Grauberger v. O'Donnell
Grauberger v. O'Donnell
Opinion of the Court
The cases having been consolidated for trial, plaintiffs had jury verdicts against all defendants. From judgments non obstante veredicto in favor of defendants O’Donnell, plaintiffs appeal.
We view the testimony for purposes of this appeal in the light most favorable to plaintiffs. Staunton v. City of Detroit, 329 Mich 516. So viewed, the f aets-a-re: - Plaintiffs -were in an automobile traveling-north in the east lane of a 4-lane highway. The O’Donnells were in their automobile, stopped at the edge of the highway' on. a .driveway to. the east of
In entering judgment non obstante veredicto the trial court was of the opinion that under plaintiffs’ proofs O’Donnells must be held, as a matter of law, free from negligence that was a proximate cause of plaintiffs’ injuries and damages. Inherent therein is a holding that plaintiffs’ proofs were insufficient
Plaintiffs contend that the evidence does give rise to a question of fact whether O’Donnells were guilty of (1) failure to make proper observation before entering the highway or third lane, (2) failure to see the McTiernan automobile approaching or, (3) having seen it, failure to form a reasonable judgment of its speed and distance away, (4) failure to continue to make observations' of it, (5) taking chances and proceeding in the; face of1 known danger, (6) traveling at an excessively slow speed in crossing the 2 east lanes and proceeding in the third, and whether such conduct, dr any of it, constituted negligence which was a proximate cause of the collisions.
In Weever v. Weiandt, 321 Mich 585; and Miller v. Pillow, 337 Mich 262, the relative positions and courses of action of the plaintiffs were comparable to those of the- O’Donnells at bar. In both we held, in response to contentions that they should be held guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law, that the question presented was one of fact for the jury. Under the facts as above outlined, we think the question whether O’Donnells were guilty of negligence which was a proximate cause of plaintiffs’ injuries is equally a question of fact.
' Although the instructions of the court to the jury are set forth in full in the record, no claim of error therein is made oh appeal nor does it appear that defendants filed a motion for a new trial based on such claim; hence, we refrain from passing on it.
Judgments non obstante veredicto for defendants O’Donnell are reversed and the causes remanded for
Reference
- Full Case Name
- GRAUBERGER v. O'DONNELL PHILLIPS v. SAME
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- 1 case
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- Published