Bunkfeldt v. Country Mut. Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 30 November 1965
• Parties: Frederick BUNKFELDT, Respondent, v. COUNTRY MUTUAL INSURANCE CO., an III. corporation, et al., Appellants.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

Page 271

138 N.W.2d 271

29 Wis.2d 179

Frederick BUNKFELDT, Respondent, v. COUNTRY MUTUAL INSURANCE CO., an III. corporation, et al., Appellants.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Nov. 30, 1965.

Godfrey, Godfrey, Neshek & Conway, Elkhorn, for appellants, Alfred L. Godfrey, Elkhorn, of counsel.

Morris Karon, Milwaukee, for respondent.

CURRIE, Chief Justice.

It was conceded at the trial that plaintiff was free of negligence. The sole issue on this appeal is whether the trial court correctly adjudged defendant Durwood Erickson guilty of causal negligence as a matter of law by directing a verdict in plaintiff's favor.

This case is unusual in that defendant Durwood Erickson did not testify and defendants put in no testimony. But plaintiff and the deputy sheriff who investigated the accident testified on the negligence issue.

Plaintiff testified as follows: He was driving north on Highway 57 at a point where the highway curved to the northwest. When he saw the truck the vehicles were about 250 feet apart and both traveling 45 miles per hour in their own traffic lanes. The truck turned suddenly into plaintiff's land and just as suddenly the truck turned back into its own lane. Right after that the truck again suddenly came into plaintiff's lane and the trailer portion struck the front and left side of plaintiff's car. No one was riding with plaintiff. The truck was loaded with baled hay.

The deputy sheriff, when he arrived after the accident, found the dual wheels of the tractor were completely off and had been dragged under the trailer portion of the truck. He talked to Durwood Erickson who stated that he could not control the truck. Erickson then wrote out a statement and gave it to the deputy sheriff. This statement is as follows:

'My truck started to swerve and I didn't think nothing of it at first but then it started to go and I done my best to get it under control but their [sic] was nothing I could do about it and all of a sudden my truck axal [sic] started to go side ways and the car coming and I couldn't get it stoped [sic] or steir [sic] it.'

Two of the photographs of the truck verify the deputy sheriff's testimony that the dual wheels of the tractor had become completely separated from the vehicle. There is a complete absence of evidence to explain why the dual wheels of the tractor might have separated from the tractor prior to impact, and whether the defect, whatever it was, would have been observable by reasonable inspection.

Thus we have a situation where the jury could draw a reasonable inference that the dual wheels separated from the vehicle before the impact and that this mechanical failure is why the operator Erickson stated he could not control the vehicle when it went over the centerline into the northbound traffic lane. The photographs also show that the baled hay was piled high on the semi-trailer, and the jury could also have drawn the reasonable inference that the height of the load together with the speed of 45 miles per hour around the curve is what caused the driver to lose control.

Past decisions of this court have established the principle that the operator of a motor vehicle which crosses over into the wrong traffic lane and there collides with a vehicle proceeding in the opposite direction in its correct traffic lane gives rise to an inference of negligence which is not dissipated until such operator proves that he is without fault. ¹ Defendants contend that operator Erickson met this burden of proving himself...