Central Lumber Co. v. Sparks' Adm'r

• Decision Date: 23 March 1956
• Parties: CENTRAL LUMBER COMPANY et al., Appellants, v. Elsie T. SPARKS' ADM'R (G. R. Sparks), Appellee. CENTRAL LUMBER COMPANY, Appellant, v. G. R. SPARKS, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 453

296 S.W.2d 453

CENTRAL LUMBER COMPANY et al., Appellants, v. Elsie T. SPARKS' ADM'R (G. R. Sparks), Appellee.

CENTRAL LUMBER COMPANY, Appellant, v. G. R. SPARKS, Appellee.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

March 23, 1956.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing Dec. 7, 1956.

Carroll M. Redford and Richardson & Barrickman, Glasgow, for appellants.

Charles R. Huddleston, Edmonton, Cecil C. Wilson, Glasgow, Paul Huddleston, Bowling Green, for appellees.

CULLEN, Commissioner.

Mrs. Elsie T. Sparks was killed in a collision between her husband's automobile, being driven by her, and a truck of the Central Lumber Company, being driven by Russell Davis. In an action for wrongful death, against the lumber company and Davis, Mrs. Sparks' administrator recovered judgment, upon a jury verdict, in the amount of $35,663.50. In a companion action by her husband for damages to his automobile, brought against the lumber company alone, he recovered judgment for $1,000 upon the same verdict. The lumber company and Davis have appealed from the judgment in favor of the administrator, and the lumber company has moved for an appeal from the judgment in favor of the husband.

The primary contention is that a verdict should have been directed for the defendants upon both claims. The discussion of this contention requires a summary of the evidence.

The collision was a sideswiping one, between the Sparks car, headed east, and the defendants' truck, headed west, on a 16-foot blacktop pavement. An automobile occupied by a Mr. and Mrs. Jeanette, traveling east somewhere between 15 and 50 feet ahead of the Sparks car, passed the truck with no difficulty a moment before the collision.

Mrs. Sparks was alone in her car, so there was no occupant of her car available to give testimony about the collision. There were two men in the cab of the truck besides the driver. These two men, and the driver, testified that the truck at all times remained on its side of the road. A pedestrian on the highway near the point of collision also testified that the truck remained on its side, and that the car came across the road and hit the truck. Mr. and Mrs. Jeanette said that when they passed the truck they had 'plenty of room' and the truck was well on its own side of the road. On the basis of the speeds of the truck and the Sparks car, which these witnesses all agree were around 25 to 30 miles per hour, the collision happened a fraction of a second after the Jeanette car passed the truck. There was some evidence as to skid marks and debris, but it was of no value in determining the point of collision.

There was an effort to prove that the load of logs on the truck extended over the side to such an extent that the logs would have been partly in the lane of travel of the Sparks car even though the wheels of the truck remained in the proper lane. One of the men in the cab of the truck testified that after the collision the logs extended some eight inches over the side of the truck, and that the logs 'had not shifted.' This evidence was of little value, in view of the testimony of the same witness, and a number of other witnesses, that one of the boom chains holding the logs in place...