Hearn v. Gunther

GRIFFIN, J. Respondent adopts appellants’ statement of facts as related in their brief. It shows that about [839]:30 a. m. on September 12, 1940, plaintiff and appellant Elsie Bafnna and Viola Hearn, deceased mother of Bonnie Lee Hearn, a minor, left the Midland Hotel in Bakersfield, which hotel was operated by appellants Ralph and Elsie Bafuna, and in which the deceased was employed, to go to the store of Sears Roebuck & Company to do some shopping. The Midland Hotel is located approximately 90 feet east of the intersection of Nineteenth Street and K Street on the northerly side of Nineteenth. The entrance to the Sears Roebuck & Company store, to which the ladies were walking, is located directly across Nineteenth Street from the entrance to the Midland Hotel. At the intersection of Nineteenth and K Streets there were electrically operated traffic signals operating in all four directions and there were crosswalks for pedestrians clearly designated and marked with white lines indicating their boundaries. The two ladies came out of the entrance to the Midland Hotel together talking to each other. They proceeded across the sidewalk to the curb. Mrs. Bafuna looked in both directions while they were crossing the sidewalk. The ladies then stepped down over the curb to the street at a point about 66 feet east of the cross-walk. Mrs. Bafuna walked to the left of Mrs. Hearn. There were cars parked along the north side of Nineteenth Street in the vicinity of the hotel but there was ample room for the two ladies to walk abreast between the cars. After going between the automobiles and stepping out into the street, Mrs. Bafuna again looked both ways, but she did not see defendant’s car at that time. She did notice, however, that the stop sign at the intersection of Nineteenth and K Streets was stopping traffic traveling on Nineteenth Street. The next time Mrs. Bafuna looked was when she was approximately in the middle of the street. She looked and saw that the stop sign was still stopping traffic traveling on Nineteenth Street. As she started to look to the east the car of the defendant struck her. At the time the car struck her the deceased, Mrs. Hearn, was ’to her right and holding her hand. The defendant’s car knocked both of the ladies down and injured them. The injury to Mrs. Hearn resulted in her death four days later. The defendant had been driving westerly on Nineteenth Street at a speed estimated by himself at 20 miles per hour. He was driving well out into the center of the street and approximately on the north line of the car tracks which were running along the street. The [84]