Huddleston v. Pound

BARNARD, P. J. —These three actions, arising out of one automobile accident, were consolidated for trial and are here submitted upon one set of briefs.. In each case the court made findings in favor of the defendants and the various plaintiffs have appealed from the respective judgments.

The three persons who met their deaths in this accident were all riding as guests of the respondent Harold Pound, who was driving a Hudson sedan owned by his parents, the other respondents. The only point raised is that the court’s finding in each ease to the effect that Harold Pound was not guilty of wilful misconduct is not sustained by the evidence. In other words, it is contended that he must be held guilty of wilful misconduct, as a matter of law.

The accident happened about 11 o’clock P. M. on July 16, 1932, on a paved highway running from El Centro to Holt-ville. Harold Pound, with four other young people in the car, was driving easterly toward Iloltville at a speed of about 45 miles an hour. About four miles easterly from El Centro a Maxwell car, without a top and without lights, was parked on the ■ southerly side of the highway, facing east, with its left wheels on the pavement and its right wheels on the shoulder. Harold did not see the parked ear in front of him until he was about 25 or 30 feet from it. At the same time a Chevrolet truck was approaching from the east on the north [130]side of this pavement. There was a deep borrow pit on the south side of the road which prevented him from going to the right of the Maxwell, so he put on his brakes, pulled to his left and attempted to pass to the left of the Maxwell car. He had observed the lights of the approaching truck and at the time he pulled over to his left he knew that that truck was fairly close to the parked Maxwell. He testified that the only thought in his mind was to miss the parked car, that he wanted to get through so nothing would happen and that he hoped to be able to do so. The driver of the truck testified that he saw the Hudson “coming in and I got off the highway as far as I could”; that he was about 25 or 30 feet from the parked car when he started to get off the highway to his right; and that there would have been room enough for the Hudson to go between the truck and the parked car if the Hudson had not struck the Maxwell. It appears, without conflict, that the front end of the Hudson got around the Maxwell, but that its right rear end collided with the left rear end of the Maxwell, causing the rear end of the Hudson to skid to the left into the path of the truck, that the Hudson then “sideswiped” the truck, that its left rear half came in contact with the truck, and that it “started on the bumper (of the truck) at the front and went all the way back”. The Hudson traveled from 50 to 85 feet after the collision.