbaugh, according to his own testimony and that of those who were with him in his car, put out his left hand, blew his horn and proceeded to cross the boulevard, turning to the eastward as he reached its center. The defendant's stage continued with undiminished speed until it reached a point within a few feet of the plaintiff's car, when it swerved suddenly to the left and collided with it at a point which, according to the testimony of the plaintiffs' witnesses, was to the left of the center of the boulevard. The plaintiffs' injuries were the result of this collision.