Stetson v. Blum

THOMPSON, J. The defendant has appealed from a judgment of $1200 which was rendered against him for damages for personal injuries received by the ward of plaintiff, in' an automobile collision which occurred on a mountain grade.

The appellant contends the evidence fails to show that the defendant was guilty of negligence which proximately caused the accident, that the amount of the judgment is excessive, and that it is based partly on the theory that the minor re[595]ceived permanent injuries, which permanency is in conflict with the evidence.

There is a conflict of evidence on many essential features of the accident which are involved in this case, but the following statement of facts is supported by substantial evidence which renders them controlling on appeal. At 9 o’clock on the morning of June 30, 1933, Earl Stetson, a minor, was riding, in a Ford automobile as a passenger, with his companion, Melvin Marshall. The boys were about fourteen years of age. The machine belonged to Melvin’s father. Melvin was driving without a license. They were taking four cans of cream from Marshall’s home to market. Both boys lived with their parents in Sage Canyon adjacent to the Napa Valley. They were traveling downgrade along a crooked mountain highway which varied from 16 to 20 feet in width. They were traveling at the rate of from 12 to 15 miles an hour. When they reached a sharp turn in the road called Horseshoe Bend, where the highway was bordered on their right-hand side by a steep bank and on their left side by a precipitous gulch, the speed of the Ford car was retarded and they made the turn in the road close to the inside bank on the proper side of the highway. Just beyond this turn they suddenly, without previous warning, observed the defendant’s Essex sedan about 30 to 40 feet away, coming up the grade. Although the highway was at least 16 feet in width at that point, the Essex car, according to the statement of both boys, occupied a position on the wrong side of the roadway within two feet of the inside bank. The defendant had given no warning of his presence. He started to pull his machine toward the outside of the grade, but proceeded only about the distance of one car length, when he stopped his car. The defendant’s machine was then too close to the inside bank to enable the Ford car to pass. Marshall immediately applied his brakes, which were in good mechanical condition, but was unable to avoid a collision, in spite of the fact that the right mud-guard was actually scraping the bank.