Coe v. Kings County Truck Line

DORAN, J. Dr. Marie Condee Coe was killed at a signal-controlled intersection, within a business district, in a daylight collision between a Dodge sedan being operated easterly by her and defendants’ heavy 65,500-pound and lengthy, approximately 60-foot, equipment which consisted of a truck-tractor and a large semitrailer and a converter gear with another semitrailer attached, being operated by defendant in a southerly direction.

The action is for damage - by the surviving husband and minor children of deceased. Following a jury trial the verdict and judgment were for defendant. A motion for a new trial was denied and the appeal herein is from the judgment.

As stated in appellant’s brief, “Although the answer technically denied that death resulted from the accident, the evidence-showed that the force of the impact threw Dr. Coe from the sedan and under the wheels of defendants’ equipment where she was observed by defendant driver, and it was stipulated that she died as a result of this accident. As [373]an affirmative defense, the answer pleaded that the deceased had been guilty of contributory negligence ‘in that at the time and place of said alleged accident said Marie 'Condee Coe so negligently drove said automobile as to cause the same to collide with the truck.’ ”

The accident occurred at the intersection of South Alameda and 41st Street in Los Angeles. Alameda Street at this point is a four-lane highway.

“At the place of the accident and for some distance to the north and south thereof, Alameda Street runs north and south and is divided by a railroad private right-of-way which also runs north and south. Thus, one portion "of ■ Alameda runs north-south on the west side of the railroad right-of-way and the other portion of Alameda does the same but on the east side of said right-of-way. Both the west portion and the east portion of Alameda carry both northbound and southbound vehicular traffic. The city of Los Angeles is west and the city of Vernon is east, the boundary between them being about the middle of the railroad right-of-way so that southbound tracks are in Los Angeles and northbound tracks are in Vernon. The east-west street, which crosses Alameda and the tracks at the place here involved, is known as 41st Street in Los Angeles and as 38th Street in Vernon.

“The evidence without contradiction showed that defendant driver was operating the truck and trailers southerly on the Vernon side of Alameda (i.e., east of the railroad) and that the decedent was operating the Coe car in an easterly direction on the 41st-38th east-west street and that the collision occurred on the Vernon side of the intersection eást of the railroad tracks.” The intersection was controlled by traffic signals.