Bokhoven v. Hull
| Decision Date | 06 March 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 48865,48865 |
| Citation | 75 N.W.2d 225,247 Iowa 604 |
| Parties | Karen BOKHOVEN, by her next friend, Arthur H. Bokhoven, Appellee, v. Pearl HULL, Appellant. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Franken, Keyes & Crawford, Cedar Rapids, and Gilmore, Dull & Keith, Ottumwa, for appellant.
Gilbert & Stoddard, Oskaloosa, for appellee.
Plaintiff Karen Bokhoven, a minor 'little girl', whose age in years is not shown, was injured in a head-on, daytime collision between a 1950 Ford tudor sedan in which she was riding with three others and a 1953 Chevrolet two-door sedan owned and operated by defendant and occupied by him alone, upon a country road, of which the traveled part, 21 feet wide, was surfaced with rock and gravel, was without ruts and was dry and dusty. Plaintiff's sister was killed and each of the other occupants of the two cars was injured and rendered irrational or unconscious, suffered retrograde amnesia and was unable to testify concerning the collision or what occurred immediately prior thereto.
Defendant testified he remembered only driving north on the right hand (east) side of the road. The other driver remembered only driving south at a speed of about 30 miles per hour, on the right hand (west) side of the road. Nor was any other person found who witnessed the collision or observed either vehicle prior thereto. All of the evidence of the collision was circumstantial.
After the collision several automobiles arrived at the scene, doors of the cars were forced open and the occupants were removed and taken to a hospital. Officers arrived and photographs were taken. These show the two cars standing almost exactly head on, parallel to the side of the road, which was there straight and slightly upgrade to the north, with their west wheels at the west edge of the surfacing and their east wheels several feet west of the center line. In other words, all of defendant's car was several feet on his left side of the road and all of the Ford car was several feet on its right side. A photograph from the rear shows the two cars so directly in line that the moulding on one appears to be an extension of the moulding on the other. Likewise, a photograph from the front side shows the crushed fronts of the two cars in line and wedged tightly together. Witnesses described the front ends as jammed together and as tangled together. There were no skid marks behind either car but skid marks were found which indicated the rear wheels of defendant's car had skidded about a foot from east to west to the place where it stood after the collision. According to a witness: 'It (the car) comes to an abrupt stop and skidded.' The photographs show a dark spot in the road from the fronts of the two cars to just beyond the rear of defendant's car, evidently caused by water or oil from one or both cars. On the ground at the front ends of the cars is a hub cap and there is other debris under the front ends of the two cars.
Trial to a jury resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff for $15,000. Defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding verdict, under Rule 243, 58 I.C.A. Rules of Civil Procedure, was overruled and he has appealed. Such an appeal is limited to questions raised in the motion for directed verdict and repeated in the motion for judgment notwithstanding verdict. Marxen v. Meredith, 246 Iowa ----, 69 N.W.2d 399, 401.
Apparently the pleaded ground of negligence relied upon by plaintiff was, defendant's car, in meeting the Ford on the highway, failed to 'give one-half of the traveled way thereof by turning to the right.' Section 321.298, Code of Iowa 1954, I.C.A.
The basic question here is whether the physical facts were sufficient to make this issue one of fact. We are satisfied the trial court correctly determined the record required the submission of the case to the jury.
Defendant concedes facts may be established by circumstantial evidence but 'contends the sole evidentiary fact that both vehicles were positioned on defendant's wrong half of the road after the accident is not sufficient to establish a jury case by circumstantial evidence.' This contention overlooks the record. There was evidence there were no skid marks in the road other than one foot skid-marks to the side made by the rear wheels of defendant's car. There was evidence of debris under and beside the front ends of the cars, which were crushed in from the front and locked together in almost perfect alignment. No damage appears to the rear half of either car. There is nothing in the record to support any probable theory...
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Soreide v. Vilas & Co., 48951
...testimony be so clear as to exclude every other possible theory. Turner v. Hansen, 247 Iowa ----, 75 N.W.2d 341, 345; Bokhoven v. Hull, 247 Iowa ----, 75 N.W.2d 225, 227, and citations; Whiting v. Stephas, 247 Iowa ----, 74 N.W.2d 228, 231-232; Shinofield v. Curtis, 245 Iowa 1352, 1357, 66 ......
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Weppler v. Smith
...v. Stunkard, 233 Iowa 582, 10 N.W.2d 19; Smith v. Darling & Co., supra; Hackman v. Beckwith, 245 Iowa 791, 64 N.W.2d 275; Bokhoven v. Hull, 247 Iowa 604, 75 N.W.2d 225; Clark v. Umbarger, 247 Iowa 938, 75 N.W.2d 243; Soreide v. Vilas & Co., 247 Iowa 1139, 78 N.W.2d 41; Brower v. Quick, 249 ......
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Brower v. Quick, 49347
...Iowa 133, 136, 56 N.W.2d 47, 49; Latham v. Des Moines Electric Light Co., 229 Iowa 1199, 1207, 296 N.W. 372, 275; Bokhoven v. Hull, 247 Iowa 604, 607, 75 N.W.2d 225, 227, and cases cited therein; Turner v. Hansen, 247 Iowa 669, 677, 75 N.W.2d 341, 345. Soreide v. Vilas & Co., 247 Iowa 1139,......
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Larson v. Johnson
...this case to the jury and we are not at liberty to disturb the judgment. These precedents lend support to our decision. Bokhoven v. Hull, 247 Iowa 604, 75 N.W.2d 225; Hackman v. Beckwith, 245 Iowa 791, 64 N.W.2d 275; Smith v. Darling & Co., 244 Iowa 133, 56 N.W.2d 47; Hayes v. Stunkard, 233......