Anglin v. Nichols, 6059
| Decision Date | 29 May 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 6059,6059 |
| Citation | 80 Ariz. 346,297 P.2d 932 |
| Parties | William A. ANGLIN, Appellant, v. Earl NICHOLS, Appellee. |
| Court | Arizona Supreme Court |
McKesson & Renaud, J., Gordon Cook, Phoenix, for appellant.
Moore & Romley, Phoenix, for appellee.
This is an appeal from an order denying plaintiff's motion for judgment n. o. v.; from an order denying his motion for a new trial, and from final judgment in favor of defendant on plaintiff's complaint. The cause of action arose out of an automobile accident. Defendant answered denying the material allegations of plaintiff's complaint and filed a counterclaim against the plaintiff and secured an order bringing in Lee Furman, driver of plaintiff's car, as a cross-defendant. The counterclaim was duly answered and its allegations denied. The cause was tried to the court without a jury.
The facts are that plaintiff's car driven by Furman proceeding north on the Higley Road, and in which plaintiff was riding, collided with a pickup truck belonging to defendant which at the time was being driven east on Elliott Road by his 12-year-old son unaccompained by the defendant. The collision occurred at the intersection of the two roads, east of the paved portion of Higley Road. Each of said roads was paved with blacktop which was 18 feet in width. There was a stop sign on Elliott Road variously estimated as being from 20 to 50 feet west of the intersection.
Considering the evidence in a light most favorable to sustaining the judgment of the trial court which we must do under the circumstances, the plaintiff's car was traveling according to the testimony of Furman at 40 to 45 miles an hour. However, according to the physical facts plaintiff's car laid down skid marks of 167 feet leading to the point of impact. And according to figures given by the witness Glen Smoot, a safety engineer, which he said were based upon over a thousand experiments personally made by him involving all makes of cars, and upon courses taken at Yale University, Yale Bureau of State Traffic Research and at Northwestern Traffic Institute, a car driven at 55 miles an hour will lay down skid marks of 162 feet on pavement, and that about seven feet should be added where the car is on a graveled highway.
Plaintiff's car was entirely on the pavement part of the time and for a short distance the two right wheels of his car were on a graveled shoulder. The trial court was justified upon this evidence (which has been recognized as competent by the courts for a number of years) in finding that plaintiff's car was traveling in excess of 55 miles per hour when he applied his brakes. Smoot testified that the speed limit at that time on a county rural highway was 50 miles per hour in day time and 45 miles per hour at night. The accident here involved occurred in the day time. He was unable to state what it was at that particular point at the time of the accident because he said it had been changed in that area two or three times because of the high accident record there. We believe it may be safely assumed that any changes made under the circumstances stated would be in a reduction of speed limits in that area. The evidence being in conflict in the point, a finding, if such were made, of contributory negligence on the part of plaintiff by the court on the ground of...
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