Beck v. Hooks

• Decision Date: 18 September 1940
• Docket Number: 737.
• Citation: Beck v. Hooks, 218 N.C. 105, 10 S.E.2d 608 (N.C. 1940)
• Parties: BECK v. HOOKS et al.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

10 S.E.2d 608

218 N.C. 105

BECK v. HOOKS et al.

No. 737.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

September 18, 1940

Civil action to recover damages for personal injury resulting from alleged actionable negligence. Defendants denied allegation of negligence, and pleaded contributory negligence.

On the night of 6 November, 1938, plaintiff's automobile driven by his nephew, Alvis Beck, at his request and under his direction, and in which he was riding, traveling north on U. S. Highway No. 15, from Durham toward Oxford, ran into and collided with the rear end of a trailer truck of defendants loaded with furniture, and likewise headed north, standing partly on and partly off the paved portion of the highway on the east or right side thereof, at a point in Granville County, North Carolina, about one mile north of Harris' filling station and three miles south of the town of Creedmoor and near the foot of a slight down grade, resulting in serious personal injury to plaintiff. At the point of collision the paved portion of the highway was eighteen feet wide. The shoulder on the right side there was four or five feet wide. Southward, the highway was slightly upgrade and straight, or practically straight, for two hundred yards to one thousand feet, and northward it curved slightly to the left.

Plaintiff's evidence tended to show these facts: When the plaintiff's automobile and defendants' truck came to rest after the collision they were both partly on and partly off the paved portion of the highway, and on the east or right side standing twenty to thirty feet apart. One tail light, a dim light, was burning. Lights on one side, the clearance lights were burning. The dim tail light was on the body of the truck, and "two or three were mashed up over there where it was torn up". There was clearance of ten or twelve feet to the left of the truck according to the testimony of the Chief of Police when he arrived about thirty minutes after the wreck occurred.

Plaintiff and Alvis Beck were the only witnesses for plaintiff with respect to the operation of plaintiff's automobile immediately preceding the collision.

Narratively stated, plaintiff testified: "We were coming down the right *** just over the crest of a hill and was meeting an automobile and when the automobile passed our light flashed on the truck, or I guess it was a truck,--it was a bulky something in the road. That is the last thing I remember *** At the time I first observed the object *** there was one light visible on the right side, a little bitty dim red light. *** I detected the light pretty much as soon as I saw the object in the road. I was keeping a lookout along the road in front of me ***". Then on cross examination he testified: "*** I should judge that from where I come over the crest of the hill *** to where I struck this truck is somewhere around 150 yards. When I come over the crest of the hill and traveling at the rate of forty miles an hour there was nothing in between me and what was there *** my lights *** showed as far as from the witness chair to the back end of the court house (admitted to be 67 feet). I don't know how far my lights were showing that night at the rate of forty miles an hour. I imagine it was around fifty feet *** approximately fifty feet. *** The brakes were in perfect condition. *** going forty miles an hour *** according to my testimony it would take me the full distance of my light beam to come to a stop. At the time I come over the crest of this hill and started down there was an unobstructed view of 150 yards. I looked down the road. I didn't see anything. I imagine you could see down to the foot of the hill. When I came to the crest I looked as far down as I could see. I continued to look all the way down. *** The lights of that automobile that I was meeting looked to be reasonably bright. *** What kept me or the driver from seeing that parked object in the highway was that you can't see as far down the highway when you are meeting an automobile. The curve beyond where the truck was parked was just a little bit of curve, not very much, bearing a little bit to the left. I know the lights were bright, and I saw the automobile before I hit the truck. *** I do know that I was looking straight ahead to see if anything was in the road. I always do. Alvis seemed to be looking straight ahead *** When I finally met this automobile, or passed it, it might have been 14 feet from the truck *** somewhere around that. I saw one light on the truck, a red light. When I saw that light I said or did nothing *** I felt him put on brakes. There was nothing else I could do *** When I first saw the truck I would say I was as much as 12 or 14 feet from the truck. Another automobile was coming that kept us from cutting between that 14-foot gap and missing that truck *** I admit it took me and my agent somewhere around 50 feet to stop. *** There was an automobile meeting us and it passed us beyond the truck, and when that passed, another light flashed up and that is the last thing I remember. I didn't see any 14-foot gap. I don't know what kept us from going around it."

