Carr v. Kurtz
Carr v. Kurtz
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This is an appeal from a judgment for the plaintiff, entered by the court below sitting without a jury and
The evidence taken most favorably to the plaintiff, the verdict-winner, is that he was driving south on Me-. Clure Avenue, a two way street forty feet wide, and stopped in response to a stop sign at its intersection with Benton Avenue, a two way street fifty feet widé. He looked both to his right and left on Benton Avenue. Seeing no traffic coming from either direction, he proceeded into the intersection. He looked again to the right when about halfway across Benton Avenue and for the first time saw the defendant’s car approaching from his right at a distance of approximately ten feet. When his ear was three-fourths of the way through the intersection it was struck on the right side by the front of the defendant’s vehicle. He testified that he did not see the defendant’s oncoming automobile because he was unable to see more than thirty feet to the west due to a dip in the street at about that distance.
Since the collision occurred when the plaintiff was three-fourths of the way through the intersection, and the defendant admitted that he entered the intersection without looking to the right or left, the question of the defendant’s negligence was for the trier of the facts.' The defendant’s testimony that he had good side vision and saw right and left is merely one piece of evidence to be considered on the issue of his negligence.
The burden is on the defendant to prove that the plaintiff’s own negligence contributed to his injury. Stegmuller v. Davis, 408 Pa. 267, 182 A. 2d 745 (1962). His principal evidence of contributory negligence was his own testimony and the testimony of his son that there was no dip which could have prevented the plaintiff from seeing his automobile approaching on Benton Avenue when he stopped at the intersection. The defendant thus calls into question the reasonability of
Judgment affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
Dissenting Opinion by
I dissent. A stop sign should have more méaning than the majority gives it in this case. Furthermore, the majority accepts as possible the plaintiff’s statement that the defendant’s car could not have been seen
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.