Valerio v. Jahura

STONE, J. pro tem.* Plaintiff was a guest passenger in an automobile that collided with a car owned and driven by the defendant. A jury brought in a verdict for defendant, a judgment followed, and plaintiff appeals.

Both vehicles involved were traveling south on Mathilda Avenue in Santa Clara County. The ear in which plaintiff was riding was in the lead, with defendant one or two car lengths to the rear, both vehicles traveling about 20 miles per hour. As the vehicles approached the Maude Avenue intersection, each was properly on the right hand side of Mathilda Avenue, a two-lane street, one lane for each direction of traffic. Near the approach to Maude Avenue there was a double white line down the middle of Mathilda Avenue. Defendant, wishing to make a left turn from Mathilda onto Maude, drove over the double line and into the left or northbound lane. He was then some two ear lengths from the intersection. As the ears reached the intersection defendant pulled up alongside the car in which plaintiff was riding so that the cars were side by side, with defendant in the wrong lane. Plaintiff’s driver, without giving any signal, turned left into Maude Avenue and struck defendant’s car which also was about to turn left. Plaintiff was injured in the accident.

The defendant denied negligence and pleaded the affirmative defenses of unavoidable accident and contributory negligence of plaintiff’s driver, which he imputed to plaintiff. At the pretrial hearing defendant abandoned the affirmative defenses and the case went to trial on the issues of defendant’s negligence and proximate cause.

[161]Plaintiff appeals on the sole ground that there was no substantial evidence to support the defense verdict and judgment. He argues that not only was the defendant negligent as a matter of law, but that also as a matter of law his negligence was a proximate cause of the accident. There can be no question about defendant’s negligence. He testified that he crossed the double line “10, maybe 20 feet” before reaching the intersection. Admittedly, he was in the wrong lane when he pulled abreast of plaintiff’s ear. By driving in this manner, defendant violated the following three California Vehicle Code sections then in effect: section 525.2, which provides that no driver of a vehicle shall cross a double white line except at an intersection or when turning into a private driveway; section 530, subdivision (b), paragraph 2, which provides that no vehicle shall be driven to the left side of the roadway when approaching within 100 feet of an intersection ; section 540, subdivision (b), which provides that a driver intending to turn left at an intersection “. . . shall approach the intersection in the extreme left-hand lane lawfully available to traffic moving in the direction of travel of such vehicle and after entering the intersection the left turn shall be made. ...” (Emphasis supplied.)