Miles v. Van Hagen

SCHAUER, P. J. — Appellants (defendant Acker and his employers), with commendable conciseness, state that “there is one and only one question before the court on this appeal and that is — Is the negligence of Van Hagen the proximate cause of the accident in which the plaintiff received his injuries?” Appellants urge that their question must be answered in the affirmative. They do not (and on the record they could not properly) contend that the evidence is insufficient to establish negligence of the defendant Acker, but they zealously argue that his negligence is but a remote wellspring of plaintiff’s injuries, separated causally by the independent, intervening agency of defendant Van Hagen. The facts, however, provide a negative answer which the zeal of appellants’ counsel cannot overcome.

The accident involved three motor vehicles and is novel to this extent: the vehicle held solely responsible did not come in physical contact with either of the other two. The collision was between an automobile being driven by plain[752]tiff Miles in a westerly direction on Foothill Boulevard and a car traveling east which was being operated by defendant Van Hagen. The point of impact was stipulated to be on the north half of Foothill Boulevard 109 feet east of the center of its intersection with Magnolia Avenue in the city of Monrovia. Foothill Boulevard at the locale in question is a four-lane paved thoroughfare running east and west, with a roadway 62 feet in width. Magnolia Avenue runs north and south and its roadway is 34 feet wide.

Immediately preceding the collision defendant Acker was driving a truck, owned by the other defendants, excluding Van Hagen, in an easterly direction along the south side (most southerly traffic lane) of Foothill Boulevard just west of its intersection with Magnolia Avenue. Behind the truck, and overtaking it, defendant Van Hagen, in his car, was in the traffic lane just south of the center line of Foothill Boulevard and was traveling at a speed of approximately 25 miles per hour. About 50 to 75 feet back of the intersection Acker operated the mechanical arm of the truck to indicate a left turn but as the truck reached the intersection, traveling slowly, he dropped the mechanical arm (he said he needed both hands to steer) and turned to about a 40 degree angle toward the south in the Magnolia intersection. He proceeded to a point near the southerly limit of the intersection and then turned north in a circular pattern, intending to make a U turn. Prior to turning north in the intersection the truck had not been in the traffic lane nearest the center of the highway as required by subdivision b of section 540 of the Vehicle Code and Van Hagen’s car had been in a position where it could lawfully overtake and pass the truck. When the truck, in execution of the described maneuver, had reached a point in the intersection where it was headed northeasterly with its front end about five feet south of the center of Foothill Boulevard defendant Van Hagen’s car, traveling about 25 miles per hour, was in the traffic lane immediately south of the center line and was just entering the intersection. The truck continued moving slowly in its unlawfully approached and attempted left turn and Van Hagen to avoid colliding with it, accelerated the speed ,of his car and swung it to his left to a point north of the center line of the boulevard. He said that the front of the truck had itself reached a position north of the center line as he passed it, and that his ear