Price v. United Telephone Co.
Price v. United Telephone Co.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
These two actions were tried together in the court below and presented together here. The plaintiff, Edna Price, seeks to recover for personal injuries sustained when the car which she
The principal facts are not seriously controverted, and may be stated as follows: A township road runs north from the city of Republic. About a mile north of the city it is intersected by an east- and-west county road. For more than twenty years prior to the casualty which gives rise to this lawsuit defendant had maintained and operated a telephone line along the south side of the county road to the intersection from the east where it crossed the road to the north or northwest. Prior to the fall of 1928 the intersection of the two roads above mentioned was the ordinary square intersection of two highways, but in 1928, under the direction of the county engineer, the southeast corner of the intersection was rounded. This was done by first obtaining from the landowner an easement for the new road rounding the corner. Across the right of way thus obtained a roadway was laid out on a curve with a 200-foot radius connecting the township road south of the old intersection with the county road east of it. The old intersection was, of course, left for north-and-south and east-and-west traffic. This left a triangular tract southeast of the old intersection and between that and the new curved road connecting the two highways. One of defendant’s telephone poles was in this triangular tract, and the next one east of that was about the middle of the new curved road. About the time this work was commenced the county engineer called the manager of the telephone company and told him of the work to be done and that there were telephone poles in the way. He replied he would send men to move them. That afternoon he sent men, who moved the pole that was in the new curved road. There was evidence tending to show that the men did not have time that afternoon to move the pole in the triangular tract above mentioned. It is what is spoken of as a “key” pole, the line changing there to the north or northwest, and it being guyed with a guy wire, for which reasons it would take more time to move it. The county engineer
The intersection was maintained as above described from the fall of 1928 until after September 4, 1931 — the date of the casualty which gives rise to these actions. Frequently within that time inspectors of defendant examined its poles and lines, and knew that
Plaintiffs lived on a farm about a mile and a quarter north of this intersection and had lived there for nine years. They frequently went to Republic, were familiar with the road and with this intersection, and with the location of defendant’s telephone pole near the southeast corner of the intersection, both before it was improved by the rounding of the southeast corner in 1928 and since that time. The county road at this point was down grade from a point some distance east of the intersection, through it, and west a quarter of a mile or more to a bridge across a creek. From the north to the intersection, for a short distance, the township road was slightly upgrade and from the intersection south was slightly downgrade. On the day of the casualty, shortly after one o’clock in the afternoon, the plaintiff, Edna Price, started to drive from her home to Republic. The car she was driving was owned by plaintiffs, and she had driven it frequently and had been driving cars for more than fifteen years. Her daughter, fourteen years of age, was with her, riding on the seat beside her. As she approached this intersection, some little distance before she reached it and while driving at about thirty miles per hour, she looked to the west for cars or dust from cars approaching. She could sometimes see a cloud of dust better than she could see a car. She saw none and drove on to the intersection, where she slowed down to perhaps fifteen miles an hour. Just after entering the intersection she observed a car coming rapidly from the west, driving about the middle of the highway. Her car was equipped with four-wheel brakes, in good condition, but she thought she did not have time to stop and did not apply her brakes. She turned her car to her left toward the east, and perhaps speeded up a little, hoping to avoid the approaching car. The car coming from the west was driven by a young man, Mr. Madsen. Three other young men were riding in the car with him. They had been driving at from sixty to seventy miles an hour. When they came in sight of the intersection, one of the men called Madsen’s attention to it and he took his foot off of the gas accelerator and the car slowed a little. When he saw the car Mrs. Price was driving in the intersection he put on his brakes hard enough that
The accompanying plat shows more clearly the situation as it existed just after the casualty. Its scale as reproduced here is 30'=1". The letter A shows the location of the telephone pole in question, and B the anchor of the guy wire 12' 3" south of it; C is a telephone pole at the northwest corner of the intersection; D is the culvert on the inside of the curved highway for the drainage of the curved road and perhaps a part of the intersection; E is approximately at the place where the two cars collided, although some witnesses placed it a little nearer to the telephone pole; F is the
It will be noted that neither of the cars which collided was using this rounded curve. Plaintiff’s car came from the north, and Mrs. Price planned to drive on south across the intersection. The Mad-sen car came from the west, and its driver intended to proceed eastward across the intersection. The collision was not affected in any way by this curved roadway. We are unable to see that it had any effect on the liability of the parties, unless the improvement at the time it was made left the telephone pole at a place where it discommoded the traveling public.
Turning now to the legal question argued: Was defendant negligent in maintaining its pole in the location it was on the day of the casualty? Our statute (R. S. 17-1901) provides:
“Corporations created for the purpose of constructing and maintaining magnetic telegraph lines are authorized to set their poles, . . . upon and across any of the public roads, ... of this state, in such manner as not to incommode the public in the use of such roads, ...”
And the next section (R. S. 17-1902) provides:
“Telephone companies shall have all the rights and powers conferred and be subject to all the liabilities imposed by the general laws of this state upon telegraph companies.”
Under these statutes the telephone company was authorized to set its poles upon or in the highway if, in doing so, the poles were not so placed as to incommode the public in the use of such roads. Under the authorization granted by this statute telegraph and telephone companies have placed their poles near the side of, but within, many of the public roads throughout the state. Their right to do so, if they are so placed as not to incommode the public in the use of the roads, is fully recognized under the statutes above quoted and by the former decisions of the court. (McCann v. Telephone
“Q. Was the defendant’s telephone pole located so it interfered with the usual and customary use of the highways surrounding it? A. No.”
We feel compelled to hold, under the record in this case, and particularly under the finding of the jury above set out, that defendant was not guilty of negligence in maintaining its pole at the place in question.
Passing now to the question of proximate cause. Appellee correctly argues that the concurring negligence of two or more parties may be such that the negligence of each is a proximate cause of an injury. (Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Hoffman, 208 Fed. 221.) This doctrine cannot be availed of here for two reasons: First, the defendant, under the record and the specific finding of the jury, was not guilty of negligence; and, second, it is clear that the collision of the two cars caused the Price car to be thrown against the telephone pole (Eberhardt v. Telephone Co., 91 Kan. 763, 139 Pac. 416; Wyatt v. Telephone Company, 158 Va. 470, 163 S. E. 370). Madsen, if the cars collided by reason of his negligence (and we may assume that they did), would have been responsible for all injuries resulting to plaintiffs, not only that which occurred at the immediate time the cars collided, but the subsequent injuries when plaintiff’s car was thrown or diverted from its course by that impact against the telephone pole. See Mayer v. Mellette, 65 Ind. App. 54, 114 N. E. 241, where the driver of a car at an intersection was forced against a telephone pole by the negligence of another car and recovered from the latter for the damages sustained.
While some other questions pertaining to trial errors are discussed, in view of the conclusion we have reached upon the principal points in controversy it is not necessary to determine them.
The judgment of the court below is reversed, with directions to enter judgment for defendant.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Edna Price v. The United Telephone Company, Appellant Earl H. Price v. The United Telephone Company
- Status
- Published