Fisk v. Poplin
Fisk v. Poplin
Opinion of the Court
is an appeal by the defendant from a judgment against him for $682.75, recovered by the plaintiff as damages for personal injuries, alleged to have been caused by the negligent driving of defendant’s automobile, which resulted in a collision between it and the plaintiff, causing her injury. The appellant assigns as error the ruling of the trial court in denying his motion for nonsuit, made at the end of plaintiff’s case, and also assigns as error certain findings of the trial court, under the claim that such findings are not sustained by the evidence. Both contentions may be considered together, as both involve a discussion of the evidence appearing in the record, which is favorable to the contentions of the plaintiff.
At the time of the accident, the plaintiff was crossing Hill Street at its intersection with Sixth Street, in Los Angeles. Hill Street runs north and south and crosses Sixth Street at right angles. There are double street-car tracks on each street. The plaintiff was crossing Hill Street from east to west on the north side of Sixth Street. When she had reached a point on the north-bound tracks on Hill Street she was struck by defendant’s automobile, which was going north on Hill Street. The court found that the plaintiff exercised ordinary and proper care for her own safety, and that the negligent acts of the defendant were the direct and proximate cause of the accident.
These findings are supported by plaintiff’s testimony that, when near the curb on the east side of Hill Street, she looked up and down the street and saw no vehicles whatever coming ; that she looked ahead at the street-car coming to a stop on the tracks on the west side of Hill Street, “except I looked both ways as I stepped from the curb and there were no vehicles whatever within my sight.” It is contended by appellant that this testimony is contradicted by the physical facts. Appellant assumes, without any evidence in the record therefor, that defendant’s automobile was on the south line of Sixth Street at the instant that the plaintiff started to cross the street, and then he argues that if plaintiff had looked she must have seen it. He further argues, in this connection, that the finding of the court and the testimony of the several witnesses that the defendant was going at the rate of fifteen miles an hour are contradicted by the physical facts. He points out that if the machine had been going at the rate of fifteen miles miles an hour and had left the south line of Sixth Street at the instant plaintiff started across the street, it would have passed the point of collision before plaintiff reached it in view of the admitted measurements of the street, and the admitted speed at which plaintiff was walking. We may not, however, assume that the automobile left the south line of Sixth Street at the instant plaintiff started across the street, in the absence of evidence upon this point, and in contradiction of the findings of other facts *590 made by the trial court. The motorman on the south-bound ear that had just stopped at the north line of Sixth Street at .the time of the accident testified that he saw the automobile first when it had about reached the center of Sixth Street. The traffic policeman, who stood in the center of the street at the intersection of the two streets, testified that he saw the automobile when it passed in front of him; that plaintiff was almost at the east rail of the north-bound track when he first saw her and the automobile was just then passing in front of him. There is other testimony to the same effect. There is no testimony establishing the basic fact of appellant’s argument. Indeed, if we proceed along the chain of logic from the finding, of the court that the defendant was going at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, and take into consideration the admitted facts with regard to distances and the rate of speed at which plaintiff was walking, we arrive at the inevitable conclusion that the automobile was some distance south of the south line of Sixth Street when plaintiff started across the street.
The trial court found that the defendant was traveling in his automobile northbound on Hill Street and near the center of said street and that the said defendant negligently failed to keep any proper lookout for pedestrians and negligently failed to give any warning of his approach to the place of accident, and that at said time he was traveling at about fifteen miles per hour, and that such rate of speed was negligent under the circumstances; that at said time and place there were no other vehicles or other pedestrians to have prevented defendant from driving on the right-hand side of said street and near the curb thereof, and that he negligently drove near the center of said street. It is true the defendant testified that there was a wagon on the right-hand side of the street, which made it necessary for him to drive in the center of the street in order to pass the same, but there is testimony of several other witnesses from which the court might conclude that this wagon was not in a position to interfere with defendant in driving to the right of the center of the street at that place and that time.
The other objection of the appellant is made in regard to the damages allowed. It is contended that as the proof shows that the doctor’s bill of one hundred dollars has not yet been paid, and as the proof also shows that the bill for hospital and nurse was paid by plaintiff’s son, with whom she lives, that, therefore, it was improper to allow the same under the allegations of the complaint, as these sums were not expended by the plaintiff.
The court, in allowing damages in the sum of $682.75, evidently allowed one hundred dollars for the doctor’s bill, which was at that time unpaid, and $82.75 for hospital bills, etc., which had been paid by the plaintiff’s son, and five hundred dollars for damages for pain and suffering, and present and possible future disability.
In the case of
McLaughlin
v.
San Francisco etc. Ry. Co.,
113 Cal. 592, [45 Pac. 839], where a similar situation arose, the court reversed the judgment and remanded the case with leave to plaintiff to amend his complaint to include therein an allegation covering expenses incurred, as well as expenses paid.
*593 The plaintiff and respondent is, therefore, ordered to remit one hundred dollars of the judgment obtained, and when said amount has been remitted, the judgment will stand affirmed.
Nourse, J., and Brittain, J., concurred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- CLARA H. FISK, Respondent, v. JOHN S. POPLIN, Appellant
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published