McHale v. Hall

FOURT, J. This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of defendant in a rear-end vehicle collision case. John and Mary E. McHale, husband and wife, were the parents of Bridget, who was about ten (10) years of age at the time of the collision in question. Each of the three brought an action for damages resulting from the accident hereinafter described. In a jury trial a verdict for defendant was returned and this appeal followed.

A résumé of some of the facts is as follows:

On December 16, 1962, at about 1:30 p.m. it was starting to rain a little as Mrs. McHale was driving a Volkswagen car, ordinarily operated by her husband, east on Las Posas Road in Ventura County. A Mr. Gunner, whom she had picked up a short time before and whom she was taking home, occupied the front seat to the right of the driver of the car. Three of Mrs. McHale’s children, including Bridget (one of the plaintiffs), occupied the rear seat of the ear. Mr. Gunner resided on Loma Drive (which intersects with Las Posas Road) to the north of Las Posas Road. It was therefore necessary for Mrs. McHale to make a left turn off of Las Posas Road onto Loma Drive. The first intersection west of Loma Drive is Beverly Street, which forms a “T” intersection with Las Posas Road. The distance between Loma Drive and Beverly Street was in dispute, the testimony ranging in estimates from 300 to 525 feet.

When driving easterly on Las Posas Road, as Mrs. McHale and defendant were doing at the time in question, cars approaching the intersection of Beverly Street and Las Posas Road are confronted with a rise in Las Posas Road which reaches its peak at or near the intersection of Beverly Street and Las Posas Road and thereafter Las Posas Road descends gradually to the intersection with Loma Drive and beyond where it levels out farther east. The exact location of the rise was in dispute.

The testimony with reference to the speeds of the respective cars was in dispute. Mrs. McHale claimed that she passed the crest of the hill traveling at 15 to 20 miles per hour and then gradually came to a stop, or near stop, at Loma Drive. She did state to the police that she was going 5 [345]miles per hour at about the time of the impact. There is no dispute, however, that she gave no hand signal of her intention to turn to the left off of Las Posas Road and onto Loma Drive. She acknowledged that the left directional blinker on the Volkswagen was out of order and that her husband had told her so. Admittedly, she gave no hand signal for an intended stop. A police officer tested the brake light and found the left light not to be working. The Volkswagen had bumper guards of such construction that at least one-fourth of the area of the stop light was obscured. Further, considering the configuration of Las Posas Road, a brake light on the Volkswagen could not be seen, even if in working order, if one were 200 feet, or more, westerly from the intersection of Las Posas Road and Loma Drive.