Squier v. Davis Standard Bread Co.

LENNON, J.

This is an action-to recover for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff when the motorcycle upon which he was riding collided with a horse-drawn delivery wagon owned by the defendant corporation and driven by defendant Masters. Plaintiff had judgment and defendants appeal.

Prom the plaintiff’s evidence it appears that just prior to the accident the two vehicles were proceeding in aii easterly direction along Vernon Avenue in the city of Los Angeles at a point near to the intersection of that avenue with Ascot Avenue. The motorcycle upon which plaintiff was riding was a short distance behind the wagon, and, a few seconds prior to the collision, it was moving at a speed of fourteen miles an hour. Plaintiff testified that he intended to stop at the corner to permit a car to pass on Ascot Avenue, from which, in view of all of the circumstances, it might fairly be inferred that he had no immediate intention of passing the wagon. It also appears from plaintiff’s testimony, that the defendant Masters, although aware of plaintiff’s approach, without the warning required by ordinance, turned his horse’s head sharply to the left as though about to turn north into Ascot Avenue, keeping the center of intersection of Ascot Avenue and Vernon Avenue on his right, but that, instead of keeping on in this course, he stopped and backed the vehicle. Plaintiff, seeing the horse start to turn and fearing that he would not be able to veer sharply enough to the left to avoid striking the horse, made a sharp turn to the right and in so doing struck the right hind wheel of the wagon and fell, sustaining the injuries complained of. The evidence indicates that he was not at the time traveling at much over ten miles an hour. It also appears that at the moment of the collision the head of

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■the horse was a few feet out into Ascot Avenue and a few feet to the right of the center line of Vernon Avenue, the equipage heading in a northeasterly direction at an angle of about forty-five degrees-from the line of the direction of Vernon Avenue.

In the face of this evidence, appellants contend that the court should have held as a matter of law that plaintiff was guilty of negligence by reason of traveling at an excessive rate of speed, by reason of failing to sound his horn and by reason of attempting to turn to the right of the vehicle with which he collided.