Haber v. Miller

FORD, J. This is an appeal by the plaintiffs from a judgment for the defendants in an action in which the plaintiffs sought to recover for personal injuries and damage to property arising out of a collision between two automobiles.. The plaintiffs are Paul Haber, his wife, and their two minor children. While they prosecute their appeal without aid of counsel, at the trial they were represented by an attorney.

An attack is here made upon the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain any verdict for the defendants. It is also claimed that the statements of two jurors, which the record shows were made after the verdicts had been rendered and the jurors dismissed, established that the jurors were confused as to the applicable law. The problems so presented are not novel.

The accident occurred at about 4 p. m. on August 10, 1958, on Highway 101 north of the city of Santa Barbara. It was a clear, sunny day. The plaintiffs were driving to Solvang. Mr. Haber intended to turn to his right onto Alisal Road which was about 300 feet past a crest on Highway 101. There were two lanes for northbound traffic and Mr. Haber was in the lane next to the east side of the highway. He testified that he stopped about 20 to 30 feet from Alisal Road so as to permit an automobile to enter the highway from that road. His left arm was in a position to indicate that he intended to make a right turn. No traffic was behind him when he stopped. He motioned to the other driver to proceed since he did not think that Alisal Road was wide enough for two cars. He then took “a second look” in his rear-view mirror. He saw the defendant Miller’s automobile “coming from over the crest . . . very, very fast . . . .” Mr. Haber “didn’t know what to do ”; he took hold of the steering wheel and “froze holding it” and yelled to his family that something was going to hit them. When the defendant Miller’s vehicle hit the Habers’ car, their vehicle was pushed forward between 40 and 60 feet.

[545]The defendant Miller’s version of the accident differed from that of Mr. Haber. He was driving in the lane to the left of that in which the Haber vehicle was. As he got to the crest of the hill, he saw a car stopped at about the Alisal Eoad intersection. Another car, in the lane next to the east side of the highway, was moving slowly up to where the automobile was stopped. The defendant Miller applied his brakes approximately 170 feet from Alisal Eoad because he anticipated that the car moving behind the stopped vehicle would turn into the lane in which Miller was proceeding. Thereafter the other car pulled out in front of the Miller car and into that lane. Miller further testified that the brakes on his automobile were applied “with such force that one or more locked.” He said that his car went down the highway in the same lane “until the final 10, 15 feet” and that “it slid around. ’ ’ He never attempted to get into the lane where the plaintiffs’ car was, but tried to hold his car in the other lane. When the collision with the Haber automobile occurred, the Miller car was “practically stopped.” While the defendant Miller had a weakened right leg because of infantile paralysis, he was not thereby prevented from applying the brakes.