Behling v. Los Angeles County

• Decision Date: 05 March 1956
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Harold R. BEHLING, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, Defendant and Respondent. Civ. 21396.

Page 534

294 P.2d 534

139 Cal.App.2d 684

Harold R. BEHLING, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, Defendant and Respondent.

Civ. 21396.

District Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 1, California.

March 5, 1956.

Caidin, Bloomgarden & Kalman, Beverly Hills, for appellant.

Harold W. Kennedy, County Counsel, Lloyd S. Davis, Deputy County Counsel, Los Angeles, for respondent.

FOURT, Justice.

This is an appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment of dismissal in an action for damages for personal injuries arising out of negligence, after a demurrer of the defendant to the first amended complaint as amended was sustained without leave to amend.

The plaintiff alleged in his complaint that in an area under construction in the Angeles Forest Reserve, about three miles off the Angeles Crest Highway, defendant Marlett negligently operated an Allis-Chalmers tractor, crawler type with bulldozer, which will hereafter be referred to as the first piece of equipment. He further sets forth that there was a similar piece of equipment which was inoperative with its blade on the ground, which will hereafter be referred to as the second piece of equipment; that Marlett moved the first piece of equipment to a position where the two dozer blades were butted together and the blade on the second, or inoperative, piece of equipment could be elevated by the blade of the first piece of equipment, so that the second piece of equipment could be towed away; that Marlett so negligently operated the first piece of equipment that the 'blade brake' slipped and thereby caused the blade on the second, or inoperative, piece of equipment to fall on the hand of the plaintiff, who was attempting to secure a chain around the blade of the second piece of equipment; that the equipment was on a dirt, ungraded roadway under construction; that the roadway was blocked off from traffic by means of a chain and lock across the entrance thereto, some three miles from where the accident occurred; that at the time and place of the accident Marlett was the agent and servant of the county of Los Angeles, acting in the course of his employment, but not actually engaged in work upon the surface of a highway.

The questions presented on the appeal are: (1) Whether the first amended complaint, as amended, states a cause of action, that is, whether the negligent operation of the blade brake of a bulldozer being used as a lifting device constitutes 'the negligent operation of any said motor vehicle', as the phrase is used in section 400 ¹ of the Vehicle Code, and (2) whether the lifting of the blade of an inoperative bulldozer on a highway under construction, closed to public use, constitutes 'work upon the surface of a highway', as that phrase is used in subdivision (b) of section 452 ² of the Vehicle Code.

Sections 31, 32, 32.5, 39.5, 142 and 168 of the Vehicle Code read, so far as pertinent here, as follows:

' § 31. Vehicle. A 'vehicle' is a device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be propelled, moved or drawn upon a highway, excepting a device moved by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracts.'

' § 32. Motor Vehicle. A 'motor vehicle' is a vehicle which is self-propelled.'

' § 32.5. Truck tractor, Farm tractor, and Road tractor.

'(a) A 'truck tractor' is a motor vehicle designed and used primarily for drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry a load other than a part of the weight of the vehicle and load so drawn.

'(b) A 'farm tractor' is a motor vehicle designed and used primarily as a farm implement for drawing plows, mowing machines and other implements of husbandry.

'(c) A 'road tractor' is a motor vehicle designed and used for drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry and load thereon either independently or any part of the weight of a vehicle or load so drawn.'

' § 39.5. Special Highway Construction Equipment. 'Special highway construction equipment' means a vehicle which is designed and used primarily for grading of highways, paving of highways, earth moving and other construction work on highways and which is not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and which is only incidentally operated or moved over the highway. It includes road construction and maintenance machinery such as protable air compressors, air drills, asphalt spreaders, bituminous mixers, bucket loaders, caterpillar tractors, ditchers, leveling graders, finishing machines, motor graders, paving mixers, road rollers, scarifiers, earth moving scrapers and carryalls, lighting plants, welders, pumps, power shovels and drag lines, self-propelled earth moving equipment and machinery and other similar types of construction equipment. This enumeration shall not operate to exclude other vehicles which are within the purview of the term 'special highway construction equipment' as above defined. 'Special highway construction equipment' does not include any of the following:

'(a) A vehicle originally designed for the transportation of persons or property to which machinery has been attached;

'(b) Dump trucks and truck mounted transit mixers, cranes and shovels.' (Emphasis added.)

' § 142. Exemption From Registration. The registration provisions of this chapter shall not apply to any of the following vehicles:

* * *

* * *

'(f) Special highway construction equipment.'

' § 168. Special highway construction equipment shall not be subject to registration but prior to any movement on the highway, each piece of such equipment shall display an equipment identification plate attached thereto.'

Webster's New International Dictionary, 2d ed., defines 'vehicle' as:

'vehicle * * * fr. vehere to carry * * *. 1. That in or on which a person or thing is or may be carried from one place to another, esp. along the ground, also through the air; any moving support or container fitted or used for the conveyance of bulky objects; a means of conveyance.'

Words and phrases are construed according to the context and the approved usage of the language (Civ.Code, Sec. 13; Code Civ.Proc., Sec. 16). The words of a statute are to be interpreted according to their common acceptance, that is, they will be read and understood in their usual, natural, ordinary and popular sense (23 Cal.Jur. 749).

By adding a blade to the crawler or caterpillar type tractor it is made into what is generally known as a bulldozer and when so arranged it can be used for excavating or grading purposes, and not particularly to carry persons or property, however it can, and frequently is used to draw or push other vehicles. It is designed to draw or pull or push other vehicles, and at the same time is not so constructed as to carry and part of the weight of the vehicle or load so drawn. It obviously is self-propelled.

Tested by the definitions heretofore set forth, it is apparent that a bulldozer is a motor vehicle within the commonly understood meaning thereof.

The Legislature, at times subsequent to the adoption of sections 31 and 32 of the Vehicle Code, adopted sections 142(f) and 168 of that code, wherein they set forth respectively, that the registration provisions of Chapter 1, Division III should not apply to special highway construction equipment and that such equipment should, although not subject to registration, have displayed thereon an equipment identification plate prior to any movement on the highway. Had the Legislature been so minded to exempt such equipment from the provisions of the code, wherein the operation of such equipment might bring about liability to a political subdivision, such as a county, it could have done so easily. It did not do so.

Going to the next point, the plaintiff in this action, in paragraph V of his amended first amended complaint, alleged that the accident occurred on the Angeles Crest Highway; however, pursuant to a stipulation, he filed an amendment to that paragraph wherein he sets forth that the accident occurred in an area under construction in the Angeles Forest Reserve about three miles off the Angeles Crest Highway. He further sets forth, in substance in the amendment, that the place where the tractors were located at the time of the accident consisted of a dirt roadway, ungraded and unpaved; that the area was not open to the public for vehicular travel, but to the contrary, the public vehicular travel was blocked...