Bays v. Clugston

WOOD (Parker), J. This is an action for damages for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff, a pedestrian, as a result of being struck by an automobile driven by defendant. In a trial without a jury, plaintiff obtained judgment. Defendant appeals from the judgment and contends that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law.

The accident occurred about 110 feet south of the intersection of Los Robles Avenue and Del Mar Avenue in Pasadena. These avenues will be referred to as Los Robles and Del Mar. Los Robles in that vicinity extends north and south and is 48 feet wide. Del Mar extends east and west, intersects Los Robles at a right angle, and is 32 feet wide. At the intersection there are marked pedestrian crosswalks extending across Los Robles at the north and south sides of Del Mar. There is a sidewalk on each side of Los Robles, and between each sidewalk and the curb there is a parkway. Along each parkway there are large pepper trees, the branches of which overhang the street on each side approximately 18 feet. There were street lights on each of the four comers of the intersection, and there was a street light on the east side of Los Robles about 100 feet south of the intersection and another street light on the west side of Los Robles about 85 feet south of the intersection. The street lights were lighted at the time of the accident. There were no traffic signals at the intersection and there were boulevard stop signs only for east-west traffic on Del Mar. There were no white pavement lines on Los Robles at the place of the accident.

Plaintiff lived at the southwest corner of the intersection above mentioned, and kept his automobile in a garage at the rear of a residence on the east side of Los Robles. The driveway from the street to the garage is 160 feet south of the south curb of Del Mar. On October 23, 1941, about 6:15 p. m., after dark and when the atmospheric conditions were foggy, and there was a drizzling rain, plaintiff drove his automobile to the garage, and then walked westerly along the driveway to the sidewalk on the east side of Los Robles, and thence diagonally in a northwesterly direction to the east curb of Los Robles to a point about 130 feet south of the south curb of Del Mar.

[57]Plaintiff testified that he stopped at said point on the east curb of Los Robles, looked toward the south along Los Robles, saw an automobile approaching about 175 to 200 feet away, and he waited until that automobile passed him and then stepped into the street; that he walked diagonally in a northwesterly direction across Los Robles intending to go to his residence on the southwest corner of the intersection; that he did not look toward the south again until he had gone to a point on Los Robles designated on a map in evidence as point “C.” Point C was approximately 10 feet west of the center of Los Robles. He testified further that when he was at point C he saw two or more cars coming from the north on Los Robles and he waited at point C until those cars had passed to the west .of him; that there was another car coming from the north which passed to the east of him; that after those cars had passed him, while he was at point C, he heard “the rubber burning” behind him and he looked over his shoulder and “got a glance of one heading in my (his) direction,” and he then ran 2 or 3 steps and was struck by the bumper of defendant’s automobile which was coming from the south; that defendant’s car traveled about 6 feet in a northwesterly direction after it struck him; and that when the automobile came to a stop plaintiff was hanging on the left side of the front bumper. Plaintiff testified that he was 73 years of age; that at the time of the accident he was wearing a white hat, dark coat, and overalls with white and blue stripes; and that his hearing and eyesight were good.