Pittman v. B. & L. CONCESSIONS

• Decision Date: 17 May 1950
• Docket Number: No. 5895.,5895.
• Citation: 90 F. Supp. 666
• Parties: PITTMAN v. B. & L. CONCESSIONS, Inc.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri

90 F. Supp. 666

PITTMAN v. B. & L. CONCESSIONS, Inc.

No. 5895.

United States District Court W. D. Missouri, W. D.

May 17, 1950.

Thomas J. Stubbs and James L. Williams, of Stubbs, McKenzie & Williams, Kansas City, Mo. for plaintiff.

Alvin C. Trippe of Hogsett, Trippe, Depping, Houts & James, Kansas City, Mo. for defendant.

REEVES, Chief Judge.

This is an action for damages which the plaintiff claims to have accrued to her in an automobile collision on Missouri Highway No. 50 in Jackson County, Missouri, at about 12:50 P.M. on the 29th of July, 1949.

Plaintiff, with her husband's mother, was a passenger in a Chrysler automobile driven by her husband eastwardly on said highway with the object of visiting relatives at Laddonia, near Mexico, Missouri. The defendant's truck was being driven westwardly by one Lester Stansberry, and at a point where a filling station is located on the south side of said highway the driver of defendant's truck slowed down and suddenly turned to the left into the south lane of the highway with the purpose of entering the filling station located as above stated. He did this just as the driver of the Chrysler car in which plaintiff was riding came over a rise some 70 feet back from the point of collision and traveling at a speed of 40 to 45 miles per hour. The defendant's truck driver gave no signal of his purpose to make the turn to the left. At the time of the collision the front end of the truck was approximately 3 feet across the center line on to the south side or south lane of the highway. The left front of the chrysler in which plaintiff was traveling, hit the right front of the truck, and according to the evidence the truck was forced back a few feet by the impact.

It is the contention of the plaintiff that the truck turned immediately in front of the car in which she was riding, and that her husband was unable either to stop or to swerve to the right so as to avoid the collision.

On the other hand, it is the contention of the defendant that the driver of the car in which plaintiff was riding saw, or should have seen, the peril in time to have stopped or to have changed the direction in which his automobile was being driven.

Officer Elvert O. Nash was a Missouri highway patrolman or trooper and had been such for seven years. He came to the scene of the accident within a few minutes after the accident occurred. The truck at the time was 3 feet over on the south lane of the highway. The truck driver told the witness that he had started into the filling station when the driver of the Chrysler "popped up and hit me though stark-still." The officer said that the crest of the rise was 70 feet west of the point where the accident occurred. The witness gave expert testimony upon the ability to stop moving vehicles. He said that it would take 75 hundredths of a second for the driver of a moving vehicle to react to a situation such as confronted the driver of the Chrysler automobile, and, that, traveling at a speed of 40 miles per hour, a vehicle would travel 155 feet before it could be brought to a stop.

Ralph L. Sears was present at the filling station and saw the accident. He confirmed the undisputed testimony that the truck was endeavoring to turn southwardly into the filling station. He said that the Chrysler and the truck were about 25 to 30 feet apart when he first saw them and that the collision was like an explosion. A Packard automobile was following closely behind the truck and when the collision occurred, the truck was forced backward into the Packard, so that three vehicles were involved. He confirmed the evidence of Officer Nash to the effect that the truck driver said that he had not seen the Chrysler approaching from the west.

Glenn Pittman, the first witness for the plaintiff and the husband of plaintiff, testified that he was driving a Chrysler automobile, with his wife and mother as passengers, eastwardly on Highway 50 when the collision occurred about 12:50 P.M., July 29, 1949. The car was traveling at a speed of 40 to 45 miles per hour. He had seen the truck traveling westwardly in the north lane of the highway and there were no vehicles between him and the truck. The truck turned suddenly into the south lane of the highway without notice or signal. It was a matter of seconds until the impact. He testified further that in...