St. Clair v. McAlister

SHENK, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment for the plaintiff in an action for damages for personal interest.

The plaintiff’s injuries were the result of a collision between a passenger bus operated by the defendant company and a Ford automobile operated by Raymond P. McAlister, a minor. The defendants, G.

N.

McAlister and Beatrix McAlister, are husband and wife and are the parents of the minor. The parents were sued because of the negligence imputed to them upon their assumption of liability in the issuance of an operator’s license to the minor son pursuant to the provisions of the California Vehicle Act. The trial court, sitting without a jury, found for the plaintiff and entered judgment against the defendant corporation and the defendant parents. The McAlisters have not appealed and the judgment against them has become final. The corporation is the sole appealing defendant.

The collision occurred about 8 o’clock A. M. on October 14, 1927. The bus was traveling in an easterly direction on Carlyle Street at its intersection with Tenth Street in the city of Santa Monica. The bus had stopped at the southwest corner of the intersection to discharge a passenger. The driver of the bus, Earl Dawes, then started the bus, entered the intersection and when it reached approximately the center thereof was traveling at a speed variously estimated at from seven to twelve miles per hour. It was then struck by the Ford car just behind the left front fender of

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the bus. The bus stopped almost instantly. The speed limit applicable to the Ford at this point was fifteen miles per hour and it was being operated at the time of the collision at the rate of from twenty-two to twenty-five miles an hour. The minor testified that he did not see the bus until he was about three feet from it, owing to the fact that he was looking eastwardly at the time.

In the complaint negligence in general terms was charged. It was stipulated at the trial that the plaintiff was a passenger for hire on the bus at the time of the accident; that the bus was owned by the defendant corporation; that Earl Dawes was the driver of the bus at the time and that he, as the employee of the corporation, was acting as such within the scope of his employment. The plaintiff then proved the extent of her injuries, which were serious, and produced evidence which showed the manner in which the , bus was operated at the time of the collision and further showed the details of the operation of the Ford car by the minor. This evidence, beyond question, proved negligence on the part of the driver of the Ford car. Based on his negligence the judgment was rendered against his parents. The driver of the bus was not produced as a witness by either party and no showing was made by the defendant corporation, or otherwise, that the driver of the bus could not have avoided the accident except by inference and conclusions drawn from the evidence of the facts above stated, and particularly from the evidence which showed in detail the conduct of the driver of the Ford car.