Alvis Beck, testifying for plaintiff, said: "After we left Harris' filling station, we hit a truck. They said it was a truck. I couldn't tell what it was that night. *** I drove just ordinary speed, I reckon around 40 miles an hour *** I was keeping a lookout along the highway in front of me *** After I passed the automobile I saw the object in front of me, whatever it was, a great big something in the road *** I was something like as far as from the witness chair to the back side of the building when I first discerned it. After seeing the truck I tried to stop. I knocked it out of gear, and put on brakes, pushed in the clutch. I was not able to stop it. I didn't see any light or lights on the object which I saw in front of me there on the highway. I was looking along the highway in front of me. The front end of the car I was in struck the object which was in the road. ***" Then on cross examination the witness testified: "I had driven this car before, several times. I am familiar with the speed *** I knew approximately how long it would take to stop a car with the brakes I had *** I have driven over that road many times. *** When you come to the top of the hill you can see down there if there is no car coming to blind you, if there was nothing between you, you could see that far. I don't know how fast I was going when I ran into the truck, I reckon about 15 or 20 miles an hour *** An automobile passed us. When I was coming over the grade, the car was coming to meet me. I don't know how far away I was from the automobile that I said blinded me when I saw it. As far as from here across the street maybe. Those lights blinded me. I took my foot off the gas then. I started slowing down because the oncoming lights blinded me. The lights were blinding me, keeping me from seeing the truck in front of my lights. I couldn't look down the road. I did not drive blinded at 40 miles an hour when I couldn't even see. I could see some. They blinded me, but I seen the truck before I hit it. I drove, according to my testimony, as far as from here across the street, with the lights blinding me. I slackened up then *** I don't know whether I was as far as from the witness chair to the back end of the court house before I saw it or not. I said it was something like that. I don't know why I didn't stop when I saw it, it excited me or something. *** I just couldn't stop when I saw it. I reckon the reason I didn't I was so close to it. *** When I saw the truck I did not see any lights on the truck. I did not see a red light. If the truck had any lights on it I did not see it. Just as I passed the automobile, whose lights I testified blinded me, after I got past it, I seen the truck. Some more lights were coming that kept me from going through the gap and going around the truck. *** I didn't see a wrecked automobile to the left. I didn't see the man there. I don't remember seeing any of these five people there that night."

On the other hand, evidence of defendants tends to show these facts: The truck was properly equipped with lights, both in front and on the rear, six lights on the back of the truck including clearance lights and arrow signal light containing tail light. The lights were inspected in Durham, and as the truck was driven by James Mellis, from Durham toward Oxford, a Plymouth automobile in which two men, two women and a baby were riding, passed the truck at a point about a half mile south of the point of the collision between plaintiff's automobile and the truck, at which time the lights on the truck were burning. The Plymouth continued to travel about 75 feet in front of the defendants' truck over the crest of the hill and down the grade for approximately 150 yards or more, when its left rear wheel came off causing it to wreck and overturn, upside down, diagonally across the highway, so that the truck could not pass on either side. The truck driver pulled the truck to the right, partly off the pavement, and stopped there within 18 inches or 2 feet of the rear bumper of the upturned car, when he heard the cries of a woman and a baby. Whereupon, he aroused L. W. Seward, who was sleeping in the truck, and they both, Seward in his bare feet, went to the overturned car to assist the passengers in getting out. Then James Mellis, with the two men who were in the Plymouth turned it upright and practically off the left side of the highway. A truck traveling north then came along and passed through between defendants' truck and the Plymouth. Then the sound of the plaintiff's automobile was heard coming at a terrific rate of speed at the top of the hill and it came into sight at least 200 yards away, running at an...